Like Father, Like Son (2013)
(Soshite chichi ni naru)
Country: JAP
Technical: col 121m
Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda
Cast: Masaharu Fukuyama, Machiko Ono, Yôko Maki, Lily Franky
Synopsis:
Two families of widely differing socio-economic backgrounds adjust with difficulty to the news that their babies were swapped at birth.
Review:
Kore-eda's characteristically soft-spoken domestic drama tellingly rehearses old arguments of nature versus nurture, but does so in a way that even-handedly bows to contingencies rather than dogma: a father who initially searches for aspects of himself in his son later confides that he too was made to give up piano, thereby recognising the role of nurture in their lives in bringing them closer together. The mother, meanwhile, blames herself for coming to love her biological child as much as her historical one, even though it was the only child she was permitted to have. What no one thinks to do is ask the children's opinion, no doubt for fear that both would choose the same family, although we seem to be drifting towards a more corporate resolution as the film closes.
(Soshite chichi ni naru)
Country: JAP
Technical: col 121m
Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda
Cast: Masaharu Fukuyama, Machiko Ono, Yôko Maki, Lily Franky
Synopsis:
Two families of widely differing socio-economic backgrounds adjust with difficulty to the news that their babies were swapped at birth.
Review:
Kore-eda's characteristically soft-spoken domestic drama tellingly rehearses old arguments of nature versus nurture, but does so in a way that even-handedly bows to contingencies rather than dogma: a father who initially searches for aspects of himself in his son later confides that he too was made to give up piano, thereby recognising the role of nurture in their lives in bringing them closer together. The mother, meanwhile, blames herself for coming to love her biological child as much as her historical one, even though it was the only child she was permitted to have. What no one thinks to do is ask the children's opinion, no doubt for fear that both would choose the same family, although we seem to be drifting towards a more corporate resolution as the film closes.
(Soshite chichi ni naru)
Country: JAP
Technical: col 121m
Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda
Cast: Masaharu Fukuyama, Machiko Ono, Yôko Maki, Lily Franky
Synopsis:
Two families of widely differing socio-economic backgrounds adjust with difficulty to the news that their babies were swapped at birth.
Review:
Kore-eda's characteristically soft-spoken domestic drama tellingly rehearses old arguments of nature versus nurture, but does so in a way that even-handedly bows to contingencies rather than dogma: a father who initially searches for aspects of himself in his son later confides that he too was made to give up piano, thereby recognising the role of nurture in their lives in bringing them closer together. The mother, meanwhile, blames herself for coming to love her biological child as much as her historical one, even though it was the only child she was permitted to have. What no one thinks to do is ask the children's opinion, no doubt for fear that both would choose the same family, although we seem to be drifting towards a more corporate resolution as the film closes.