Like Father, Like Son

Japan   w/d  Hirokazu Kore-eda

An affluent couple with a 6 yo son learn that their child had been switched at the birth hospital with another. And that their actual son had been raised by a couple several classes lower in the social order. The film is the slow process of how this fraught dilemma gets resolved.

Sensitive, subtle, intelligent, perceptive...all describe this film and his others. This director is a modern-day Ozu...but perhaps even better. Ozu was seen as the perfect reflection of the Japanese character, or soul - his films were seen as embodying the essence of what it meant to be Japanese and thus were seen at the time (incorrectly) as limited to that country's audience.

Kore-eda's films have a universality, a depth of understanding of the workings, the vagaries of human nature that open them to a world audience. His films are emotionally and intellectually satisfying, penetrating and insightful. I see him as a great artist, a treasure, a gift to the world of cinema.

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