LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON (SOSHITE CHICHI NI NARU) World Cinema

Hirokazu Kore-eda won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival this year for his touching drama, LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON, the story of two families who learn that their six-year-old sons were switched at birth. One of the fathers is an affluent architect who exacts strict academic and cultural discipline on his son, while the other father is a repairman of small appliances; he is poor, but unlike the architect, he actually spends time with his son and family. There is a sharp class divide that separates the approach that each family has taken toward nurturing their sons, but now both fathers find themselves equally desperate to gain the trust of their biological sons, and prove their capacity for unconditional love. The strong performances of the two young boys are the heart and soul of this story, of two sons and two fathers whose lives will forever be intertwined.