A two-time winner at Cannes, the Jury Prize at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival for “Like Father, Like Son,” and winning the coveted Palme d’Or prize at the 2018 festival for “Shoplifters,” Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda is one of the most beloved and acclaimed international filmmakers we have. He’s been working extremely fast of late, a film a year since 2016, only interrupted in 2020 by the global pandemic. And he’s already back with his 16th feature-length film, “Monster,” which won the Queer Palm as well as the Best Screenplay award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
Starring Sakura Andō, Eita Nagayama, Soya Kurokawa, Hinata Hiiragi, and Yūko Tanaka, “Monster” centers on a mother who demands answers from the teacher and school when her son begins acting strangely.
The film marks the first time Kore-eda has directed a film he did not write himself since “Maborosi” (1995), which has given it a different feel.
Working with a different screenplay not written by himself… the film takes a slight departure from his recent streak of dramas centering on the importance of connection and families in its disparate configurations,” our review from Cannes wrote. “Where those stories have erred on earnest — perhaps even too saccharine if you’re one of his detractors — “Monster” plays, at first, like a darker but simple mystery, only to transform into something all the more compelling.”
Here’s the official synopsis:
After a mother (Ando Sakura) discovers that a teacher’s bullying is behind her young son’s sudden strange behavior, she storms into his school demanding an explanation. Continually left without satisfactory answers—and with an increasingly distressed child—she furiously escalates her concerns to the school board and the media. But as the story unfolds through the multilayered perspectives of mother, teacher, and child, the real truth gradually emerges—and proves much more complex than anyone could have expected.
“Monster” is in select theaters in North America now via Well-Go Entertainment, and we’ve got an exclusive clip that should hopefully whet your appetite for all the layers and mysteries that unfold in the drama. Watch the clip below.
