Diagonaldi Very well executed

StunnaKrypto Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Doomtomylo a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

Lucia Ayala It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

CountZero313 Pre-teen brothers Ryunosuke and Koichi (played by real-life brothers Ohshirô and Koki Maeda) are forced to live apart when their separated parents end up residing in opposite ends of Kyushu. Ryunosuke broods on this, while Koichi seems more at ease with the arrangements. Together, the brothers hatch a plan to meet at the point where the new shinkansen trains pass each other, after hearing an urban legend that the vortex created by the speed of the trains has the power to grant wishes. Meanwhile, granddad tries out a new sponge cake recipe, a friend of Koichi's has acting ambitions, and Dad is writing a new song.The usual Kore-eda themes of fractured families and kids finding magic in a flawed universe are present, but by the director's own standards this is a much lighter, almost sugar-coated engagement with those themes. There is the signature naturalistic, engrossing performances from the child actors, with Ohshirô as Ryunosuke especially impressive in his conflicted, caring attempts to be re-united with his brother. Koki is more of a one-note outing, required to be relentlessly upbeat, which he does superbly. The scene where he moves his mother to tears on the phone plays on this astutely. Forcing two young brothers to live apart for their own selfish ends could be represented in darker tones, even as abuse, but Kore-eda keeps it all light and humorous, through the simple trope of having the children be sensible and down-to-earth, and the adults, especially the bickering parents, petty and immature. The sub-plots, involving sponge cake and acting ambitions, are so removed from the main story strand that they give the film an episodic, slightly meandering feel when they pop up. Ultimately they are distracting, making the story busier than it needs to be. They also stretch the running time to over two hours. While some will delight in spending time with such engaging children, the film felt flabby to me after the 90-minute mark. The ending, while admirably avoiding sentimentality, takes too long to come around. Such is Kore-eda's stature that a host of A-listers pack the minor roles giving them more gravitas than normal. Jô Odagiri as the musician father, Kirin Kiki as the grandmother, and Hiroshi Abe as a disciplinarian teacher ply their day-shifts admirably. There is a lot to enjoy in I Wish, but lacking the damning social critique of Nobody Knows, and the acerbic scalpel on family life of Still Walking, this is Kore-eda choosing to crowd please rather than stretch himself.

Howard Schumann 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.

ebiros2 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.

8thSin 8.5 average user ratings on 37 votes? I Wish people would stop voting based on director's prestige. "I Wish" is a bland mainstream movie that would've been unnoticed without the marketing power of Koreeda Hirokazu and its A-list actors as the supporting cast."I Wish", Japanese title "Kiseki (Miracle)", is sort of a road movie about a bunch of kids going to see the new Kyuushuu Bullet Trains crossing. Majority of the film follows the lives of the two brothers: One in Kagoshima; the other in Fukuoka. They reunite after their parents broke up 6 months ago. One day, the older brother Kouki hears the urban legend that witnesses of the new bullet trains crossing will have their wishes granted, much like seeing shooting stars. The brothers and their friends begin collecting money for the trip to have their wishes granted.I did like how the bullet trains connecting to the Southwestern Japan marks a new era in the region. Perhaps that is the reason kids, the next generation, were the main focus of the story. It was also interesting that Tower of the Sun, the symbol of Osaka Expo '70, was torn down in Kouki's dream to further signify coming of a new era.However, over three-quarters of the film was about getting ready for the trip, and the ending seemed very rushed despite the movie spending so much time with the plot getting nowhere. While "process is more important than result" is a common theme in Japanese films and certainly present in this film, the actual process (the trip to the destination) was cut too short as a series of convenient events, and the preparation stage was simply introduction of each kids and their problems in the most obvious ways imaginable. Furthermore, "I Wish" completely fails to build up for the climax (didn't have a climax?), making it an extremely bland movie... and this is NOT because it's one of those subtlety Japanese film in any way. "Koko ni Irukoto" (2001) is a subtle film, "Tennen Kokekko" (2007) is a subtle film, yet both of them (and many other Japanese films of its type) managed to be far more heartwarming than this generic road movie.The leading actors, dubbed "MaedaMaeda" by the marketing team for being real brothers with the last name "Maeda" (also happens to be homophone with "forward" in Japanese), delivered very underwhelming performances. In fact, none of the child actors' acting can be truly called "acting". While this kind of performance works for the documentary style of Koreeda, it is a total disaster for a movie with such tightly written script, also making it feel extremely uneven with the supporting adult actors."I Wish" has THE biggest waste of acting talent I have ever seen. Odagiri Joe had about 10-minute screen time. Abe Hiroshi, Nagasawa Masami, and Natsukawa Yui... all of whom capable of leading in their own films, in addition to many veteran supporting actors, were reduced to cameo-like 3-minute appearances in this movie. Nagasawa Masami in particular was not even recognizable. With exception of Ootsuka Nene, none of the cast had to be the big-names since they had nothing to work with. They were there solely for marketing purposes.Unlike Miike Takashi who also sold out to the mainstream in last year's TIFF participant "13 Assassins" (2010), Koreeda Hirokazu failed to create something extraordinary for the general audience and failed to draw out the best out of his talented cast. This film had nothing that hundreds of other Japanese directors couldn't have made."I Wish" is an average quality Japanese film made to glorify the new Kyuushuu Bullet Train and PR for the local businesses. Like in the movie, miracle didn't happen here.