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The Japanese director of Shoplifters uses different takes on a single story to tell the fraught tale of two troubled boys

A frazzled widowed mother, Saori (Sakura Andô), suspects that all is not well with her preteen son, Minato (Soya Kurokawa). The boy seems subdued and withdrawn; she catches him hacking inches from his mop of hair. He asks odd, troubling questions: if the brain of a pig was transplanted into a human, what would the resulting creature be, human or pig? Or some kind of monster? And then there are the injuries – an ear yanked so brutally that it bleeds; a livid facial bruise. Saori soon deduces that her son’s new teacher, Michitoshi Hori (Eita Nagayama), at his provincial Japanese elementary school, is responsible for her son’s brooding disquiet. She confronts the school principal (a confounding reflecting prism of a performance from veteran actor Yūko Tanaka), but...

The Japan Academy Film Prize Association held the 47th edition of its awards ceremony on March 8, 2024. The nominees are selected by the Nippon Academy-Sho Association of industry professionals from the pool of film releases between January 1 and December 31, 2023 which must have screened in Tokyo cinemas.

Following its success at the recent Blue Ribbon Awards and leading with 12 nominations, Toho Studios' and Takashi Yamazaki's kaiju cinema masterpiece “Godzilla Minus One” takes top honours winning Picture of the Year and a slew of technical awards. Sakura Ando cements her place as one of Japan's top actresses securing both awards for Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role (for “Monster”) as well as Supporting Role (for “Godzilla Minus One”).

The full list of winners is described below.

Picture of the Year

Monster

Godzilla Minus One

Mom, Is That You?!

September 1923

Perfect Days

Animation of the Year

Kitaro Tanjo – GeGeGe no...

Known for his exploration of universal themes including family, happiness and memories, Japanese director, producer, screenwriter and editor Hirokazu Kore-eda‘s newest feature Monster (2023) has received acclaim from critics and fans alike. Monster follows mother Saori whose son Minato (Soya Kurokawa) starts behaving strangely, leading her to think that something must be wrong. Soon discovering that a teacher is responsible, she storms into the school and demands to know what’s been happening to her son. However, as the story unfolds and the truth gradually emerges, it may not be anything close to what Saori imagined. Using clever storytelling methods to keep us intrigued, fantastic performances from the young leads and beautifully explored complex themes, Monster fits tidily into Kore-eda’s filmography as a heartbreaking study of childhood, growing up, and the harrowing idea that we may not know our children as deeply as we think we do.

The storytelling...

The 66th edition of the Blue Ribbon Awards, presented by the Association of Tokyo Film Journalists, has announced its winners on January 24, 2024. The nominees are selected from movies released in 2023. The trifecta wins for “Godzilla Minus One” come as no surprise, sweeping the Best Film, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress categories. Yuya Ishii picks up the Best Director award for both his movies “The Moon” and “Masked Hearts”.

Best Film

Masked Hearts

Ichiko

Egoist

Monster

The Dry Spell

Godzilla Minus One

Mom, Is That You?!

(Ab)normal Desire

The Moon

One Last Bloom

Perfect Days

Bad Lands

September 1923

Do Unto Others

As Long as We Both Shall Live

Best Director

Yuya Ishii – The Moon, Masked Hearts

Hirokazu Koreeda – Monster

Daishi Matsunaga – Egoist

Takashi Yamazaki – Godzilla Minus One

Yoji Yamada – Mom, Is That You?!

Best Actor

Goro Inagaki – (Ab)normal Desire

Ryunosuke Kamiki – Godzilla Minus One, We're Broke, My Lord!

To say Monster made a splash at this year's Cannes Film Festival back in May would be an understatement. Even prior to its world premiere there, all eyes were already on director Hirokazu Kore-eda and his film. Monster would, after all, mark the Japanese filmmaker's return to directing in his native language since 2018's Shoplifters. Of course, the movie did not disappoint; Kore-eda walked away with the Queer Palm (the highest honor for an LGBTQ+ film at the festival), and screenwriter Yûji Sakamoto nabbed the coveted Best Screenplay Award.

In our interview with Kore-eda at TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) last September, the filmmaker sang Sakamoto's praises, proclaiming it was a dream come true to finally work with the screenwriter's words. In our recent conversation with Sakamoto, we naturally couldn't help but share Kore-eda's comments with him. Humbled, Sakamoto replied, "Of course, I'm honored and very happy that he spoke so highly of me.

Hirokazu Koreeda returns to Japan for his latest feature, “Monster,” another outstanding entry in the director’s already impressive filmography. For “Monster,” Koreeda collaborated with screenwriter Yuji Sakamoto, who wrote the screenplay, and music composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, who produced his final film score before passing away. As such, a dedication to the memory of Sakamoto is included. Upon making its world premiere at the 76th Cannes Film Festival, competing for the Palme d’Or, the movie was met with an overwhelmingly positive reception, winning the Best Screenplay award and being honored with the Queer Palm. Its theatrical run has also been met with acclaim.

Monster is available from Wellgo USA

Regarding the story, single mother Saori Mugino grows concerned for her son Minato when she notices disturbing changes in his behavior. Things only become more concerning as time progresses. Upon learning that schoolteacher Michitoshi Hori is responsible for her child’s behavioral shifts,...

"I don't know if I'm hopeful, but I definitely am not completely discouraged," said Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda during our conversation at the Toronto International Film Festival. Sitting in a windowless conference room inside the festival's press and industry headquarters, we met to discuss his newest film, Monster, which just made its North American premiere here. Considering how his film examines — perhaps, more correctly, skewers — many timely themes, from ignorance and bigotry to the failure of institutions meant to keep us safe, themes that are products of our "post"-pandemic world, his current outlook on the world seemed a natural place to start.

Kore-eda's first film set in Japan since 2018's Shoplifters, Monster weaves three separate narratives that each center around why young Minato (Sōya Kurokawa) starts acting out at home and in class. The first chapter focuses on Saori Mugino (Sakura Andō), Minato's mother, who learns that her son's...

by Paweł Mizgalewicz

At this point in Hirokazu Koreeda's career, it's only expected to hear that his newest work, “Monster”, is easy to recommend – but it's quite tricky to describe. The reason for that is the amount of surprises awaiting us during the film's two hour course, not at all limited to usual within-genre plot twists. Truth be told, basically everything in “Monster” is not what it initially seems – the characters, the conflicts, the events, and even the overall focus of the tale and what the movie's broad subject is. Yes, if you are a bone fide spoilerophobe, I would even advise not to check out which awards was the movie called up for at the 2023 Cannes Festival, as it might be really exciting to discover some of the themes at the time when the movie had still been swaying in so many other directions. Thankfully, the main award...

Hirokazu Kore-eda returned to the Cannes Film Festival to debut his ninth feature film, marking his seventh entry at the popular international event and his first in which he does not pen the script for a feature since his debut. In his first Japanese language film since Shoplifters, the director collaborates with the renowned Japanese TV writer, Yuji Sakamoto. Monster reveals a story about adolescence, lies & deceit, and the consequences thereof from a humane perspective, slowly revealing intricate details of life’s biggest complications through three vantage points. The film demands a great deal of patience from you, but the payoff and the events leading up to it are well-earned emotional depositions.

The story follows a young boy Minato (Soya Kurokawa) as the challenges he faces at school begin to result in his strange behavior. His concerned mother, Saori (Sakura Andō) believes his actions stem from something that is more than meets the eye,...

Few stories are as gratifying as the narrative jigsaw. How to fool the viewer into believing one thing without lying about what happened? It’s difficult enough to execute on the page, but much more can be hidden in writing. With film it’s a matter of obscuring the context of what we both see and hear, which requires some trickery. Like any sound cinematic tool, it can be misused and abused (see: the MCU), but with tasteful restraint it can be the backbone of a masterclass in mystery. See: Monster.

Writer, editor, and director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s 17th feature––his fourth in five years, the third of those to debut in competition at Cannes, with Shoplifters taking the Palme d’Or in 2018––is exactly that: a masterclass in mystery. Or, perhaps, context. What starts as a relatively clear story about sinister pyros, “pig-brained” kids, and abusive teachers transforms, through labyrinthine story mechanics,...

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...

Wild Bunch International (Wbi) and Japan’s Gaga Corporation have announced that the two companies will again collaborate on international sales on Monster, directed by award-winning filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda.

Gaga will handle sales for Asian territories, while Wbi will handle worldwide territories excluding Asia. A promo will be available for buyers at the upcoming European Film Market (EFM) at Berlin film festival. The film has been widely tipped for selection at this year’s Cannes.

Wild Bunch and Gaga have teamed up for sales on several of Kore-eda’s titles, starting in 2011 with I Wish, which played at the Toronto and San Sebastian film festivals, and more recently Shoplifters, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2018.

Monster is scheduled for release in Japan through Toho and Gaga on June 2, 2023. Scripted by Yuji Sakamoto (We Made A Beautiful Bouquet) and with with music by Oscar-winning composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, the...

Legendary Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto has signed on to write the music for Palme d’Or-winning director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s forthcoming feature film Monster (Kaibutsu), Tokyo-based production company Gaga Corporation revealed Thursday.

Sakamoto will provide newly written compositions as well as some of his pre-existing music for the film, producers say. A musical polymath, Sakamoto made his film debut with the iconic score for Nagisa Oshima’s Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983), starring David Bowie. He later won an Oscar with his music for Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor (1987) and a Golden Globe nomination for his compositions for Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s The Revenant (2015). The partnership with Kore-eda marks his first work on a high-profile Japanese title in some time.

Monster is also Kore-eda’s first Japanese film since he won the Cannes Palme d’Or in 2018 with Shoplifters. It follows the director’s French film The Truth, which opened...