Learning that his biological son was swapped at birth and that his six-year-old son is not actually his own, an affluent workaholic is torn between whether or not to swap sons with the other family in this Japanese drama from Hirokazu Koreeda. While it is hard to understand why both families would be in favour of a swap, the whole situation works well as wake-up call for our protagonist, played by Masaharu Fukuyama, to realise the importance of spending quality time with his son away from work. He is also humbled in his outlook on the world. Initially, Fukuyama is deterred by the other family's working class background and their desire to make a small fortune out of suing the hospital, but as the film progress, both us as viewers and Fukuyama come to realise that the other father, played by Rirî Furankî, is fun-loving very caring. In fact, his initial interest in getting rich is soon (awkwardly) pushed to the side. There is, however, room to wonder whether the film would have benefited from more focus on the boys themselves and their perspective on what is happening, though there is admittedly an interesting irony at play in how Fukuyama keeps saying that he would be able to provide better for both boys (he even shockingly considers taking both at one point) and yet he never really thinks about the real impact on the two children. Whatever the case, everything spirals towards a powerful dénouement and while the ending might seem happy on face value, there is a bitter-sweetness to it too. Will any of them ever be the same after their experiences?
Review of Like Father, Like Son
