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.

平穏で裕福な生活を送っていた家族が、殺人事件とそれにともなうメディアの執拗な報道に翻弄される様を描いた社会派サスペンス。ある日、息子の規士が帰ってこなくなった。やがてある少年が殺されたという報道が入り、規士が関与しているという。母親の貴代美は、犯人であっても息子に生きていてほしいと願い、父親の登は、殺されていたとしても息子の無実を望む。

(Special thanks to Eikoku News Digest)