I Wish - Family

Hirokazu Kore-eda’s film, I Wish, gives a voice to two inseparable brothers who have been separated by their parents’ divorce. Koichi, older and wiser to the worries of the world, lives with their mother who is preoccupied with responsibility. Ryunosuke, younger and constantly beaming, lives with their free-spirited father. The high-speed bullet trains become a physical manifestation of Koichi’s wish for their family to be united again as the trains connect their two cities. It is rumored that the energy released when the two trains pass one another will grant the wishes of those who witness it, and Koichi’s wish comes tantalizingly close to reality.

What I found most moving about this film is that was realistic rather than the fanciful wishings of two children. Though it is a little fairytale-ish that both Koichi and Ryu gather enough money to skip school and find one another halfway between their cities, at the moment they have to yell their wishes to the passing trains the brothers acknowledge the reality of their situation. The film shows why Koichi wants the family to be united as we see a picturesque family picnic, but it also shows why the separation benefits Ryu, who is still a child. During a fight at the dinner table, Koichi dives in to stop the yelling between his parents, while Ryu removes himself from the situation, eating his rice and unable to emotionally handle the situation. Later, Koichi says that he chose the world over his own family, marking his passage into adulthood with the realization that his parents wouldn’t get back together, even if the city was drowned in lava and ash.  

I Wish lingers on the everyday events that make up a child’s life, emphasizing the importance of family in those events—school assignments interviewing fathers, making karukan cake with your grandfather, calling your brother after a long day of school, having your dreams of being an actress acknowledged by your mother. I Wish gives an insight into the joys and pains of the childhood experience and the role family plays in the coming-of-age of children. 

I also thought it was very touching that Kiochi and Ryu were played by real-life brothers, which is really incredible given the incredible acting done by both, with Kiochi’s gravity and Ryu’s infectious happiness. I liked how I Wish finished off our trilogy of family-centered children’s media of “My Grandmother Ironed the King’s Shirts” as a family history/heritage story, The Tale of Peter Rabbit as a cautionary parental tale, and I Wish as a broken family/coming-of-age story. I know that my siblings have been (and still are) an inseparable part of my upbringing and identity, and I couldn’t imagine having to accept being separated from them, let alone entrusting a parent to them.