Monster
Theatrical release poster
Kanji	怪物
Revised Hepburn	Kaibutsu
Directed by	Hirokazu Kore-eda
Written by	Yuji Sakamoto
Starring	Sakura Andō Eita Nagayama Soya Kurokawa Hinata Hiiragi Yūko Tanaka
Cinematography	Ryuto Kondo[1]
Edited by	Hirokazu Kore-eda
Music by	Ryuichi Sakamoto
Production companies	Gaga Toho Fuji Television Network AOI Pro Bun-Buku
Distributed by	Gaga Toho
Release dates	17 May 2023 (2023-05-17) (Cannes) 2 June 2023 (2023-06-02) (Japan)
Running time	125 minutes[2]
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese
Box office	US$19.8 million[3]

Monster (Japanese: 怪物, romanized: Kaibutsu) is a 2023 Japanese drama film directed and edited by Hirokazu Kore-eda from a screenplay written by Yuji Sakamoto.^[4] It stars Sakura Andō as a mother who confronts a teacher after noticing disturbing changes in her son's behavior.^[5] The film marks the first time Kore-eda has directed a film he did not write himself since Maborosi (1995). The film was the last scoring project by Ryuichi Sakamoto, who died two months before its release; the film is dedicated to his memory.^[6]

Monster had its world premiere at the 76th Cannes Film Festival on 17 May 2023, where it competed for the Palme d'Or and was honored with the Queer Palm as well as the Best Screenplay award. The film was released in Japan on 2 June 2023.

Plot

Saori Mugino is a single mother raising her fifth grade son, Minato. He soon begins exhibiting strange behavior such as cutting his own hair and coming home with only one shoe. One night, Minato does not come home at all and after calling around, Saori finds him in an abandoned train tunnel. Saori begins to suspect her son's teacher, Mr. Hori, is abusing her son and confronts the school about it. She is treated coldly by the faculty, culminating in Mr. Hori making a disingenuous apology. When she confronts Hori directly, he implies that Minato is actually bullying another student named Yori. Saori visits Yori's house and he, despite his own strange behavior, seems fond of and concerned for Minato. Hori is eventually fired from the school, but returns days later and Minato falls down a flight of stairs trying to escape from him. Hori later comes to Saori and Minato's house during a rain storm, and Saori finds that Minato has gone missing.

A flashback returns to the beginning of the film from Hori's point of view. He notices Minato exhibiting disruptive behavior, such as throwing other students' belongings around the classroom and seemingly locking Yori in a bathroom stall. Hori too visits to Yori's house, where he discovers that his father, Kiyotaka, is a delusional alcoholic. When Saori begins inquiring about her son, the faculty pressure Hori to let them handle it to protect the reputation of the school, ultimately requiring him to resign. After he is hounded by journalists and left by his girlfriend, Hori returns to the school to confront Minato, and contemplates jumping from the roof of the school after the boy is injured. During the rainstorm, Hori notices a typo in some of Yori's old homework that seems to spell out Minato's name. Realizing the two boys were actually friends, Hori rushes to the Mugino household to apologize. When Saori tells him Minato is missing, they go to the train tunnel to find him. They find an abandoned railcar nearly buried in mud, but when they open it they only find Minato's abandoned poncho.

A final flashback begins from Minato's point of view. Yori is routinely picked on by the other boys for his asocial and seemingly effete behavior. Yori plays with Minato's hair, which the latter impulsively cuts off. The two boys grow close and Minato begins defending him from other bullies, which Hori confuses for bullying. As the two become closer, Minato is distressed that his feelings are becoming romantic and that he is not a worthy son to his father. One night when he goes to Yori's house, he and Kiyotaka declare that Yori has been "cured," though Yori quickly recants which incites his father's wrath. During the rainstorm, Minato finds Yori abandoned fully clothed in his bathtub and the two escape to the abandoned railcar, which has become their hideout. After the rain subsides, they emerge from the bottom of the railcar and declare that they have been reborn, and run through a field together.

Cast

• Sakura Andō as Saori Mugino, a single mother
• Eita Nagayama as Michitoshi Hori, Minato and Yori's homeroom teacher
• Sōya Kurokawa as Minato Mugino, Saori's son
• Hinata Hiiragi as Yori Hoshikawa, Minato's classmate
• Mitsuki Takahata as Hirona Suzumura, Hori's lover
• Akihiro Tsunoda as Humiaki Shoda, the vice-principal of the elementary school that Minato and Yori attend
• Shidō Nakamura as Kiyotaka Hoshikawa, Yori's father and a single father
• Yūko Tanaka as Makiko Fushimi, elementary school principal

Production

Development

Hirokazu Kore-eda (2015)

For Hirokazu Kore-eda, Monster is the first Japanese-language film he has directed since the international success of Shoplifters (2018), which won the Palme d'Or at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards. In between, he shot two feature films: the English- and French-language The Truth (2019) and the Korean-language Broker (2022). Initial information about the project became known in November 2022 after filming had concluded. At this point, Monster was in post-production. For the first time since his feature film debut Maboroshi (1995), Kore-eda was not responsible for the screenplay. The script was written by the successful Japanese television writer Yuji Sakamoto. Kore-eda described Sakamoto as the one writer he had always wanted to collaborate with but that he gave up thinking it would happen. Kore-eda said that he felt a sense of closeness with Sakamoto for their shared interest in the same motifs. He described feeling "both envy and in awe of his ability to develop a subject in such a tremendously interesting way." Sakamoto described Kore-eda as the "world's best screenwriter" and recalled looking up to him when the two filmmakers attended the same school and occasionally rubbed shoulders.^[7]

Sakura Andō, Eita Nagayama and Yūko Tanaka were cast in the lead roles along with the two child actors Soya Kurokawa and Hinata Hiiragi.^[8] The director had previously worked with Andō on Shoplifters. The two child actors were selected after repeated auditions. Kore-eda praised them for their shared on-camera chemistry, which contrasted the apparent differences in their facial appearances and personalities.^[9]

The prolific filmmaker and best-selling author Genki Kawamura served as the film's lead producer.^[10] Kawamura previously worked with Kore-eda in producing his Netflix series The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House (2023). Kenji Yamada served alongside Kawamura as a producer. The production was financially supported by the companies Toho, Gaga Corporation, Fuji Television Network, AOI Pro and Kore-eda's company Bun-Buku.^[11]

Release

A teaser trailer was published in early January 2023.^[19] A promo was shown in February 2023 at Berlinale's European Film Market.^[11] Monster was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival,^[20] where it had its world premiere on 17 May 2023.^[21] It was also invited at the 28th Busan International Film Festival in 'Gala Presentation' section and was screened on 7 October 2023.^[22]

In Japan, the film was released on 2 June 2023, co-distributed by Gaga Corporation and Toho.^[23] Gaga has the distribution rights for the rest of Asia. Goodfellas will handle international sales excluding Asia.^[24] Nathan Studios will distribute Monster in the Philippines.^[25][26]

Reception

References

External links

• Official website (in Japanese)
• Monster at IMDb