Like Father, Like Son

2014 • 121 minute

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Acclaimed Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda (Nobody Knows, Still Walking) won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival for this touching drama. The life of go-getting workaholic architect Ryota -- one of comfort and quietly ordered affluence with his wife Midori and son Keita -- is violently overturned when hospital administrators reveal the unthinkable: Keita is not his biological son. Switched at birth by the maternity ward nurse, his "true" son has been raised in the disheveled but warm-hearted home of working-class shopkeeper Yudai and his wife. The different approaches of both couples to their excruciating dilemma and the gradual emotional awakening of the all-too-rational Ryota are at the core of this sensitive drama of family feeling, which showcases Kore-eda's rich sense of humanity.

Graderings en resensies

I really really satisfied with the ending, eventhough I kinda predicted that it would happend.. but honestly, I do believe that the bond that you've made, the experienced that you go through with someone is the most important thing of all, it's the proof that you are who you are, you became who you are through the experience that happened, this is why humans changing each sec if I would say.. so honestly the blood doesn't really matter much, is what I believe. I felt bad for Keita halfway through.

I would have hoped for more depth and film time for the female roles. Very little dialogue or dimensional area for a Japanese female actress to blow stem from her over ripped creative muscle. Time to recognize the expression of the actress in Japan. Or suffer the loss of generations of artistic power emergence in the actress. A good film.

Kore-eda's a critically acclaimed filmmaker and beloved arthouse auteur whose work deserves to be seen on a wider scale. Don't let the subtitles scare you -- check it out!