Children left in limbo

There's a definite Asian flavour to Cannes this year, with a South Korean crime thriller (Old Boy), Innocence, a sequel to the hit Japanese animé Ghost in the Shell, and a martial arts spectacular (Zhang Yimou's House of Flying Daggers) all duking it out in the main competition.

Perhaps, as some have argued, these movies have been included to pander to the tastes of the jury president, Quentin Tarantino. But they also reflect the enormous vibrancy and variety of cinema in the region.

Certainly, the quietly compelling Nobody Knows hardly fits the ¸ber-hip QT package. A women checks into a Tokyo apartment with her solemn 12-year-old son. The landlords are delighted with their responsible new neighbour. Little do they know that, hidden in the family's cargo of suitcases, are three more small children. Soon the flighty

mother has abandoned the kids to live on their wits. The director, Kore-eda Hirokazu, made the brilliant, visionary Afterlife, in which a group of dead people were unable to achieve nirvana until they found the one moment that defined the meaning of their lives.

Based on a notorious real-life case, Nobody Knows doesn't match that achievement. But it confounds expectations. The mother fades out of the picture. No social workers show up. No one discovers the illicit tenants. Tragedy is present, yet the children - who deliver amazing, improvised performances - also find their own kind of happiness while living in limbo.

Out of competition, the Directors' Fortnight kicked off with The Taste of Tea, by Ishii Katsuhito, who worked on the animé sequence in the first instalment of Kill Bill. The new film's title and synopsis - the relationships between an eccentric family - suggests a serene domestic drama in the style of the Japanese master, Yoshujiro Ozu.

Here, though, the quiet times are spiked with trash television spots, animé clips and a rush of surreal computer-generated effects. In short, the tone is wildly uneven. But the film has flashes of brilliance and a genuinely touching conclusion.

Abbas Kiarostami's 10 on Ten is a sort of movie masterclass held by the professorial Iranian director while driving around the hills near Tehran where he set his 1997 Golden Palm winner, A Taste of Cherry.

While it will make few new converts to Kiarostami's severe minimalist style, there are some fascinating insights and a provocative pay-off that wittily suggests the drama to be found in the tiniest of themes.