Jmovie review: Like father, Like Son / Soshite chichi ni naru

I have been waiting for this movie for a long time after Koreeda Hirokazu's overly long Going My Home. Like Father, Like Son is a movie about two families whose children were switched at birth featuring a great cast of Machiko Ono, Yoko Maki and Lily Franky. Even Fukuyama Masaharu is perfectly cast as the successful father with his stiff acting.

If you're familiar with Koreeda movies, you know what to expect; the movie never gets too high or low but every single scene draws you in and sometimes one single sentence speaks volumes but Koreeda never milks any moment more than necessary.

Koreeda frames his shots so beautifully, its like watching someone painting on canvas and they way he captures that slight twitch, slight look of understanding and makes the viewer fell the emotion without the slighest overdramatisation is incredible.

Like Father, Like Son is a movie that explores not just themes of nurture vs nature but also uses the unique premise to talk about things like how to raise a child, whether empathy is a weakness and what makes a family. Absolutely brilliant family and character dorama.

My only complaint would be the English title which has a completely different meaning from the Japanese title which is a better description of the movie as the story is seen from the viewpoint of Fukuyama Masaharu's character.. Must watch movie and if Koreeda goes back to doramas, it better be 5 episodes at most.