I’ll refer you to Dustin’s Cannes review of Like Father, Like Son where he sat amongst a ‘teary eyed’ audience and witnessed this huge festival success from 2013, and now in 2014 it’s allowed its big screen moment. I unfortunately missed its UK release back in October 2013, however from the reactions of festival-goers from around the world, it’s a story that has been seen as universally relatable regardless of its very traditional Japanese core.

Although Like Father, Like Son looks to play around with many different issues and hardships, it’s focus looks to be the choice to choose bloodlines or the primal importance of bonding with a child. Like Father, Like Son comes to US screens on 17th January.

Watch trailer for Like Father, Like Son

Going back to TIFF my day was filled with catching up yet again. While everyone was abuzz for Gravity (review coming soon!) and The Double, I was out viewing some leftovers from Cannes earlier this year yet again.

Only Lovers Left Alive

I have to respectfully disagree with my great overlord and editor Dustin on some of his Cannes reviews. Earlier this year, he caught Only Lovers Left Alive and disliked it. While it’s easy to understand why Only Lovers isn’t beloved (it is Jarmusch after all), I was in love with what he was doing here for the most part. Vampires Adam and Eve (Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton) have been together for centuries, but are currently on opposite sides of the world. Adam, a former rockstar, mopes around in his dilapidated Detroit mansion hiding from the public, and Eve spends her time in Tangier with Christopher Marlowe (John Hurt, and yes he is playing that Christopher Marlowe).

Adam’s disdain of humans, or “zombies” as he calls them, begins driving him to the point of suicide, which makes Eve travel by night to meet up with him again. The first hour focuses almost entirely on Adam and Eve lounging around as they listen to old music and discuss the brilliant artists throughout their lives. Jarmusch’s portrayal of immortality as one obsessed with nostalgia and consuming art feels realistic, and I couldn’t help but live vicariously through Adam and Eve. With time removed as a factor in people’s lives, who wouldn’t spend all of their nights absorbing as much as they can about different cultures? Watching Jarmusch, Swinton and Hiddleston go around geeking out over so many things, from antique instruments to awesome soul singles, is a joy to watch.

It’s also nice to see that, after the sombre but gorgeous The Limits of Control, Jarmusch is more playful again. Swinton and Hiddleston deadpan plenty of killer lines, and the addition of Mia Wasikowska as Eve’s problematic sister Ava brings a lot of laughs. The final part of the film, which shifts the narrative back to Tangier, doesn’t work entirely since it puts too much weight on a film that works because of its flighty nature. It’s only a small issue in a truly enjoyable film, and one of Jarmusch’s most entertaining in a while. I recommend sitting back, letting the amazing soundtrack work its magic and wonder about how great it could be to live like the two main characters.

RATING: 7.8

Like Father Like Son

Next up is yet another big disagreement between Dustin and myself. Steven Spielberg and the Cannes jury gave Like Father, Like Son the Jury Prize this year, and despite the endless raves for it (including one from our own site) I personally did not care for it.

Ryota (Fukuyama Masaharu) is a rich architect who, as the saying goes, seemingly has it all. He has a supportive wife, Midori (Ono Machiko), and they have a 6 year old son named Keita. Ryota is hard-working and strict on Keita, who is struggling to get admitted into a prestigious primary school. Everything changes when they get a phone call from the hospital telling them something terrible; their son was switched with another couple’s baby. The DNA tests confirm the mistake, throwing Ryota and Midori into a major crisis. Do they keep Keita, raising him as they already have been for the past 6 years, or switch him with their real son?

Conceptually it’s a fascinating and tough moral debate on nature versus nurture, but Kore-Eda doesn’t explore this issue much. It’s very obvious from the beginning that he sides with love over blood, and for the next 2 hours he simply hammers this point home repeatedly. Some interesting dynamics are introduced into the story, like the class difference between the two families (Keita’s ‘true’ parents are working class but more affectionate towards their children), but the bulk of the film is simply waiting for its characters to reach the same conclusion Kore-Eda has made.

With the film’s central question and debate answered for, there really is no work for the audience left to do. That resulted in me being bored out of my mind for much of Like Father, Like Son. Ryota’s arc would be a fascinating one to watch if it wasn’t so predictable, and the way he’s painted as a villain at times is frustrating. Especially after watching The Past, where the subtleties of the film’s dramatic content are explored in such a thought-provoking way, Like Father, Like Son‘s simplistic handling of such a morally complex situation just looks lazy.

RATING: 5.8

The Strange Colour of Your Body’s Tears

As I said in my last TIFF update, I was trying to get into The Double. As you can tell by the title, I sadly did not get into the film. I decided to run across town and catch The Strange Colour of Your Body’s Tears, the newest film from Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani. Cattet/Forzani directed Amer, which I was a big fan of. Theoretically Strange Colour should work just the same, as it uses the overload of style and Giallo influences that made their last film such a treat to watch. That theory proves to be correct for the first 30 or so minutes, as the simple story of a man looking for his missing wife in their labyrinthine apartment building has every stylistic trick in the book thrown at it, but eventually the charm wears off.

It wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t for the fact that the film’s ear-piercingly loud soundtrack and attempt at a narrative are so grating that by the hour mark I was ready for the credits. Instead I had another 40 or so minutes to go, and by the finale I found a lot of Strange Colour to be insufferable. The style is still magnificent when it works, and some of the random segments (including a cop’s explanation of how he got a scar on his neck and a woman being haunted by a murderer in her walls) are plenty of fun on their own. It’s just too bad that, as a whole, The Strange Colour of Your Body’s Tears is torturous.

RATING: 4.5

Next up:

It’s horror day at TIFF! I start off with Eli Roth and Ti West’s new films, then cap it all off with a midnight screening of Oculus.

Hirokazu Koreeda’s Like Father, Like Son turned a lot of heads in theater at the Cannes Film Festival today, where it played in front of a teary eyed audience. On front display is the depiction of how strong parental bonds can be and how the right thing to do is often the most difficult thing to do. Although the film displays very traditional Japanese family values, the themes found within can be related to universally.

Ryota (Fukuyama Masaharu) is a hardworking and well-paid architect who places a lot of emphasis on discipline and manners towards raising his adorable six-year-old son named Keita. Along with his wife Midori (Ono Machiko), the family lives in an affluent apartment which spins at a very slow rate to give a full 360-degree aerial view that overlooks the city. Even though Ryota is so busy at work that he barely has free time to spend with his family, he still comes home at the end of the day to a loving wife and a son who is incredibly well-mannered and happy to see him. There is no question that the young son wants to be just like his father when he grows up. But very quickly into the film a major event occurs out of the blue that completely disrupts the family.

While registering Keita for school, the hospital blood test reveals that Keita is not actually at all related to his parents. It seems hard to believe that a hospital could give someone the wrong child, but it has actually happened several times in real life. As you can imagine, this is absolutely devastating news to both Ryota and Midori who have spent six years carefully raising a child turns out to not actually be their own.

Things begin to get even more interesting when Ryota and Midori meet with the two parents that the hospital switched the babies with. Both couples bring in the photos they have taken over the years of the other family’s son, they are overwhelmed when they finally get a glimpse of their actual son, now six years after birth. Soon they must determine whether or not switching sons at this point in their life is actually a wise decision. Not helping the situation is the fact that the other parents seem more interested in the money they intend to receive from the hospital’s mistake than the more important issue at hand.

On top of all that, Ryota gets increasingly frustrated with his actual son after they spend time together because the parents do not value discipline as much as he does. Unlike the “son” he raised, his natural son has no interest in learning the piano nor even knows how to properly hold chop sticks. Because of this, Ryota ultimately questions the parenting techniques of the other family which adds yet another variable to the equation.

Like Father, Like Son gracefully touches on social class issues, nature versus nurture, and the “right” way to raise a child. While the main focus of the film is the decision to choose bloodlines or the six important years of parenting and bonding with a child, Like Father, Like Son continuously develops its story. The film shows its cards almost right away but it remains intriguing long after you think it has played its hand. As a whole, the film is an excellent display of storytelling as it takes a rather basic premise and turns it into the emotionally complex film that it is.