For the second installment of Japan House London’s film season focussing on the work of acclaimed Japanese director Koreeda Hirokazu, we are delighted to present two free screenings of Like Father, Like Son, nominated for the Palm d’Or and winner of the Jury Prize at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.

Inspired by real-life instances in the late 1960s of Japanese babies being switched at birth, Koreeda masterfully revisits to the subject of parents and children with a piercing narrative about the bonds at the core of what can be considered family.

Successful and workaholic architect Ryōta (Fukuyama Masaharu) learns that his biological son was switched with another boy after birth in a hospital mix-up and given to a less wealthy, seemingly warmer couple with other children. He and his wife Midori (Ono Machiko) must face the life-changing decision of choosing between ‘nature’ and ‘nurture’: will they choose their biological son or the boy they have raised as their own for six years?

Koreeda's talent for directing young performers is once again impeccable: without relying on a script, he encourages the children to act naturally with their own emotions, incorporating their language in instinctive, raw performances.

Despite the cliched tropes of class differences and familial responsibility, Koreeda refuses to reduce his characters to mere stereotypes and depicts their flaws, strengths and approaches to parenting in a range of shades of grey, delivering an emotional and in-depth answer to the questions of at what point a father truly becomes a father.

Guests who are booked to attend the screening can also enjoy 10% off drinks at The Stand on their way in