Like Father, Like Son (Soshite Chichi ni Naru | そして父になる)

My 2 free tickets to any movie at eh Japanese film festival and I chose "Like Father Like Son"

????ebb and flow of paternal Love???? hahah

If you are a parent,

 and everybody has parents, Paternal Love has no ebb,

 but NON STOP FLOW!!!

The movie moved at a slow pace but the story line was interesting although improbable yet stereotyped (exchanged babies and prince-and-pauper type) but I always like to see how Japanese people live and work and talk and how they bring up their children...Japanese culture piques my interest.

These are the main players in the move.....
"Real" parents and exchanged children.......

this is the son of the intelligent gifted man...he was  brought up in a rough and tumble family

this is the son of the  rough, but hands on "pauper" dad...he was nurtured and brought up in a privileged, cosseted  life

The  not so rich father, but rich in experiences and memories of childhood..this is what he can give his sons, no expensive piano lessons or IQ classes.

 Contemplation and reflection time : how? 
take back my real son?
 give up my son who is not my son,
 but my son whom I have nurtured for 6 years?
for a son I hardly know but whose blood is mine?

 Children have feelings too, they are not toys, or possessions or pets to be exchanged or given back. heck, you would not even exchange your pets!!!

 You might be able to predict the ending,
 and the movie might even induce you to shed a tear or two...

 The child actors stole the show with their innocence and natural ability: just being themselves..

Too handsome to be a dad???? hahaha......what lah, such a dashing actor acting as the arrogant awfully clever and rich and talented and high climbing corporate dad

This film was nominated for an award at the FESTIVAL OF CANNES!!! Impressive!!! Dreamworks has acquired the rights to make a Hollywood version, but remember, I saw it in Japanese first.

Read review by Roger Ebert here

http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/like-father-like-son-2014

 Keita (Keita Ninomiya) and Ryusei (Shogen Hwang) are wonderful

And read the synopsis here:

Like Father, Like Son (Soshite Chichi ni Naru | そして父になる)

Director: Hirokazu Koreeda
Rating: TBD
Country: Japan
Release Date: September 23, 2013 (Japan)

• Would you choose your natural son, or the son you believed was yours after spending 6 years together? Kore-eda Hirokazu, the globally acclaimed director of "Nobody Knows", "Still Walking" and "I Wish", returns to the big screen with another family - a family thrown into torment after a phone call from the hospital where the son was born... Ryota has earned everything he has by his hard work, and believes nothing can stop him from pursuing his perfect life as a winner. Then one day, he and his wife, Midori, get an unexpected phone call from the hospital. Their 6-year-old son, Keita, is not 'their' son - the hospital gave them the wrong baby. Ryota is forced to make a life-changing decision, to choose between 'nature' and 'nurture.' Seeing Midori's devotion to Keita even after learning his origin, and communicating with the rough yet caring family that has raised his natural son for the last six years, Ryota also starts to question himself: has he really been a 'father' all these years...
  - Written by Wild Bunch