When a young boy begins behaving strangely, shocking truths emerge as the story unfolds through the eyes of his single mother, a teacher who is believed to be responsible, and the child himself.
Sakura Ando
Saori Mugino
Eita Nagayama
Michitoshi Hori
Soya Kurokawa
Minato Mugino
Hinata Hiiragi
Yori Hoshikawa
Yuko Tanaka
Makiko Fushimi
Mitsuki Takahata
Hirona Suzumura
Akihiro Kakuta
Shoda Fumiaki
Shido Nakamura
Kiyotaka Hoshikawa
Ryu Morioka
Kanzaki
Daisuke Kuroda
Shinagawa
Ayu Kitaura
Mariko Yajima
Haruto Kobayashi
Taisho Kamata
Kouga Yagishita
Gaku Hirohashi
Taichi Kanemitsu
Yu Hamaguchi
Harune Iida
Mio Kida
Shiyun Nakamura
Makiko's Husband
Peey
Miss Kazuo
Kayo Noro
Satomi Hirohashi
Director
Hirokazu Kore-eda
Screenplay
Yuji Sakamoto
May 18, 2023
7
INT. COOKIE MONSTER – NIGHT
Monster is the latest entry in the Kore-eda filmography (a filmography I still need to dive deeper into). Still, just like his previous films, It's a deeply personal look into a character, their motives but most importantly, how that motive affects those around them.
Monster is a multi-layered beast; it retells one story from multiple perspectives giving us the whole cookie instead of just the crumbs. Usually, I'm a crumb kinda guy; I like to figure things out myself, putting them all together to get my cookie. Still, Kore-eda gives me the cookie; at points, he just hands the cookie over when instead I would have preferred the traditional 'show, don't tell' filmmaker mentality. Yet, without that one little critique Monster would have shot right up to a 4-star thanks to its standout performances from Sakura Ando as the mother and excellent direction (especially when it comes to blocking actors within a scene, yeah, I know a weird thing to point out but something I wrote down while watching)
Anyway, please head out and see this one. It's worth the spoon-feeding.
FADE OUT.