Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Monster is a drama based on misunderstandings, which, when it comes to annoying narratives, is up at the very top, surely. I have been known to throw a shoe at the screen when the plot device stops anyone uttering the few words that will clear everything up in one minute flat, allowing us all to go home. (This afflicts 96 per cent of romcoms, I would estimate.) But Kore-eda, who has films such as Shoplifters on his CV – and also Broker and Like Father, Like Son, among other wonderfully human dramas – can get away with it and does. The upshot is that this affecting, heartfelt, cleverly constructed tale didn’t make me want to throw anything at the screen.

Without giving anything away, I recommend that you always note the sound of a French horn

Usually Kore-eda writes and directs but here he’s directing from a screenplay by Yuji Sakamato. The film has a tripartite structure but there’s no first act, second, third. Instead, it’s the same story each time from a different point of view. Set in a provincial Japanese town, every section starts with the same event: a building on fire. First, we meet Saori (Sakura Ando) and her son Minato (Soya Kurokawa), witnessing the fire from the balcony of their apartment. Minato is ten, maybe 11, and is behaving oddly. He has cut his own hair. He arrives home from school wearing just one sneaker (perhaps he threw the other at a romcom?) and then with a bloody ear. He thinks his brain might have been transplanted with a pig’s. Who is bloodying your ear and telling you such nonsense, his mother demands to know. His teacher Mr Hori, he finally confesses. Saori has a frustrating time with the school, where rigid formalities take precedence and the principal (Yuko Tanaka) seems capable only of banalities.

QOSHE - Cinema / Affecting, heartfelt and cleverly constructed: Monster reviewed - Deborah Ross
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Cinema / Affecting, heartfelt and cleverly constructed: Monster reviewed

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15.03.2024

Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Monster is a drama based on misunderstandings, which, when it comes to annoying narratives, is up at the very top, surely. I have been known to throw a shoe at the screen when the plot device stops anyone uttering the few words that will clear everything up in one minute flat, allowing us all to go home. (This afflicts 96 per cent of romcoms, I would estimate.) But Kore-eda, who has films such as Shoplifters on his CV........

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