I Wish [ PG ] 128 minutes 2011 Japan director Hirokazu Koreeda

“Twelve-year-old Koichi, who has been separated from his brother Ryunosuke due to his parents’ divorce, hears a rumour that the new bullet trains will precipitate a wish-granting miracle when they pass each other at top speed.”

This film stars real-life brothers Koki Maeda and Oshiro Maeda, and director Koreeda did not write the script until after the lead child actors had been cast, so that he could “get more ideas from them.”

Peter Bradshaw writing in the Guardian said of it : ” One of the year’s best films arrived quietly, unnoticed by the awards-season cheerleaders, but with its delicacy and complexity, it puts the Oscar-bait to shame. This is a deeply considered Japanese family drama  – moving, sometimes heartbreakingly sad, often mysterious. The film is about the powerful imperative of family unity, but also about the inevitability, and even desirability, of families finally disintegrating and allowing everyone involved a painful kind of freedom.”

currently available through the Channel 4 catch-up service ( see :  https://www.channel4.com/channel/film4) Watch the trailer here