With his reliably controlled style, Koreeda's film explores issues of nature
vs. nature with a subtle, humanistic touch. When we first meet highly-motivated
engineer Ryota Nonomiya (Fukurama Masaharu), he and wife Midori (Ono Machiko)
are watching their 6-year-old son Keita give all-too-perfect answers during an
entrance interview at a prestigious school. We soon discover the answers were a
lie, fed to him by his father to give the impression their family really is
perfect. Ryota is a good man, ambitious and driven, and provides his family a
life in which they want for nothing. He drills into his son all the tools
to be just like him, but one thing Ryota can't seem to find is paternal
instinct. There's love in the Nonomiya family, but affection is a different
story.
So when the hospital where Keita was born calls and says the son Midori gave
birth to was switched with another, Ryota coldly remarks "Now it makes
sense...” It turns out their actual son Ryusei lives with Yudai and
Yukari Saiki (Lily Franky and Yoko Maki), lower middle-class store owners with
two other children. They live in another part of the store, and may not have
everything the Nonomiya's have in terms of wealth, but they make up for it with
a care-free lifestyle and a genuine closeness that is infectious. 
As all of Koreeda's films note in some way, children are more resilient than
adults give them credit for, and as the parents meet and come to the decision
to make an exchange, the boys adapt to their surroundings with ease. The switch
begins slowly with each son staying with their natural parents on weekends, and
while it's meant to make things easier for the children, it's the parents who
need the time most. The boys are opened up to a number of different
opportunities, both professional and emotional, but for the parents it's about
bonding with sons who are total strangers. Ryota sees this as an opportunity to prove that the disconnect he felt with
Keita was their lack of blood relation, and seeks to fix it with Ryusei.
Meanwhile, Keita has blended in seamlessly with the Saikis, enjoying the
close-knit bond with his new siblings and Yudai's playfulness. These are things
he's never experienced before, and seeing him acclimate so easily rubs Ryota
the wrong way. He gets a half-baked notion that he can simply buy off the
Saikis and keep both boys, but when they take offense it forces him to
reevaluate everything. The narrative shifts its focus mainly to Ryota as he
struggles to bon with Ryusei, forcing him to explore his own troubled
upbringing.
Koreeda isn't a director who works in broad strokes, evolving his characters
with a gentle, gradual touch. And as usual the naturalistic, instinctive
performances he's able to draw out are mesmerizing, especially by the youngest
stars. The film has been picked up for a remake by none other than Steven
Spielberg, who perhaps should have started out with the more adventurous I
Wish, and it'll be interesting to see what changes are made to make these
characters relatable for American audiences. The Japanese culture is very
different from ours, and Ryota's ambition at the expense of family is more
normal to them. He's not a bad guy or a bad parent, but a flawed man living in
a culture that values professional success nearly as much as personal.
Even though the blue-collar Saikis are portrayed as a little too perfect at times,
there are no real villains to contend with. Koreeda recognizes that in
situations such as this, there are no villains, just simple parents trying to
do what's best for their kids. It does seem as if this point is made pretty
early on, and while other important issues are raised there's a sense that the
film is circling the drain. There aren't any easy answers to the posed question, but the film suggests that being a parent requires immeasurable patience and benevolence. Vital and full of heart, Koreeda's Like Father, Like Son is another quiet jewel that shouldn't be missed.
