A father (Masaharu Fukuyama) must reevaluate his relationship with his son (Keita Ninomiya) in latest Hirokazu Kore-eda masterpiece
LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON (SOSHITE CHICHI NI NARU) (Hirokazu Kore-eda, 2013)
IFC Center, 323 Sixth Ave. at West Third St., 212-924-7771
Lincoln Plaza Cinema, 1886 Broadway at 63rd St., 212-757-2280
Opens Friday, January 17
www.ifcfilms.com
International cinema’s modern master of the family drama turns out another stunner in the Cannes Jury Prize winner Like Father, Like Son. Ryota Nonomiya (Masaharu Fukuyama) thinks he has the perfect life: a beautiful wife, Midori (Machiko Ono), a successful job as an architect, and a splendid six-year-old son, Keita (Keita Ninomiya). But his well-structured world is turned upside down when the hospital where Keita was born suddenly tells them that Keita is not their biological son, that a mistake was made and a pair of babies were accidentally switched at birth. When Ryota and Midori meet Yudai (Lily Franky) and Yukari Saiki (Maki Yoko), whose infant was switched with theirs, Ryota is horrified to see that the Saikis are a lower-middle-class family who cannot give their children — they have three kids, including Ryusei (Shôgen Hwang), the Nonomiyas’ biological son — the same advantages that Ryota and Midori can. Meanwhile, the two mothers wonder why they were unable to realize that the sons they’ve been raising are not really their own. As the two families get to know each other and prepare to switch boys, Ryota struggles to reevaluate what kind of a father he is, as well as what kind of father he can be.
LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON explores the power of blood connections and the concept of nature vs. nurture
Kore-eda, who previously investigated the lives of children and families in such beautiful, terrifically insightful films as Still Walking, Nobody Knows, and I Wish, wrote, directed, and edited Like Father, Like Son, imbuing the complex story with an Ozu-like austerity, examining a heartbreaking, seemingly no-win situation — one of every parent’s most-feared nightmares — with intelligence and grace. Musician and actor Fukuyama gives a powerfully understated performance as Ryota, a work-obsessed architect struggling to keep everything he has built from crumbling all around him. Novelist and actor Franky is excellent as his polar opposite, a man with a very different kind of verve for life. In Like Father, Like Son, Kore-eda, whose own father passed away ten years ago and who has a five-year-old daughter, once again explores the relationship between parents and children, this time focusing on the strong bonds created by both love and blood.
In 2009, thirteen-year-old Laura Dekker announced that she was going to try to become the youngest person to sail around the world solo. After a long battle with the Dutch court, the teen, who was born on a boat in New Zealand and spent her first five years at sea, took off on her journey in her thirty-eight-foot ketch appropriately dubbed Guppy. Laura’s inspiring — and controversial — story is told in the winning documentary Maidentrip. Jillian Schlesinger’s debut feature-length film follows Laura as she circumnavigates the globe by herself, sailing across long stretches of sometimes treacherous ocean and making stops to experience a variety of lands and cultures. The bulk of Maidentrip is told in Laura’s own voice, as she films herself on board Guppy and talks not only about her adventure but also about her personal life, including discussing the effects of her parents’ divorce on her and her sister when she was five. “I love being alone,” Laura says at one point. “And I guess, yeah, I feel like freedom is when you’re not attached to anything.” As serious as she is about sailing, she is still a teenager, dancing in front of the camera playfully and throwing a little hissy fit when a visitor annoys her. It all makes for an intimate coming-of-age story as Laura, who values her privacy, grows up in public. Should her parents, particularly her father, who she chose to live with, have allowed the teen to go on this trip in the first place? Is it the court’s responsibility to intercede in such situations? Schlesinger gets the controversy out of the way early, never again revisiting what many people will consider a wrongheaded and dangerous decision, but they’re likely to change their mind once they watch Laura persevere and flourish at sea. Winner of the Audience Award at the Cannes Film Festival and SXSW, Maidentrip opens January 17 at the IFC Center, with Schlesinger and producer Emily McAllister on hand to talk about the film at the 6:25 and 8:25 screenings on Friday and Saturday night.
After their father (Park Sung-woong) is declared a traitor to North Korea and killed, Lee Myung-hoon (Choi Seung-hyun) and his younger sister, Lee Hye-in (Kim Yoo-jung), are placed in a forced labor camp. When Myung-hoon is nineteen, North Korean agent Moon Sang-chul (Jo Sung-ha) offers him a way out: if he agrees to be a spy/assassin for Kim Jong-Il’s regime, he and his sister will eventually be freed. Accepting the mission, Myung-hoon goes to Seoul, where he attends high school as a cover and makes friends with a loner girl (Han Ye-ri) with the same name as his sister. This Hye-in wants to be a dancer, which brings up memories of Myung-hoon’s childhood dreams of becoming a successful pianist — a long way from being an expert killer, as he carries out his jobs with pinpoint precision. But as Kim Jong-il suddenly falls ill and his son, Kim Jong-un, prepares to take over as supreme leader, all bets are off and it gets harder and harder to know who’s on which side. One day Myung-hoon is messing with a group of tough students who are bullying Hye-in, and the next he is in the middle of a complex plot involving drugs, laundered money, diamonds, and double crosses. Also known as Alumni, Park Hong-soo’s Commitment is an exciting if bumpy thriller about family, loyalty, and friendship. Choi, who is better known as K-pop star T.O.P. of Big Bang, is dark and moody as the teenage assassin who will do anything to protect his sister, while Kim’s character goes through a sudden, hard-to-believe change about halfway through the film. Things get far too convoluted in the final scenes, the plot heading off in all kinds of ridiculous directions, but Choi manages to make it all worthwhile. Commitment, which is playing in several New York City theaters right now, can be seen for free on January 14 at 7:00 at Tribeca Cinemas, kicking off the Korean Movie Night series “Wild Days: Coming of Age in 2014.” Presented by the Korean Cultural Service, the series continues on January 28 with Kwak Kyung-taek’s Friend: The Great Legacy and February 11 with Won Shin-eon’s The Suspect before concluding February 25 with Kang Yi-kwan’s Juvenile Offender.