I Wish: Nos voeux secrets

As a result of their parent's separation, 12-year-old Koichi (Koki Maeda) lives in Kagoshima with his mother (Nene Ohtsuka) and grandparents (Kirin Kiki and Isao Hashizume) while his younger brother Ryunosuke (Oshiro Maeda) lives with his intermittently employed musician father (Jo Adigiri) in Fukuoka. Both talk to each other daily on their cell phone but have not seen each other in six months. Acclaimed Japanese director Hirokazu Koreeda's I Wish is a comedy/drama about the consequences of a split family and of the children's longing to reunite them. In contrast to Nobody Knows, an earlier Koreeda film about children, I Wish will not break your heart.

The brothers (brothers in real life as well) are very different in personality but both seem happy and well adjusted in spite of the difficult circumstances of their life. Ryu is fun loving and his toothless smile will warm your heart. Koichi is more serious and thoughtful but very engaging. He becomes elated when he hears that a bullet train is coming that will connect his city to his brother's. Even more exciting are the rumors that are floating around that when two trains pass each other in opposite directions, your wishes will come true out of the energy the trains create. Koichi's wish is for the nearby volcano to explode so that his family will have to move, and he will be reunited with his brother.

The plan is to meet his brother half-way and do some serious wishing. The fun starts when they have to find creative ways to raise the money. There's also the pesky part about Koichi and his two friends leaving school in the middle of the day. For this he recruits his grandfather to provide an excuse to the school authorities and includes the school librarian who once had a similar experience of wanting to escape from school to attend a concert.

The group of friends of both brothers adds a lot to the film as well. Tasuku (Ryoga Hayashi) wants to marry his teacher, a bit of magic realism there. Makoto (Seinosuke Nagayoshi) wants his dog to come back to life. Megumi (Kyara Uchida), much to her mother's indifference, wants very much to go to Tokyo and become an actress. Kanna (Kanna Hashimoto) wants to be a better painter, and Rento (Rento Isobe) wants to be a faster runner. While the focus of the film are the wishes of the group of children and their trip to the trains' midpoint, the film also provides a rounded portrait of all of its characters without syrup or other sweeteners, though it certainly views children through a somewhat rose-colored lens.

I Wish is a charming and lighthearted film, though its over two hour's length can makes the goings-on a bit tedious. Although the children arrive at the point of realizing that accepting what is can produce happiness, the growth in reaching that point is what the film is about. Ultimately, however, though hoping, wishing, and yearning are all part of childhood, some adults come to realize that, a step beyond wishing and hoping and praying for something to happen, is our ability to create, to make things happen. Unfortunately, most people have not gotten past the hoping stage.

Two young brothers, Kouichi and Ryuunosuke live apart in Fukuoka and Kagosima because of there parent's divorce. One day they know about a rumour that the person who sees the two new bullet trains passing each other for the first time gains his dream, and they plans to see it to make their wish to live together with their family again. With few friends of them, they goes to their meeting point. This film is very nice. We can see two brother's strong wish and their grow up in their spirits through the trip clearly. However, if I could say one thing, I want to see more about their past, or their life with their parent after they live apart. I could see their desire to live with their family again, but I could not see much trouble or conflict. However other than this, I think this film is very good and moving film.

Kouichi (Kouki Maeda) and Ryunosuke (Oushiro Maeda) who's parents are separated and now lives apart in Fukuoka, and Kagoshima hears about a rumor that if you see the meeting of the first bullet trains from Fukuoka and Kagoshima, a miracle will happen. Wishing that the miracle will be the reunion of their parents, they set out to see the meeting of the two trains, while involving their friends, teachers, and adults around them.

Child prodigy stand up comic team Maeda-Maeda performs the role of Kouichi, and Ryunosuke. Director Hirokazu Koreeda originally had a different plot for the story, where a girl living in Fukuoka, goes to see the two trains crossing each other on the track, meets a boy from Hakata and love story ensues. But upon seeing Maeda-Maeda at the audition, he changed the story to that which involves the two brothers. The project was a promotional campaign for the opening of the Kagoshima route of Japan Railways bullet train line. They brought the project to director Koreeda, and he accepted.

Very common story that involves nothing but the life of few children, but is made extraordinary by the direction of Koreeda, and the performance of Maeda brothers. Observation of people in common life, and attention to detail is extraordinary, and can only come from the eyes of a genius. I can see why Koreeda is regarded so highly as a director. I'd say only few directors can take a theme like this, and create a truly intriguing movie like this one.

In reality it is virtually impossible to pinpoint where the two trains will meet on the track, so the story is purely fictional.

It may be difficult to see all the inner workings of this movie at a first glance, but it is worth the time to sit in and really enjoy the performance.

In Kagoshima, the boy Koichi (Koki Maeda) lives with his mother Nozomi (Nene Ohtsuka) in the house of his grandparents. Koichi misses his younger brother Ryunosuke (Ohshirô Maeda) and his father Kenji (Jô Odagiri), who live in Fokuoko, and he dreams on his family coming together again. One day, Koichi overhears that the energy released by two bullet trains passing by each other would grant wishes and he invites his two best friends, Tasuku (Ryôga Hayashi) and Makoto (Seinosuke Nagayoshi), to travel to the point of intersection of the two trains. Koichi also tells his plan to Ryunosuke that invites his three best friends to join him. Soon the seven children arrive to the meeting point in the journey of discoveries.

"Kiseki" is a simple and sensitive tale of loss of innocence of children that need to face reality instead of immature and naive dreams. The come of age of Koichi that accepts the divorce of his parents and of Megumi (Kyara Uchida) that decides to move to Tokyo to become an actress and Makoto that decides to bury his dog are clearly are depicted in the story. Ryunosuke is still a child and believes that his wish is the responsible for the chance his father and his friends will have in their career of musicians.

The direction of Hirokazu Koreeda and the performances are top-notch and the movie shows landscapes of the countryside of Japan that are unusual in Japanese features. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "O Que Eu Mais Desejo" ("What I Desire the Most")

I've been impressed with Koreeda's work in the past. "Maborosi" and "After Life" are two excellent, deeply philosophical and moving films. Maybe based on those I had unrealistically high expectations (further inflated by the DVD box boasting a dozen rave reviews & awards), but "I Wish" failed to deliver.

One hour into this 2-hour movie I had to shut it off. Since I didn't watch the whole thing I can't fairly rate it, but I wanted to share my (unpleasant) experience because I wish someone had warned me the same way. This was the first time in my life I've ever shut off a movie from sheer boredom. No, boredom isn't the word. It was more a feeling of total disconnection. The scenes, perhaps attempting to recreate the disconnected, ADD-type thought process of little kids, were so unrelated and random that I became irritated.

Like my title suggests, if you want to see a truly magical film about youth, innocence and the not-so-innocent, hunt down a film called "Kikujiro" (1999). More about that later. First let's talk about "I Wish".

Here is a breakdown of the first hour. Each scene lasts 2-5 minutes. At any time if you become bored, skip to the last paragraph of my review.

Scene 1) a boy grabs a washcloth and cleans his desk. Scene 2) The boy's mother is talking about meaningless things while the grandmother makes random gestures in the air, saying "I'm the wind. I'm a ghost. Etc..." Scene 3) The boys walk to school and complain about the hill. Scene 4) Kids are scolded by a teacher for not doing their homework properly. Scene 5) Kids are in the hall complaining about the teacher. Scene 6) Back to the mother and grandparents talking about vegetable gardens. Scene 7) Jump to some other kids at a swimming pool. Scene 8) The boy stares blankly at his homework assignment. Scene 9) A bunch of old men talk about baking a cake for the festival. Scene 10) The boys are back in school ogling the librarian's legs. Scene 11) The boy's father wakes up, strums a guitar and goes back to sleep. Scene 12) The kids gather and talk about acting.

While I hesitate to call the movie "bad" because I didn't watch it all the way through, I can definitely conclude that the first hour didn't provide enough substance to convince me to keep watching. And trust me, I like slow movies (2001, Werckmeister Harmonies, Hitchcock's Rope). Instead of watching "I Wish", I HIGHLY recommend a Japanese film called "Kikujiro" which this movie seemed to be imitating. However, even though it is slow paced, "Kikujiro" wastes no scenes. They all relate to each other, build upon each other and eventually lead you to a powerful message by the time the film ends. The music in "Kikujiro" (composed by the Japanese master Joe Hisaishi) is also leagues above the mediocre soundtrack of "I Wish", another turnoff. Maybe one day I'll go back & finish the last hour of this film and revise this review if I feel differently. But all the same, I'd rather spend my time watching something else.