Film review: Like Father, Like Son gives parents the choice of a lifetime

Rating: 4.5/5

Considering that it's two hours long, Like Father, Like Son has a surprisingly simple story, and its biggest plot twist takes place 10 minutes into the film. And it is quite a bombshell: two sets of parents are told by hospital officials where their six-year-old sons were born that they were given the wrong baby.

So Keita (Keita Ninomiya) - the cherubic boy that ambitious architect Ryota Nonomiya (Masaharu Fukuyama) and his homemaker wife Midori (Machiko Ono) had been raising as their son - turns out to be the biological offspring of small electrical goods store owner Yudai Saiki (Lily Franky) and his wife Yukari (Yoko Maki). They in turn had thought that they were the birth parents of the rambunctious lad who turns out to be the Nonomiyas' biological progeny, Ryusei (Shogen Hwang).

After they find out what happened, Ryota, Midori, Yudai and Yukari have to decide whether to keep the children they left the hospital with, or exchange the two boys. Although urged to make the switch, and sooner rather than later, by hospital officials, both sets of parents decide against doing so immediately.

Complicating matters for the Nonomiyas and Saikis is that they don't agree about parenting styles, due to their different socioeconomic backgrounds.