I Wish: movie review
Director Hirokazu Koreeda shows a strong affinity for the humors and longings of childhood in 'I Wish.'
Actor Ohshiro Maeda stars in 'I Wish' with his brother, who also plays his brother in the film.
Bobby Yip/Reuters
In his latest film, “I Wish,” the marvelous Japanese director Hirokazu Koreeda shows a strong affinity for the humors and longings of childhood. It’s an adult movie about children that feels made from the inside out.
Sixth-grader Koichi (Koki Maeda) and his younger brother Ryunosuke (Ohshiro Maeda) have been split apart by their parents’ divorce – Koichi lives with his mother and grandparents in a southern region near an active volcano, while Ryunosuke lives with his layabout rock-musician father up north. It is the boys’ belief that a bullet train linking these two regions will become the agency of their salvation.
The Japanese title for this film translates as “Miracle,” and that’s what the boys (real-life brothers) are expecting. They get it, though not quite in the way they expected. Grade: B+ (Rated PG for mild thematic elements, language, and smoking.)