Hirokazu Koreeda may be one of my favorite living directors. I have seen three of his films and loved each of them in the following order: Still Walking, I Wish and Nobody Knows. After seeing Like Father, Like Son, there is a struggle for which movie should take first place.
Like Father, Like Son is about an overachieving professional and his wife as they prepare for their only son to go to school. They hear horrifying news that exposes all the fractures in their relationship with their past and each other and must work with a polar opposite family to resolve an impossible situation.
Koreeda takes situations that most filmmakers would make overly melodramatic and approaches it in the most subtle and humane way possible. The main character is kind of awful, but the actor, Masaharu Fukuyama, manages to approach each scene on two levels: the icy businesslike demeanor and the emotion under the surface. His face lights up every time he sees his son, but he tries to pretend that he only cares about his accomplishments. When he verbally betrays his son, you want to scream at the heartbreak that he is causing, but you also know that he is trying to talk himself into believing what he is saying. It also does not hurt that he is scorching hot. The rest of the cast is more sympathetic, but manages to reveal the complexity of even the most seemingly simple character.
I watched Like Father, Like Son after a hectic workday, and the subtitles and emotional textured narrative did not wear me down further. I surprisingly cried during one scene when the other family introduces a person to a photo of the grandmother, a family shrine. When the professional notices that a boy chews his straw like his father, I was gripped with panic that it is already too late to child. When the shopkeeper reminds the professional that only he can be the father, it is urgent and double-edged. The shopkeeper is pleading for himself and his son, not only giving good advice. When the polar opposite family finally reacts to the professional’s rudeness, it is simultaneously gentle and shocking, and an American film could never pull off a similar moment.
Like Father, Like Son is an amazing must see film, and you should not be deterred by the subtitles.