A One Mann’s Movies review of “Monster” (2023) (from the London Film Festival).
Re-publishing this review, since “Monster” will be in cinemas from this coming Friday, March 15th, and also showing as a Cineworld preview screening tomorrow.
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We head for Japan here, with “Monster”, the latest film by Hirokazu Koreeda, director of “Shoplifters” and “Broker”. It’s taut and twisty tale that requires your extreme concentration.
Once again, I saw this at the Film Critic screenings prior to the opening of the London Film Festival.
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
Plot Summary:
Minato is in the 5th grade (10 to 11 years old) in a school in the Japanese city of Kagoshima. His single-mum Saori (Sakura Ando) suspects bullying and suspicion falls on his ‘home-class’ teacher Mr Hori (Eita Nagayama). Saori angrily confronts the school’s principal (Yûko Tanaka) but faces a wall of obfuscation. But all is not as it at first seems as Japanese systems of honour and ‘face’ get in the way of the truth.
Certification:
UK: 12; US: PG-13. (From the BBFC web site: “Discrimination, domestic abuse, suicide references, sex references”).
Talent:
Starring: Sakura Ando, Eita Nagayama, Soya Kurokawa, Hinata Hiiragi, Yûko Tanaka.
Directed by: Hirokazu Koreeda.
Written by: Yûji Sakamoto.
Twitter Handle: -.
Saori (Sakura Ando) and Hori (Eita Nagayama) weathering the typhoon together. (Source: Gaga, from trailer).
“Monster” Review:
Positives:
- The movie presents multiple different strands of the story from the different perspectives of the participants. Koreeda cleverly nuances the performances between the different strands. For example, My Hori appears to be a complete arse from the Saori’s perspective, but when you see his perspective you feel nothing but sympathy for him.
- This is a dense film with a wonderful depth of complexity to the story. “Who is the monster?” chant the children. Who indeed? Concentration pays off as the scales fall from your eyes and you appreciate what’s going on. On top of that, there are completely fresh storylines that emerge including a truly touching love story.
- I had a few issues with the start of the final reel (as below). But I have to admit that the ending is simply wonderful. Mysterious and mystical, you will be talking about it with your friends afterwards and may have different interpretations of what happened.
- There are some neat twists in the story that delight (including a bit of a tribute to “Lady Bird” at one point) and some scenes that tease your expectations and then veer off in a different direction. A genuinely clever bit of scriptwriting.
- The soundtrack by Ryuichi Sakamoto is wonderful especially a piano piece as the film ends. This was Sakamoto’s last score before his death this year, and the film is dedicated to him.
Negatives:
- I was UTTERLY gripped by this film in its first half. It rather lost my attention a little with the ‘perspective’ from the school principal’s viewpoint. The “blowing your troubles away” scene was great… but this segment rather detracted, for me, from the thrust of the story.
Summary Thoughts on “Monster”
This was a teriffic film and is highly recommended. I’d originally rated this as 4 stars. But in actually writing this review and contemplating the film, I think I was perhaps a bit mean with that score. So I upped it by another half point. It is certainly one of the best foreign films I’ve seen this year and I’d certainly watch it a second time.
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Where to Watch it (Powered by Justwatch)
Trailer for “Monster”:
The trailer for the film is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nf8Z05OdFwU .
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