I Wish

Family, in all its modes and variations, is a series of usually biological iterations of sometimes-similar selves, distinct in experience, personality, and identity but woven together by heredity of all sorts.

These ideas ought to be explored within children’s media since they are so essential to the experience of every child. The home is what children know first, and family is what children know best. Until a child leaves, this unit makes up most of their reality and influences quite nearly everything he or she experiences. A family of active and present members is an embodiment of the nature and nurture that makes up the basic essence of who someone is.

In I Wish these familial overlaps and departures are gently suggested and sometimes mentioned. Koichi, the older brother, is a grave boy, neat and tidy, often flummoxed by the indifference he observes in others. He is chubby. He seems to be a little wary of girls, and his best friends are all boys. Ryu is the younger brother, skinny, smiling, and always flitting from person to person and place to place. Ryu is as lively and joyful as he is astute and perceptive. But despite these differences and despite the distance between them, Ryu says he and Koichi are connected by an invisible thread. These brothers long to be with each other after the divorce of their parents. Their love and friendship drive the narrative.

Koichi’s deepest desire is for his family to be reunited. He has a dream where they are all together again, having a picnic at a park and laughing and singing while their father plays the guitar. When he tells his little brother about the wish, Ryu also has a dream about their family’s reunion. But in his version, their mother yells at their father about his unemployment, and Ryu turns away from the dinner table in fear. Between two close brothers, there are two distinct perceptions of the reality of their family. It is unclear why Ryu and Koichi chose to live with their father and mother, respectively, after the divorce, and it is unclear why their experiences were so different. But their family is inextricably connected to who Ryu and Koichi are as individuals.  

When their mother mentions that Ryu is like his father, and always has been, she says it with affection and amusement. But Ryu is confused by the sentiment. He wonders if it means that she doesn’t like him anymore, since she doesn’t like his father. Their grandfather, who is stern and quiet, plods along, attempting to recreate a cake from his childhood. He, like Koichi, is trying to realize a dream. These are just two examples of the familial lineages of personality, strengths, flaws, and ambiguities in this film.

Adults are also represented as distinct individuals in I Wish, some kind and helpful, others selfish and immature. Their strengths and their flaws impact the children around them. The children are depicted as knowing very well what their parents’ shortcomings are. When the group of seven friends finally reaches the spot where the two bullet trains pass, several of the children make wishes that reflect the concerns they have regarding their parents. One boy wishes for his dad to stop gambling. Ryu wishes for his dad to have success in this music career. Megumi wishes to be an actress, the very desire her own jaded mother used to have.

When characters are as beautifully and deeply rendered as they are in I Wish, emotional evolution is not merely a possible place for a narrative to go; it is a cinematically realized ideology. Progress has stopped for none of these characters. Understanding can be cross generational, even when there are gaps and blips. Realism is the balance of joy and sorrow. Family represents a network of influences to draw from, externalized pieces of self against which a person can compare and assess who he or she is and how he or she might wish to change, improve, and grow.