Monster
Moral tale from Hirokazu Kore-eda (Shoplifters, Broker) in which a boy’s strange behaviour at school is viewed from three different perspectives. Slowly, the cause of the boy’s behaviour is revealed.
After a detour in France (LA VÉRITÉ, 2019) and South Korea (BROKER, 2022), Hirokazu Kore-eda returns to his homeland.
Quiet and reserved Minato – no longer a kid, but not yet an adolescent – lost his father when he was a young child and lives with his mother. When he starts behaving strangely, obsessed with the idea his brain has been switched with a pig’s, the mother suspects his teacher Hori and calls a meeting with the school principal only to face a wall of silence and stiff apologies. Someone must have put that idea in Minato’s head, but something doesn’t add up. Is Minato telling the truth, or is his professor innocent? Looking at the story from various points of view, in a RASHOMON-inspired structure, reality changes and the actual subject becomes the hidden friendship between Minato and one of his schoolmates, often bullied by other kids.
A great storyteller of family dynamics, Kore-eda shows once again his unique ability to depict the inner world of children, unveiling uncomfortable realities with a natural and necessary tenderness. MONSTER is marked by two major collaborations: one with co-screenwriter Sakamoto Yûji; and the other with the legendary musician Ryuichi Sakamoto, who died last March. The film won the Best Screenplay Award at the Cannes Film Festival.