Director Hirokazu Koreeda is someone I have been a big fan of for some time. That doesn’t mean that I have made time for everything he does though, sadly. As time keeps running away from me, I still have a number of his films to explore, but I have loved almost everything that I have seen from him so far. If you haven’t heard of him before, I implore you to start working through his filmography (and I will happily make a few recommendations). Having already heard some praise for Monster, I was delighted to make time for it recently when it was showing at a cinema near me, and I am very happy I did.
Showing one main story from three different perspectives, Monster is initially about a single mother (played by Sakura Andō) who is concerned about her son (Minato, played by Sōya Kurokawa). He has had an encounter with a teacher that seems to have crossed a line and left him fearful. We then see things from the perspective of the teacher (Michtoshi Hori, played by Eita Nagayama), who believes that Minato has started to seriously bully another child in his class (Yori, played by Hinata Hiragi). Last, but by no means least, we see the full situation from the perspective of Minato.
While not necessarily the most radical way to create more drama, tension, and misdirection, the structure of Monster works brilliantly by teasing out one little detail at a time, leading to the reveal of a picture that appears like one of those Magic Eye things I could never see (seriously, I was basically the guy in Mallrats every time I looked at one of those bloody pictures). The delicate screenplay is written by Yûji Sakamoto, someone I am not at all familiar with (but will be keeping an eye out for in the future), and it requires a certain amount of patience from viewers until the various questions raised start to be answered. There is also an ambiguous ending that manages to be both uplifting and heart-breaking, no matter what way you interpret it, so be prepared to keep mulling this over for some time after the end credits have rolled.
Koreeda directs with his usual skill, working once again with the kind of material he seems drawn to, stories that heap some grit and danger around a core of love and warmth. It would be wrong to consider most of his movies infused with magical realism, but he usually allows for at least a portion of any film runtime to be viewed through a filter of wide-eyed innocence that helps viewers to see the potential best in any relationship.
The adult cast members do very good work, although both Andō and Nagayama have to play out their parts while they lack essential information about the situation they find themselves in, but it is young Kurokawa and Hiragi who are the real stars, playing their parts in a way that feels both completely natural, as absolutely uncomplicated as children often seem to be, and yet also in line with how everything plays out in the third act.
This may not be up there with the very best of Koreeda, mainly because a fair bit of the third act simply underlines what viewers find out by the end of the second “story”, but it’s still a great film nonetheless. I can’t imagine anyone being unmoved by the finale, and every minute of the runtime feels authentic and well-earned.
8/10
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