Like Father, Like Son Review

Hirokazu Koreeda's Like Father, Like Son is by far my favorite film that we have watched thus far. The film is honestly quite heartbreaking. It's really difficult to imagine if I was in the shoes of these two families, in which I found out that my child wasn't biologically my child. I thought it was interesting that both families were really different in terms of their life styles. One family was the more organized, rule following, education focused family while the other was more of the free spirited, fun, forgiving family. This family-oriented contrast made the thematic tension more intense because it's very difficult for someone to completely change different lifestyles in a short amount of time, especially when you are just a child trying to understand the world around you. The entire cast was absolutely outstanding in the film. The two boys from both families were absolutely adorable in a very natural way, which made it even more heartbreaking when you saw them upset or missing their "other family." Two scenes in particular stood out to me. The first scene was when Ryota Nonomiya discovers all of the pictures that his not-biological son took of him when he was asleep. My heart broke when Nonomiya started crying as he looked through all of the photos. The other scene I loved is when Nonomiya tries to win back his not-biological son's love as he follows him across the city and into the park where he tries to tell him that he was "wrong" about the "mission" and that he truly loves him. Both of these scenes really spoke to me and really showed how difficult this situation must have been. I'm very happy that film ends on a positive note as if both families were going to get along and share each other's child almost as if they will be one, large, happy family. Like Father, Like Son was a very beautiful and touching film that I would recommend to anyone, as it is an important film about what it truly means to be a family.