Set in Japan, this switched-at-birth drama is set in motion when a wealthy architect and his wife discover the biological parents of the child they have raised for six years are a working-class repairman and his wife. In turn, the other couple have also raised the quote-unquote wrong child for more than half a decade. Both sets of parents face a brutal question: do they continue to raise the children they know or switch? The storyline may sound a tad trite on the surface, but the film is rather gorgeous, from the understated elegance of the performances and the photography to the wise sensitivity with which it explores its themes of parental angst and social division. In this respect, it recalls Kramer vs. Kramer. There are moments of enormous, downright sumptuous melancholy laced here and there throughout, and one or two honestly brought a well-earned tear to my eye. The film is directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, whose earlier picture Still Walking earned glowing notices around the globe, not to mention a spot in the prestigious Criterion Collection.

A-

A, great drama.