Hope

The ISHIKAWA family live a peaceful, successful life: architect father Kazuto (TSUTSUMI Shinichi), proof-reader mother Kiyomi (ISHIDA Yuriko), son Tadashi (OKADA Kenshi) and daughter Miyabi (KIYOHARA Kaya). But all of that changes overnight when one of Tadashi’s classmates is murdered and Tadashi, who has gone missing, is reported to somehow be involved the case.

Not knowing Tadashi’s whereabouts, the family is divided: Kiyomi hopes that her son is alive even if he turns out to be the murderer, while Kazuto believes that Tadashi is innocent even if that means he was murdered himself. The relentless media storm around them pushes the family to the edge, threatening their jobs, their home and their physical safety. But Kiyomi, desperate to know the whereabouts of and the truth about her beloved son, decides to make a deal with one unsavoury journalist.

With pinpoint precision, director TSUTSUMI Yukihiko (First Love, JFTFP22; The House Where the Mermaid Sleeps, JFTFP20) dissects and assembles the thought process of an ordinary family torn to shreds by youth crime, the ruthless media machine that preys on them, and the scandal-hungry society that devours them in the name of justice.