{ "id": "ephn8rht4q", "slug": "like-father-like-son", "title": "Like Father, Like Son (そして父になる)", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2010-to-2014", "label": "Drama films 2010 to 2014", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2010-to-2014" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2010-to-2014.psychological-and-social-drama-films", "label": "Psychological and social drama films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2010-to-2014.psychological-and-social-drama-films" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2010-to-2014", "label": "Asia (other) · 2001 to 2020: Drama films 2010 to 2014", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2010-to-2014", "path": [ { "id": "geo.asia", "label": "Asia (other)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001", "label": "Asia (other) · 2001 to 2020", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2010-to-2014", "label": "Drama films 2010 to 2014", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2010-to-2014" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Like Father, Like Son (そして父になる, Soshite Chichi ni Naru) is Hirokazu Kore-eda's 2013 Japanese drama about two couples whose sons were switched at birth, starring Masaharu Fukuyama; it won the 2013 Cannes Jury Prize and topped Japan's box office that year.", "snippet": "Like Father, Like Son (そして父になる, Soshite Chichi ni Naru) is Hirokazu Kore-eda's 2013 Japanese drama about two couples whose sons were switched at birth, starring Masaharu Fukuyama; it won the 2013 Cannes Jury Prize and topped Japan's box office that year.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2010-to-2014.psychological-and-social-drama-films", "markdown": "# Like Father, Like Son (そして父になる)\n\n**Like Father, Like Son** (そして父になる, *Soshite Chichi ni Naru*, literally \"Then to Become a Father\") is a 2013 [Japanese family](https://www.edgepedia.org/japanese-family) drama directed and written by [Hirokazu Kore-eda](https://www.edgepedia.org/hirokazu-kore-eda), in which two couples discover that their six-year-old sons were switched at birth in the hospital and must decide between blood ties and the bonds of raising a child.[1](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/like-father-like-son/) • [2](https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2013/09/19/films/film-reviews/soshite-chichi-ni-naru-like-father-like-son/) The film won the Jury Prize at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, where it screened in competition.[2](https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2013/09/19/films/film-reviews/soshite-chichi-ni-naru-like-father-like-son/) • [3](https://www1.nziff.co.nz/2013/archive/like-father-like-son/)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Original title | そして父になる (*Soshite Chichi ni Naru*), literally \"Then to Become a Father\"[2](https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2013/09/19/films/film-reviews/soshite-chichi-ni-naru-like-father-like-son/) |\n| Director and writer | Hirokazu Kore-eda, who also edited[3](https://www1.nziff.co.nz/2013/archive/like-father-like-son/) |\n| Principal cast | Masaharu Fukuyama (Ryota Nonomiya), Machiko Ono (Midori), Lily Franky (Yudai Saiki), Yōko Maki (Yukari Saiki), Keita Ninomiya (Keita Nonomiya)[1](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/like-father-like-son/) |\n| Cannes 2013 | Jury Prize; also Prize of the Ecumenical Jury, Special Mention[2](https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2013/09/19/films/film-reviews/soshite-chichi-ni-naru-like-father-like-son/) • [4](https://www.laemmle.com/film/father-son) |\n| Japanese release | Opened in September 2013 and became one of Japan's highest-grossing films of the year[5](https://www.japansociety.org.uk/review?review=400) • [15](https://www.malaymail.com/news/showbiz/2014/01/29/animations-hit-japans-top-grossing-movie-in-2013/608631) |\n| United States release | Limited theatrical release January 17, 2014, distributed by IFC Films; gross of $278.4K[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/like_father_like_son_2013) |\n| Critical scores | Metascore 73 from 33 critic reviews; Rotten Tomatoes 86% from 102 reviews; IMDb 7.8/10 from about 31,000 ratings[1](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/like-father-like-son/) • [6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/like_father_like_son_2013) • [7](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2331143/ratings/) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot\n\nRyota Nonomiya is a hard-working Tokyo architect who believes he has earned his comfortable life entirely through his own ability, and who treats family matters like the missions he assigns his son. He and his wife Midori receive a phone call from the hospital where their son was born: their six-year-old boy, Keita, is not their biological child, because the babies were switched at birth.[4](https://www.laemmle.com/film/father-son) • [8](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/oct/17/like-father-like-son-review)\n\nThe biological son, Ryusei, has been raised by the Saiki family, a larger, poorer household outside Tokyo. Yudai Saiki works in an electrical shop and his wife Yukari sells bento lunches; they are a warm couple with three children.[5](https://www.japansociety.org.uk/review?review=400) The two families agree to a staggered exchange, switching the boys on weekends to acclimatize them to their birth families.[1](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/like-father-like-son/)\n\nRyota initially seems to have no qualms about choosing blood over the boy he has nurtured for six years, while Midori is reluctant to let go of the child she has raised.[5](https://www.japansociety.org.uk/review?review=400) Seeing Midori's continued devotion to Keita, and spending time with the rough but caring family that raised his natural son, Ryota begins to ask whether he has really been a father at all during those years.[4](https://www.laemmle.com/film/father-son) The film frames the dilemma as a choice between nature and nurture, and asks what, in the end, makes someone a parent.[4](https://www.laemmle.com/film/father-son) • [9](https://www.timeout.com/movies/like-father-like-son-2)\n\n## Themes\n\nThe film revisits Kore-eda's recurring preoccupation with family dynamics and parent-child relationships in contemporary Japan, using the switched-at-birth premise and the nature-versus-nurture debate as its vehicle.[1](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/like-father-like-son/) The Japanese title points to a problem the director identified as familiar to many Japanese men: how to become a father to your children when, as a workaholic, you hardly ever see them.[2](https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2013/09/19/films/film-reviews/soshite-chichi-ni-naru-like-father-like-son/)\n\n**Personal origin.** Kore-eda told interviewers that the film expressed his own concern as a young father whose child was then five years old.[10](https://www.screendaily.com/like-father-like-son/5056346.article) At a [British Film Institute](https://www.edgepedia.org/british-film-institute) appearance in October 2013 he also explained his method with the child performers: he casts children for who they are at the audition and encourages them to act and talk as they normally would, incorporating their natural behavior and vocabulary into the films.[5](https://www.japansociety.org.uk/review?review=400)\n\nAn academic reading of the film argues that it reframes Japanese debates on fatherhood by presenting *ikumen* paternity, the involved, caregiving model of fatherhood, as a natural but constrained masculine identity, and by redirecting blame from salaryman fathers who struggle to balance work and parenting onto the corporate systems that constrain them.[11](https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/79734/1/2020BreezeDOPhD.pdf)\n\n## Production and release\n\nKore-eda directed, wrote, and edited the film, with photography by Takimoto Mikiya and production design by Mitsumatsu Keiko; the producers were Kameyama Chihiro, Hatanaka Tatsuro, and Tom Yoda.[3](https://www1.nziff.co.nz/2013/archive/like-father-like-son/) Production companies included Fuji Television Network, and the North American distributor was IFC Films.[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/like_father_like_son_2013) The runtime is listed as 121 minutes in the National Film Archive of Japan program and 120 minutes by the New Zealand International Film Festival.[12](https://www.nfaj.go.jp/wp-content/uploads/NFAJprogram73.pdf) • [3](https://www1.nziff.co.nz/2013/archive/like-father-like-son/)\n\nThe film screened in competition at Cannes in May 2013 and later at the Toronto International, New York, and Chicago film festivals.[3](https://www1.nziff.co.nz/2013/archive/like-father-like-son/) • [4](https://www.laemmle.com/film/father-son) It opened in Japan in September 2013 and was one of the country's highest-grossing films of the year, a result reviewers attributed in part to the appeal of a family melodrama to Japanese audiences and to the popularity of its lead, the music and television star [Masaharu Fukuyama](https://www.edgepedia.org/masaharu-fukuyama).[5](https://www.japansociety.org.uk/review?review=400) • [10](https://www.screendaily.com/like-father-like-son/5056346.article) • [15](https://www.malaymail.com/news/showbiz/2014/01/29/animations-hit-japans-top-grossing-movie-in-2013/608631) In the United States it opened in limited release on January 17, 2014, and grossed $278.4K.[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/like_father_like_son_2013)\n\n## Reception\n\nCritical response was generally favorable. On Metacritic the film scored 73 out of 100 based on 33 critic reviews, with 25 positive, 8 mixed, and none negative; the user score was 8.0 from 50 ratings.[1](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/like-father-like-son/) Rotten Tomatoes records an 86% Tomatometer from 102 reviews and an 89% audience score, with the critics consensus calling it \"sensitively written, smartly directed, and powerfully performed.\"[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/like_father_like_son_2013) IMDb users rate it 7.8/10.[7](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2331143/ratings/)\n\nReviewers praised the performances, particularly the children's, and Kore-eda's controlled direction. Robbie Collin of The Telegraph called it \"a piercing, tender poem about the bittersweet ebb and flow of paternal love\" and described Kore-eda as Ozu's heir.[13](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2331143/criticreviews) Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian found it a film of emotional poignancy acted and directed with integrity and observational calm, though he argued the film assumes from the start that the uptight Ryota needs to change while the easygoing Yudai does not.[8](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/oct/17/like-father-like-son-review) Guy Lodge in Time Out gave three of five stars, writing that the film's lack of dramatic nuance undercuts its emotional resonance and that the contrast between the chilly white-collar family and the cheerier poorer brood is patronizing.[9](https://www.timeout.com/movies/like-father-like-son-2) Other critics noted that the script can seem schematic in laying out the nature-versus-nurture debate before the smaller truths of each scene take over.[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/like_father_like_son_2013)\n\nThe film has since been the subject of scholarly comparison with Yasujiro Ozu's *[Tokyo Story](https://www.edgepedia.org/tokyo-story)* (1953) as a depiction of the Japanese family, with Kore-eda's film highlighting the complexity of modern family relationships and the impact of social change on family unity.[14](https://www.sab.ac.lk/sslsas/abstracts/PastAbstractsPDF/10th_SSLSAS_2024_Abstract_Book.pdf)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Like Father, Like Son Reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/like-father-like-son/)\n2. [Mark Schilling, \"'Soshite Chichi ni Naru (Like Father, Like Son)'\", The Japan Times, September 19, 2013](https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2013/09/19/films/film-reviews/soshite-chichi-ni-naru-like-father-like-son/)\n3. [Like Father, Like Son, New Zealand International Film Festival 2013 archive](https://www1.nziff.co.nz/2013/archive/like-father-like-son/)\n4. [Like Father, Like Son, Laemmle Theatres](https://www.laemmle.com/film/father-son)\n5. [Susan Meehan, \"Like Father Like Son\", The Japan Society Review](https://www.japansociety.org.uk/review?review=400)\n6. [Like Father, Like Son (2013), Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/like_father_like_son_2013)\n7. [Like Father, Like Son (2013), IMDb Ratings](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2331143/ratings/)\n8. [Peter Bradshaw, \"Like Father, Like Son – review\", The Guardian, October 17, 2013](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/oct/17/like-father-like-son-review)\n9. [Guy Lodge, \"Like Father, Like Son\", Time Out, May 18, 2013](https://www.timeout.com/movies/like-father-like-son-2)\n10. [Dan Fainaru, \"Like Father, Like Son\", Screen Daily, May 18, 2013](https://www.screendaily.com/like-father-like-son/5056346.article)\n11. [Duncan Breeze, \"Positive depictions of the family in crisis\", PhD thesis, University of East Anglia, 2020](https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/79734/1/2020BreezeDOPhD.pdf)\n12. [National Film Archive of Japan, program no. 73](https://www.nfaj.go.jp/wp-content/uploads/NFAJprogram73.pdf)\n13. [Like Father, Like Son (2013), Metacritic reviews via IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2331143/criticreviews)\n14. [A Comparative Study of Family Relationships in Yasujiro Ozu's 'Tokyo Story' and Hirokazu Koreeda's 'Like Father Like Son', 10th SSLSAS abstract book](https://www.sab.ac.lk/sslsas/abstracts/PastAbstractsPDF/10th_SSLSAS_2024_Abstract_Book.pdf)\n15. [Animations hit Japan’s top-grossing movie in 2013](https://www.malaymail.com/news/showbiz/2014/01/29/animations-hit-japans-top-grossing-movie-in-2013/608631)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 2010 to 2014 › Psychological and social drama films*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/like-father-like-son", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/like-father-like-son.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Like Father, Like Son (そして父になる)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/like-father-like-son. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Like Father, Like Son (そして父になる)](https://www.edgepedia.org/like-father-like-son)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/like-father-like-son](https://www.edgepedia.org/like-father-like-son). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Like Father, Like Son (そして父になる)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/like-father-like-son. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Like Father, Like Son is Hirokazu Kore-eda's 2013 Japanese drama about two couples whose sons were switched at birth, starring Masaharu Fukuyama; it won the 2013 Cannes Jury Prize and topped Japan's box office that year." }