Kiseki: Anohi no Sobito

I watched Kiseki: Anohi no Sobito on the plane. I wasn't sure if I really wanted to watch this before but I liked the song Kiseki. It was released maybe around 2008? Kiseki was the ending song for the Japanese drama, Rookies. "Rookies" was about delinquent students who didn't have a direction in life but they were part of the baseball club, and there was this one teacher who changed their path in life. Kiseki means miracle in Japanese.

The music group, Greeeen, is basically like the Daft Punk of Japan. They are dentists in real life so they've never shown their faces in real life. Their music videos are usually acted out by other actors or I think once they did perform once on TV, but there was a screen to cover them. This is really to protect their identity because they want to continue to be dentists.

Anyway, having this background, I decided to watch this movie. Overall I enjoyed it. There are the strong themes that are important in Japanese storytelling. Such as a sense of responsibility, and family. This story especially focuses on the expectations of a parent, and what the child wants to do for their career. 

This story follows our main singer, Hiro, and his family. His older brother, Jin, wants to become a Japanese heavy metal singer. Their father's expectation is for them not to be in music but to become a doctor, like himself because doctors save lives. So Hiro has to deal with his brother Jin leaving home, while he also struggles to pass exams to become a doctor. Ultimately he changes his course and decides to become a dentist. In Dentistry school, he meets three others, and they decide to go into music as a hobby. So the movie focuses on this balance. The movie is portrayed by actors. So the singing is not by the band themselves, but by the actors. 

The story isn't ground breaking by any means, but I enjoyed it. I'm not sure if it's completely based on true events or certain things were updated for entertainment purposes. It shows everyday life in Japan, the importance of family, how it is difficult to sway from parents expectations, falling in love and doing something you love. Also how lyrics can affect people. The movie also reminded me how meaningful the songs by Greeeen were. Mostly about love, or the songs I enjoyed about love. 

When I lived in Tokyo, Greeeen came out with a song called Ai Uta in 2007. That was my favourite song in my last months in Tokyo. I remember playing the song on the taiko drum game in the arcade as well. I also really liked the song Kiseki. 

Rating: 7.5/10