He leaves most of the caring to Midori, who at first comes across as a dutiful homemaker. Ryota, not a bad man, indulges his son, but he doesn’t set aside much time for him. In Kore-Eda’s view, the Nonomiyas’ wealth makes them, or at least Ryota, who is a successful workaholic architect, less warm and fuzzy than the Saikis, who take splashy family baths together and go kite flying. It is also – and this is the film’s central weakness – a class-based fable.

Baldly put, it’s a movie about nature versus nurture. The evolving decision about what to do cuts to the heart of what it means to be a parent – specifically a father, since much of the movie focuses on Ryota’s transformation from distant dad to caring father. At first there are get-togethers in malls and in each other’s homes then the boys, innocent of the mix-up, are swapped on weekends in preparation for the switch. Talk of accountability and lawsuits (mostly from Yudai) shade into deeper discussions about what exactly should be done. When the rural hospital where the boys were born contacts the parents to inform them of the mistake, both parties are poleaxed by the news. Yudai and Yukari Saiki (played by Lily Franky and Yoko Maki), by contrast, live in a small apartment above the family’s appliance shop with their three children, including 6-year-old Ryusei. Ryota and Midori Nonomiya (played by Masaharu Fukuyama and Machiko Ono) live in an expensive, modern Tokyo high-rise with their only child, Keita.

In lesser hands we’d be watching a soap opera. “Like Father, Like Son,” the new movie from the Japanese writer-director Hirokazu Kore-Eda, is about two couples who discover that their 6-year-old sons were switched at birth.

The movie like father like son