Just watched: I Wish (Kiseki)

Because Japan has such an apparently small pool of actors there will, on occasion, be times when you watch something that brings together a whole group of actors that you'd recently seen in others things. This film has Abe Hiroshi, Natsukawa Yui, Nagasawa Masami and Odagiri Joe in it, all of who I've been writing about in the past month or so.

This film from 2011 tells the story of two brothers, living in different towns with their separated parents, and their friends. Each of the seven children has something to wish for, and when one of them mentions that if you make a wish at the point where two bullet trains pass, then it'll come true. So they arrange to skip school and go to a town in the middle of nowhere just to make their wishes.

The cast of children are good, and are ably supported by the experienced cast of supporting actors. Special mention goes to Otsuka Nene, the mother of the two brothers who packs a lot of emotion and understanding into her few scenes. The film is also very nicely shot. The director, Hirokazu Koreeda, has a filmography that's well worth exploring, including Air Doll, After Life among others.

It's a heart-warming story, and even if it does rely on a very convenient plot device once they get to the town, it's still a nice tale, nicely told.