Like Father Like Son.

If you discovered that the child you had raised for the first six years of his young life was not yours, having been swapped in the hospital were he was born, and was brought up by another family, what would you do? This is the parental dilemma that faces two families, each of differing social status in modern day Japan. Keira has been raised by a middle class workaholic architect Nonomiya Ryota and his wife Midori in an expensive apartment that resembles more a hotel suite than a home and is expected to gain entry to a good school and make his father proud. It's during this entry process that a blood test casts doubt on his parentage. The other family is working class. Father Saiki Yudai is a shopkeeper and along with his wife has been raising Ryusei as his own. If the families swop the children will these two six year olds cope any better than the grown ups?

It's a real shame that more of Dumfries and Galloway’s movie going public did not attend the Robert Burns Centre Film Theatre Film Club screening of Hirokazu Kore-eda's wonderful Like Father, Like Son (2013) because I can assure you that they missed something really special. Introduced by Alec Barclay who reminded us of some of Kore-eda's previous work, for which he also wrote the scripts and edited. The last one was 2011's I Wish which stars real life brothers Koki and Oshiro Maeda and tells a story about two young brothers who live separated in different cities after their mother and father have broken up, but dream of reuniting. Prior to this, and also shown at South West Scotland's premier independent cinema, was Still Walking (2008). Set almost entirely during a 24-hour period, this film examines the tensions that arise when a middle class family gathers at the family home to observe the thirteenth anniversary of the tragic death of the younger of two sons’ while saving another boy from drowning.

 

The Director with his two young stars Shogen Hwang and Keita Ninomiya. 

Both these socially aware movies are similar to Like Father, Like Son in that they explore themes of family life in contemporary Japan, although this time it concentrates mainly on the fathers. Winning the Jury Prize at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival it proves yet again that Kore-eda is a master at directing children always managing to get the best out of them.  This slow burning movie is an intimate examination of personal conflict that’s both rich and rewarding, but at the same time emotionally draining. A film that highlights a culture that may seem alien to our own but is immensely intriguing all the same.  As usual Peter Bradshaw sums it in his Guardian review by describing the film as ‘small of gesture but huge of heart’. I can say with hand on heart that those who bothered to attend the screening were culturally recompensed.

Trailer 

I Wish.

Before the Easter break the Robert Burns Centre Film Theatre Film Club was in Scotland with the showing of the documentary We are Northern Lights (2012) this week we have come back to Japan. The last time we visited this country was for Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2011) and this time it’s for the feature film I Wish (2011).  Introduced by Julie McMorran, swiftly becoming our resident expert on Asian movies, who gave us a little background to the films director. Reputed to be one of the best contemporary Asian directors working today Hirokazu Kore-eda is probably best known in the UK for directing and writing Still Walking (2008) which was a portrait of a family over a 24 hour period as they commemorate the death of their eldest son. I Wish (2011), written and directed by Kore-eda, is also about the family unit and children.

Julie informed us that the director was born in Tokyo in 1962 and originally had intended to be a novelist, but after graduating from university in 1987 he went on to become an assistant director working on Japanese television. During this period he also made his first film Lessons from a Calf in 1991. The main themes of his work normally include family and are focused around children, memory loss and grief and can feel as though they have a combination of blended documentary and fictional narratives. She rounded off by telling us that tonight’s film presents a rather interesting take on the relationship between technology and society, and in particular the role of the train.

Koki and Oshiro Maeda.

The film stars real life brothers Koki and Oshiro Maeda and tells a story about two young brothers who live separated in different cities after their mother and father have broken up, but dream of reuniting. This is arranged between the two brothers and some of their friends with both groups travelling by local trains to meet at the exact mid point where the newly built Bullet Train’s cross. It’s when these trains pass one another and a ‘magic field’ is generated that a wish can be made and hopefully come true. 

A slow and precise movie beautifully made and shoot, with a wonderfully enduring premise. The division of character between the children and the adults involved is superbly directed and handled by Kore-eda and as we have been told previously, directing young children is not a particularly easy task! Although as one of my colleagues pointed out Japanese children are better behaved than their British counterparts. My only wee gripe is that the film is a little to long with the first part taking to long to establish the contrasted families and spends to much time involved with the children’s school life. An accurate picture of suburban modern day Japan and as Peter Bradshaw opined ‘a gem of world cinema by a gifted master of the craft’[1] and who would disagree.

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[1] The Guardian.