The story was sensitively handled, and gave quite an insight into the moral dilemmas facing people suddenly confronted with the reality that the child they have nurtured was not their own. On the one hand not wanting to lose the child they’ve raised, on the other (given the differing values/privileges between the two families) the feeling that their own flesh and blood was not being raised properly. In the recent case of the American couple who found their baby had been swapped, the mother expressed a willingness to raise both children, it is easy to sympathise (whilst not necessarily agreeing) with Ryota considering a similar resolution.

I have to agree with the feedback comment that the film was somewhat marred by the “Hollywood Ending” – would Keita really have been so quick to forgive the father who had given him away. The emotional scars would take far longer than 1 year to heal.