Like Father, Like Son” tells the story of a child swap. A remarried nurse maliciously switched the child that was only born to the Nuno and Tatsuki families, causing both families to face a difficult choice in their lives six years later. I’ve seen similar movies that generally only shoot children swapping or not ending up swapping. This movie, however, goes against the norm and focuses on the story of what happens after the child is replaced. The ending is the same as in director Yuwa Hari’s films, with a bland happy ending.
After watching the movie, I was brought into three doubts by the director. Doubt of upbringing and bloodline Does bloodline matter or not? This is a question that most families don’t have to face, but for the two families, Nuno and Saiki, whose children have been switched, they must face it.
On the one hand, it is their own flesh and blood, and on the other hand, it is the child who has been raised as their own son for six years. Whether to choose blood or feelings is indeed a very difficult thing. In the film, different people give different advice to Nuno, but the final decision still needs to be made by him.
As the hospital said, 100% of the families chose to switch back to their own flesh and blood. In the film, Noynoy made the same choice after hard thinking and risky behavior, and eventually got his son back after six years of being held wrong.
After watching the movie, it triggered me to think: does blood really matter? Blood does matter, if there is such a relationship, but never lived together, between us there will be as father as son feelings? I don’t think there should be such a feeling. On the contrary, for a child who is not related to you by blood but has been carefully cared for, that feeling is completed to be able to transcend the love of blood.
This also fully explains why a host forced his adopted daughter to identify her biological parents after the incident, the daughter who was sent out and the public will have such a big reaction. It also fully illustrates that the gift of upbringing is greater than the gift of birth. The film, however, does not stop at exploring this conventional point of view of similar films. The influence of the environment on a child’s development is also the focus of this film.
Doubts about growing up and the environment. The Noyo family lives in very privileged conditions, with a family of three living in a hotel-like house, driving a fancy car, and their children going to an expensive private school through an exam …… while the Saiki family’s living conditions are very ordinary by comparison, with a family of six crammed into a small space, running an old electrical store, and Saiki’s wife even having to work outside the home ( In Japan, women usually only bring up children), the living conditions of the two families, the children’s upbringing of the advantages and disadvantages are clear.
In a conventional sense, the Noynoy family must have been able to provide a better material base and growing conditions for their children.
The Noynoy family had been in such a privileged position, looking down on the Tatsuki family, and had thought of taking both children from them and raising them, and at one point even raised the idea directly when the two families approached each other. Naturally, such an abrupt request was strongly opposed by the Saiki family and ended with an apology from Nuno. In fact, such an incident happened in my hometown, where two children were abducted to Shandong Province, but after they were finally identified, the parents “returned” them to the adoptive parents who bought them for the sake of the children.
But will this result in a happy life for the children? The answer is different from that given by Yuwa Yone, who uses his camera to show the happiness of the Saiki family and the dullness of the Nono family. Then, in the constant contact between the two families and the constant change of Nuno after the change of children, he leaves the family environment behind and chooses the Tatsuki family to spend more time with the children, “camping” and flying kites with them, seeking the fun of belonging to the family. The choice of the branch is clear. The stills of “Like Father, Like Son”, the male lead is handsome, right?
The doubts of growing up as a man Every man is a child who never grows up. Saiki’s wife told everyone in the film that she was raising five children at home: three children plus Saiki and Saiki’s father. Men in her eyes are children who never grow up.
In a typical patriarchal society like Japan, men are the breadwinners of the family and occupy a very high position in the family. But men are always as capricious and playful as a child. As a child it was playing with blocks, small trains, electric ……, while as an adult it was playing with work.
Nuno is a representative of this type of man, seemingly in charge of the family, trying to make a fatherly appearance on the outside, but inside he is still an overgrown child, obsessed with his career as a toy, forgetting the responsibility he should take up. Such pretentiousness and pursuit of superficial order not only fails to make the family, especially the children, happy, but also makes himself unhappy. Eventually, under the dual pressure of job transfer and the return of his biological child, he forces Nuno to return to his family and take up his responsibilities as a father.
In contrast, Saiki has always been a man who puts down his body, removes his pretense, and plays with his children camping and flying kites together. Although he does not seem to be how to manage the family and shoulder the responsibilities of the family, he makes the whole family enjoyable and himself. In my opinion, the family lived a happier life than the Nono family, despite their poor material possessions.
Both family responsibilities and the responsibility of raising children are issues that every man must face. Instead of jumping into the career and giving yourself countless excuses, you should face it seriously and reap more joy and happiness that is different from the career. I think this is the answer that the director left us on this doubt.
