I Wish

Koichi lives with his mother and retired grandparents in Kagoshima, the southern part of Kyushu region. Separated by their parents’ divorce, his brother Ryunosuke lives with their father in Hakata in northern Kyushu. A new bullet train line in the region will be inaugurated soon, and Koichi starts to believe a “miracle” will happen the first moment these new bullet trains intersect each other from opposite directions with their highest speed; his only wish is for his family to live together once again. With some help from grown-ups around him, Koichi sets out on a journey with a group of friends, each hoping to witness a miracle.
------------------------------------------
In his latest film, Japanese master filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-Eda returns to familiar ground, crafting a lighthearted tale of childhood desires and imaginative adventures. Both playful and perceptive, I Wish is bursting with quick, stylish montages, an energetic score and memorable performances from its young stars.

Programmer's Note

Several of the films of Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-Eda are distinguished by their gentleness and generosity of spirit in depicting families. Most of these families are fractured, and all of them brim with complicated relationships. The hidden fortitude of children was a central theme in Kore-Eda’s Nobody Knows (which won its fourteenyear- old star, Yuya Yagira, the Best Actor award at Cannes in 2004). That idea emerges again in I Wish, a more lighthearted tale by comparison, but no less moving and perceptive in its evocation of childhood desires and the imaginative routes taken to fulfill them.

Koichi (Koki Maeda) is twelve years old and endlessly curious about the world. He lives with his mother and maternal grandparents in Kagoshima, a city over which a massive volcano looms and regularly emits plumes of ash. Koichi’s little brother Ryunosuke (Ohshirô Maeda) resides in Hakata, where the children’s father (Joe Odagiri) plays guitar in a rock band. Koichi is a naturally cheerful kid, but deep down he’s distraught by his parents’ divorce. What he wishes for above all is that his family be brought together again. Upon hearing about a nearly completed bullet train line that will run between Kagoshima and Hakata, Koichi comes to believe that a miracle will transpire at the exact moment when the first two trains bound in opposite directions pass each other. So Koichi and Ryunosuke devise a plan: along with a few of their best friends, they travel to a town that lies equidistant from their two cities, a place where they can briefly reunite and, at the magic moment when the trains meet, make a wish that will surely come true.

With its peppy score and energetic child perfomances, I Wish is a fun yet unhurried story of fraternal bonds challenged by adult difficulties. When the beautiful rapid-fire montage bursts upon the screen just moments before the long-awaited miracles, it may just make you wish you were a kid again.
Giovanna Fulvi
Director's Bio

Hirokazu Kore-Eda was born in Tokyo, where he attended Waseda University. His films include Maborosi (95), After Life (98), Nobody Knows (04), Hana (06), Still Walking (08), Air Doll (09) and I Wish (11).