Recently released on Netflix, the Japanese movie, Missing, is a heartfelt tribute to all the parents who haven’t been able to reunite with their children after they went missing. The movie powerfully portrays the impact of such a loss on parents—their lives, their minds, and the lengths they’ll go to find their child. Keisuke Yoshida’s drama is about a young girl named Miu, who went missing. Her parents did everything they could to search for their kid, from involving the media and distributing flyers, to giving personal interviews. But nobody could find anything, and the only clue they had was that Miu was last seen with her uncle, Keigo. Was her own uncle responsible for her disappearance, or is someone else involved?
Spoilers Ahead
Was Keigo responsible for Miu’s disappearance?
The night Miu went missing, her mother, Saori, was at a concert with her friends. Meanwhile, Miu had gone to play with her uncle Keigo in a park near their neighborhood just like she often did after school. After playing, Miu was heading home by herself when, according to Keigo, he saw a white car with a ladder on the back abduct her. Miu’s father was at home, and when his six-year-old daughter didn’t return, he grew anxious and frustrated. Keigo claimed he didn’t know much about the situation, and Saori, being at the concert, had no idea what had happened either. Two months passed without any sign of Miu. Her parents did everything they could to find her but they did not want to go to the police as they thought the police wouldn’t take the case seriously, as they have neglected many other such cases. Instead, they focused to create visibility by distributing flyers and reached out to news channels to cover their story. Through this, they met with a reporter named Sunada and hoped he would help them. Sunada took the case personally when he saw the pain and despair the parents were going through. He also noticed the harsh criticism they faced—people on social media cruelly judged Saori for going to the concert, and some even suggested that the parents themselves had killed Miu and were using the concert as a false alibi.
As the criticism went on, Miu’s parents naturally fell into deep depression, and even their marriage got worse when the public constantly blamed them because they felt like they were not doing enough. But only Sunada continued to support them by editing videos, sharing old pictures of Miu on the news, and doing whatever he could to help. Even though his senior reporters wanted him to move on to other news stories, he was more focused on uncovering any new information that could help find Miu. They eventually decided to interview Keigo. Keigo appeared to be a troubled soul. Rumors circulated that he had been bullied as a child for being “slow” and “odd”, and when the news of Miu’s abduction broke, people often humiliated him in public as they thought he was the kidnapper. Keigo had initially told the media that he saw the white car take Miu, but later, when questioned again, he changed his story to claim he didn’t know anything. This inconsistency made people suspicious, especially when it was revealed that even though Keigo said before in his alibi that he was at home, Keigo’s car had been spotted on a local café CCTV around midnight on the night Miu went missing. But the reality was, Keigo was too embarrassed to admit he had gone to a shady casino to gamble that night, which is why he changed his alibi. He hadn’t witnessed anything, nor did he have any real knowledge of Miu’s disappearance. His earlier story about the white car seemed to stem from childhood trauma: Keigo himself had been abducted as a child in a similar white car with a ladder. Though he was eventually released, the memory haunted him and caused him to imagine that Miu had been taken in the same way. But as a matter of fact, Keigo didn’t have any real information, and they were back to square one.
What happened to Sakura Uno?
Miu’s parents never gave up searching for her, they chased down every lead and answered every phone call, no matter how small the clue seemed. But most of the time, these leads turned out to be false or cruel prank calls, which only added to their frustration and heartbreak. Their friends, colleagues, and the church came to help them and some even pitched in to print free flyers or collect donations through work unions, but it was not enough to bring Miu back. Then, one day, they heard on the news about another little girl, Sakura Uno, who had been abducted from their neighborhood. The situation was eerily similar to Miu’s disappearance, and that’s when Miu’s parents decided to finally go to the police. They realized that the media had moved on from Miu’s case because it wasn’t drawing enough attention anymore, even though Sunada still wanted to help. Miu’s parents thought that maybe Sakura’s case was connected to Miu’s and maybe the same person or group had taken both girls. The police, however, had a different theory, as they suspected Sakura’s abduction was personal and linked to her mother’s ex, who may have taken her as revenge. Still, Miu’s parents didn’t want to leave any chance, therefore they helped distribute flyers not just for their own daughter, but for Sakura too. With the combined effort of the parents, volunteers, and the police, Sakura Uno was eventually found in her mother’s ex’s house, just as the police suspected. Even though the case wasn’t connected to Miu, the way Miu’s parents supported Sakura’s family showed how deeply they understood their pain because they knew exactly what it felt like to live through such a nightmare.
No, unfortunately, Miu wasn’t found by the end of the movie. It’s a harsh truth that sometimes, no matter how hard people try, some cases remain unsolved, but life does not stop. Miu’s father went back to work, and her mother, Saori, took up a job as a traffic officer outside a kindergarten. Maybe, she chose that role in the hope that, one day, she might spot Miu among those children. The story hence shows that life may go on but Miu’s parents haven’t truly moved on as they continue to hold onto the hope that, someday, they might be reunited with their daughter.
