Kore-eda Hirokazu returns to Japan for his latest film “Monster,” which poses this question to audiences: “Who really is the monster?” While location scouting, the filmmaker was looking down at a lake, dark and almost black, and “I thought of Sakamoto Ryuichi music. He was the only person who could do the music for this film.”
It would mark the first time in years that the legendary composer behind “The Last Emperor” and “The Revenant” had worked on a Japanese title
The film opens with Minato, played by Kurokawa Soya, an 11-year-old fifth grader who watches a burning building from afar. Kore-eda returns to this sequence three times, each from a different perspective. Is young Minato the monster? Or is it Mr. Hori (Nahayama Eita), the schoolteacher, or Minato’s mother, Saori (Ando Sakura)? The plot twists and turns in each retelling, as it’s revealed Minato has feelings for...
It would mark the first time in years that the legendary composer behind “The Last Emperor” and “The Revenant” had worked on a Japanese title
The film opens with Minato, played by Kurokawa Soya, an 11-year-old fifth grader who watches a burning building from afar. Kore-eda returns to this sequence three times, each from a different perspective. Is young Minato the monster? Or is it Mr. Hori (Nahayama Eita), the schoolteacher, or Minato’s mother, Saori (Ando Sakura)? The plot twists and turns in each retelling, as it’s revealed Minato has feelings for...
- 9/11/2023
- by Jazz Tangcay
- Variety Film + TV
Hirokazu Kore-Eda is back in Cannes Competition after winning the Palme d’Or for Shoplifters in 2018 and last year presenting Korean-language Broker, which won best actor for Song Kang-ho. His new title, Monster, reteams him with Shoplifters actress Sakura Ando and is the last film to be scored by Oscar-winning composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, who died in March at 71 following a battle with cancer.
Scripted by Yuji Sakamoto (We Made a Beautiful Bouquet), Monster revolves around a single mother (Ando) who suspects there is something wrong at her son’s school when he starts behaving strangely. She storms into the school and accuses a teacher of bullying her son, only to have the teacher claim the boy is bullying another pupil, an eccentric child who appears to be having problems at home.
The cast also includes Eita Nagayama (Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai) as the teacher and veteran actress Yuko Tanaka...
Scripted by Yuji Sakamoto (We Made a Beautiful Bouquet), Monster revolves around a single mother (Ando) who suspects there is something wrong at her son’s school when he starts behaving strangely. She storms into the school and accuses a teacher of bullying her son, only to have the teacher claim the boy is bullying another pupil, an eccentric child who appears to be having problems at home.
The cast also includes Eita Nagayama (Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai) as the teacher and veteran actress Yuko Tanaka...
- 5/17/2023
- by Liz Shackleton
- Deadline Film + TV
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