The other question: Is being a father defined by DNA or by love? Put another way, is your son the one you sire or the one you raise? Perhaps, the film suggests, it’s a bit of both. Will the children grow up to become more natural fits with their real fathers? Keita is a charming boy, but because he doesn’t possess Ryota’s skill at the piano, he’s something of a disappointment. But the story isn’t really about them.įilmmaker Hirokazu Kore-Eda invites us to ponder two things. His father (Riri Furanki) is an absent-minded goofball, an overgrown kid himself.įor what it’s worth, the differences between the mothers (Machiko Ono and Yoko Maki) are less pronounced. The other child, Ryusei (Shogen Hwang), is one of five living in a crowded and cluttered, yet cozy home tucked behind a ratty appliance shop. The first boy, Keita (Keita Ninomiya), has been living in a nice apartment with his well-to-do but distant and demanding architect father, Ryota (Masaharu Fukuyama). On one level, the story seems like it’s about paternal nature vs. Shouldn’t that be one of the first things you do? There are lots of lawyers here, but no therapist.
At no point does anyone consult a social worker, for instance, about how to handle the mess. This contributes to a sense that the story is a construct, a puppet show meant to deliver a message rather than to shed light on actual human behavior. Stranger still is how the kids themselves - once the families agree to attempt a tentative trade - don’t seem very traumatized. But generally, their reactions seem strangely subdued at the decidedly mixed prospect of losing the child they’ve raised, even as they’re reunited with lost flesh and blood. One father is practically licking his lips at the money he might get from a settlement. Whether because this mistake has, apparently, been a problem before - at least in the somewhat backward hospital where the births took place - or because of something deep in the personal character or national culture of the people involved, all the parents seem more dazed than wrenched by the news. Yet this Japanese film is more of a head-scratcher than a tear-jerker. The setup of “ Like Father, Like Son” seems like it would be heart-wrenching: Two couples, each with 6-year-old sons they cherish, discover that a hospital mix-up switched their babies at birth.
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