The Upcoming
  • Culture
    • Art
    • Cinema
      • Movie reviews
      • Film festivals
    • Food & Drinks
      • News & Features
      • Restaurant & bar reviews
      • Interviews & Recipes
    • Literature
    • Music
      • Live music
    • Theatre
    • Shows & On demand
  • Fashion & Lifestyle
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
  • What’s On
    • Art exhibitions
    • Theatre shows
  • Tickets
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Interviews
  • Competitions
  • Special events
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

CultureCinemaMovie reviews

I Wish

I Wish | Movie review
7 February 2013
Liloie Cazorla
Avatar
Liloie Cazorla
7 February 2013

In Japanese, the title of Hirokazu Kore-eda’s movie means miracle, and this film really feels like one, making us wish for more cinema as rich and poignant as this. The internationally renowned director and award winner at the Venice, Cannes and Chicago film festivals reminds us with his latest work, how good it is to be a child.

I Wish is a modern fairy tale about two young brothers living apart due to the separation of their parents, and yearning to reunite their family. From the streets of Fukuoka to the volcano of Kagoshima, these loving boys and their separate friends are dreaming and growing up at the same time. They are simultaneously refreshingly naïve and extraordinarily mature, desperate and funny, showing us the adult world through their eyes in a totally unexpected way.

When older brother Koichi discovers that a new bullet train line connecting the two towns is due to open, he believes that the intense energy generated by two trains passing in opposite directions will work a miracle, causing their wish to be reunited to come true. These charming brothers, Koichi and Ryu, are played by real-life siblings Koki and Ohshiro Maeda who give their characters a breeze of authenticity. All the children seem to evolve in a slow and contemplative space-time, pausing to observe everything around them, and taking the audience with them. The film echoes a time when everything was certain and anything was possible, allowing us to dream, do and undo prospects, try, fail, hope and understand.

These precious 128 minutes are a gift of life. Sometimes, unexpectedly, a diamond shines in the cinema and this is one them.

★★★★★

Liloïe Cazorla

I Wish is released in selected cinemas on 8th February 2013.

Watch the trailer for I Wish here:

Related Itemsreview

More in Movie reviews

Imperial Blue

★★★★★
Guy Lambert
Read More

MLK/FBI

★★★★★
Andrew Murray
Read More

Sing Me a Song

★★★★★
Abbie Grundy
Read More

A Night of Horror: Nightmare Radio

★★★★★
Andrew Murray
Read More

Wonder Woman 1984

★★★★★
Jake Cudsi
Read More

Come Away

★★★★★
Sylvia Unerman
Read More

Murder Me, Monster

★★★★★
Andrew Murray
Read More

David Byrne’s American Utopia

★★★★★
Rosamund Kelby
Read More

Dreamland

★★★★★
Guy Lambert
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap
  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • The White Tiger
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • We Still Fax at ANTS Theatre Online
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • We Ask These Questions of Everybody: An interview with Amble Skuse and Toria Banks
    Theatre
  • Start the year right with these eco-friendly vegan and vegetarian food deliveries
    Food & Drinks
  • Hello Cosmos – Dream Harder
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Identifying Features
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • 23 Walks
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • Live Lab at The Yard Theatre: An interview with associate director Cheryl Gallagher
    Theatre
  • We Still Fax at ANTS Theatre Online
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • We Ask These Questions of Everybody: An interview with Amble Skuse and Toria Banks
    Theatre
  • Identifying Features
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • We Still Fax at ANTS Theatre Online
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • WandaVision: Marvel’s charming sitcom proves an astounding success
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • The Queen’s Gambit: A chess story that’s not about the moves but the motives
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • Undercover at Morpheus Show Online
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

Warm Bodies | Movie review
Great Expectations at Vaudeville Theatre | Theatre review