Film

I Wish

Name: I Wish
Genre: Drama
Released: 2011
Cast: Koki Maeda, Oshirō Maeda, Nene Otsuka, Joe Odagiri, Ryôga Hayashi

Drama

A Japanese film about two separated brothers who believe that watching bullet trains pass at full speed will grant a wish. It's a quiet, genuinely moving meditation on childhood longing, loss, and the small miracles that sustain us. Hirokazu Koreeda directs with such gentleness that even the film's sadness feels like a gift.

TMDb rating

3.7

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love quiet family dramas built on small wishes, gentle humor and kids who think in big, earnest ways, the way Hirokazu Kore-eda's films do.

Skip it if you need plot momentum or a clear sense of where things are going, since it wanders through ordinary days and lets its characters simply drift between stops.

What it asks of you: It runs just over two hours at an unhurried pace, so settle in and let scenes of everyday travel and small talk breathe without expecting them to tighten up.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Coco2017

Like *I Wish*, it's about children grappling with absence and memory, using a magical conceit as a lens for real grief. It finds humor and warmth without diminishing what's lost.

But The Pixar formula might feel overly familiar, and some find the sentimentality laid on thick.

Moonlight2016

Three acts following a boy becoming a man, separated by time and circumstance, searching for connection. It's tender and unhurried in exactly the way *I Wish* is, finding poetry in longing.

But The pacing is glacial. If you need plot momentum or dialogue to drive engagement, this will feel like watching water.

A Separation2011

Another film about divorce's quiet devastation on children, told with surgical precision. It asks the same question: how do we hold onto each other when life tears us apart?

But It's austere and sometimes painful to watch. There's no magical thinking here—just hard reality and difficult choices.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from I Wish

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Tokyo Story1953

Both films trust that watching people sit with each other—and with absence—is enough. Both understand that distance between loved ones is the real subject, not plot.

Ozu's masterpiece about an aging couple visiting their son in Tokyo. It's the ancestor of *I Wish*'s sensibility: time, separation, the ache of family, and beauty found in stillness and routine.

But Shot in static wide frames with minimal music, it moves at the speed of lived time. Modern viewers often find it punishingly slow.

Shoplifters2018

Koreeda again. A family held together by necessity rather than blood, finding moments of grace. It has the same eye for small gestures and the spaces where love lives.

But The twist recontextualizes everything, and some feel manipulated by it rather than moved.

Life Is Beautiful1997

A father uses imagination and performance to shield his child from atrocity. It shares *I Wish*'s belief that love expresses itself through protecting someone's capacity to hope.

But The tonal balance—comedy in the shadow of the Holocaust—doesn't work for everyone. Some find it trivializing.

Boyhood2014

Twelve years of a boy's life, filmed over twelve years. Like *I Wish*, it trusts that small moments and the passage of time matter more than plot.

But Three hours of domestic ordinariness. If you need narrative drive or dramatic peaks, you'll be frustrated.

The Pursuit of Happyness2006

A father and son separated by circumstance, holding onto each other. It's sentimental but earned, with real stakes and a boy's faith as the emotional core.

But Will Smith's charisma sometimes overshadows the story. It can feel more like inspiration porn than genuine portrait of struggle.

About a Boy2002

A lonely boy and an emotionally arrested man find what they're missing in each other. Warm, funny, and unexpectedly wise about how we heal.

But It's lighter than *I Wish*, almost breezily so. Some will find that a relief; others will want more depth.

The Intouchables2011

Two men from different worlds become family. It's about connection transcending circumstance, with genuine humor and unexpected tenderness.

But The feel-good formula is unmistakable. If you're allergic to uplift, this won't convert you.

A Letter to Momo2012

Released the same year, both films use a specific geographic location (bullet train stations, rural island) as a place where grief can be witnessed and endured. Both believe children's interior lives deserve this much attention.

A girl grieving her father's death arrives at her mother's childhood home. This anime explores loss, memory, and the small everyday miracles that help us go on. Visually luminous, emotionally excavating.

But It's animated, which some dismiss. It's also long and meditative, requiring patience with mood over narrative.

Stalker1979

Both films use a wish—the thing characters travel toward—as a mirror for what they actually need. Both suggest that the journey and the waiting matter more than arrival.

Andrei Tarkovsky's slow SF odyssey: a guide leads two men through a mysterious zone to a room that grants wishes. It's hypnotic, philosophical, and concerned with the gap between desire and meaning.

But Three hours of philosophical ambiguity. If you need a clear story or answers, this will exhaust you.