Kiseki (Hirokazu Koreeda, 2011)

I Wish has a superficial similarity to Stand By Me in that it centres around a bunch of young boys taking off on a secret trip. The motivation here is however less about the lessons coming-of-age and bonding amongst friends, with the children mostly younger and more innocent: their goal is to witness the moment when two bullet trains pass each other, in the fanciful belief that any wish made at that moment will come true. This could be very mawkish, something in which it has said be said that Japanese film has plenty of previous. But the child actors perform with fresh-faced enthusiasm, helped by Koreeda's technique of providing direction rather than word-for-word scripts, which leads to a freedom of expression, and the troubles faced by their individual families in the background are also not pumped up to melodramatic levels.

7/10