Like Father, Like Son (2013)

"Like Father, Like Son," with Masaharu Fukuyama (l.) and
Machico Ono.

A pair of six-year-olds switched at birth forces two families together in the Japanese film “Like Father, Like Son,” a sensitive and intriguing examination of parental influence and early childhood written, directed and edited by Hirokazu Kore-eda.

The movie begins by introducing us to an affluent young couple living in an upscale high rise in downtown Tokyo. The father, Ryota (Masaharu Fukuyama) is an ambitious, pragmatic young architect who, like his austere father before him, puts business first and family second. Ergo, instructing his young son Keita (Keita Ninomiya), a wide-eyed six-year-old, to practice playing piano is more about learning responsibility and discipline than having fun. That leaves the caring, over-protective mother, Midori (Machiko Ono) worried that little Keita could miss out on being a kid by having to grow up too fast.

Regardless, the couple’s world is turned inside out when an urgent call from the hospital leads to a visit in which they are informed that Keito isn’t their biological son. Soon, a hasty meeting between both families is arranged and lawyers are brought in. Eventually, both sets of parents will have to make an agonizing decision whether to switch the children.

Along with the obvious psychological themes, Kore-eda tosses in some socioeconomical complexities by making the second family a middle income couple from a working class neighborhood. The mother (Lily Franky) works part-time; the father, Yoko (Yukari Saiki) is an ebullient shopkeeper whose tousled hair and threadbare Hawaiian shirts allude both to his engagingly laidback style and modest means. The couple has three young kids, including Ryota’s biological son, Ryusei (Shogen Hwang), an energetic lad who enjoys flying kites with his dad.

Exchanging the boys on weekends proves to be equal parts revealing and awkward for both kids and adults. Perhaps not surprisingly, the kids turn out to be remarkably adaptable; on the other hand, the adults discover elements about their parenting both unexpected and sometimes painful. For instance, while Midori’s strong, motherly bond with Keito is palpable as she struggles in letting go, it underlines the emotion missing in Ryota’s relationship with his son.

A key scene at the end takes place between Keito and Ryota. After finally switching the kids, the families unexpectedly reunite, but the visit is unsettling for Keito and he runs away. When Ryota catches up with the boy, he tries to tell him about some of the ways he misses him and about how he wishes he would have been a better father for those six years. The scene is heart-tugging, warm and unabashedly sentimental in addition to being implausible and contrived.

Why would Keito’s first instinct be to run away instead of, say, first embracing his mother? Kore-eda is perhaps suggesting that running away is the boy’s way of appearing independent—hiding emotion the same way his driven, icy father has taught himself to—but to imply a six-year-old has the capacity for such intricate emotion is far-fetched.

Still, “Like Father, Like Son” works as an optimistic, life-affirming tale about how two otherwise disparate families become close friends in unlikely circumstances. Whether the director’s melodramatic payoff owes more to sincere filmmaking or crafty artifice is open to debate, but in a film with so many difficult questions and so few simple answers, maybe that’s the point.