Like Father, Like Son

Like Father, Like Son (そして父になる, 2013) is Hirokazu Koreeda's quiet Japanese drama, and you can watch online on iFILM. Ryota is a successful Tokyo architect with a tidy life: a designer apartment, a gentle wife, a polite six-year-old son. Then the hospital calls.

The boys were swapped at birth. The child Ryota spent six years grooming into an heir isn't his, and his real son has been raised by a scruffy small-town electrician with a houseful of kids. The two families start trading weekend visits, weighing whether to undo six years of love. Ryota, a man who solves everything with money and willpower, has no idea how to be a father. Masaharu Fukuyama plays him with chilly precision; Lily Franky, as the warm, messy dad on the other side, is everything he is not.

The film took the Jury Prize at Cannes in 2013, and Steven Spielberg snapped up the remake rights. Koreeda never reaches for tears. He just watches faces, lets silences run long, and trusts small gestures to carry the weight. Ideal for anyone who loves slow, honest cinema about parenthood and what blood does and doesn't mean. Stream Like Father, Like Son (2013) online on iFILM.