Hope

A family suffers when their son goes missing in Yukihiko Tsutsumi’s tense mystery thriller.

“If you don’t do anything, you become an adult who can’t do anything”

Kazuto Ishikawa is a successful architect who, along with his wife Kiyomi (Yuriko Ishida) does his best to balance his job and his family life. His daughter Miyabi (Kaya Kiyohara) is studying to attend a great school but his son Tadashi (Kenshi Okada) hasn’t been his usual self since an injury forced him off the football team. Sullen and acting suspicious, he understandably causes panic when one day, he vanished completely.

The following day, a fellow classmate of Tadashi’s is discovered dead, and with that comes a media storm aimed solely at the Ishikawa family, and the missing Tadashi’s potential connection to the crime.

Hope is ostensibly a mystery thriller, with Tadashi’s whereabouts as the key driving plot, but the story’s real focus is in the way the family handles the tragedy, the uncertainty and the ensuing media circus that wrecks their professional and personal lives. The story escalates at a nice pace and it’s worth pointing out writer Satoko Okudera, who adapts Shusuke Shizukui’s novel perfectly into a film, ensuring the story never drags on too long, and keeps us hooked throughout.

I do like that the film represents things primarily from the parents’ point of view, showing the lengths they’re willing to go to in order to believe in their son. The mother just wants him back alive, while the father is torn between his love for his son and the affect Tadashi’s behaviour will have on the family. There’s the troubling thought deep within him: would he rather the son be dead if it meant he wasn’t a killer?

There are no easy answers, and certainly no easy conclusions. These moral questions and ethical concerns are wonderfully acted by the entire family, who each bring their own spin to the way they handle the trauma, guilt and worry.  This makes Hope feel especially real and, as a result, especially harsh. It’s riveting throughout, but not always an easy watch. Seeing what everyone goes through means you know there’s nothing that can be done to actually save the situation, either. No ending can possibly be happy for this family; damage is dealt that cannot be so easily undone.

Director Yukihiko Tsutsumi, who I’ve previously only known for directing 20^th Century Boys, brings you along for the ride and even has you asking the hard questions. Ultimately Hope doesn’t have a lot of hope, not really. It’s false, and full of malaise. Do you hope your son live, but be responsible for a death? Or hope he dies innocent? Sometimes you just have to take things as they are, no matter how awful the truth.

Verdict: Full of great performances, mystery and family drama Hope is a bleak, but satisfying thriller.

Overall entertainment: 8/10
Violence: 4/10
Sex: 0/10
Intrigue: 7/10
Naito: If you want to be trusted, maybe don’t be so suspicious
Media attention: You never want that much

Hope (2020)
Also known as: 望み (Nozomi – “Wish”)
Japanese

Director: Yukihiko Tsutsumi
Writers: Shusuke Shizukui (novel), Satoko Okudera

CAST

Shinichi Tsutsumi – Kazuto Ishikawa
Yuriko Ishida – Kiyomi Ishikawa
Kenshi Okada – Tadashi Ishikawa
Kaya Kiyohara – Miyabi Ishikawa
Masaya Kato – Toshitsugu Teranuma
Yoshie Ichige – Fumiko Oda
Shota Matsuda – Naito
Raita Ryu – Takayama
Ikuma Nagatomo – Umemoto