Monster
Directed by Hirokazu Kore-edaWhen her young son Minato starts to behave strangely, his mother feels that there is something wrong. Discovering that a teacher is responsible, she storms into the school demanding to know what's going on. But as the story unfolds through the eyes of mother, teacher and child, the truth gradually emerges.
Cast of Monster
Monster Ratings & Reviews
- jwpi0February 23, 2025Once again a non American film gets straight to the heart of the ambiguous nature of the human condition, both in a pure form, and in the context of society. This film touched me deeply in many ways, as a father a son and a man within a society. A society which desperately wants to appear progressive and open minded but always reverts to the safety of the hard shell of a deeply biased conservative outlook.
- VarunOctober 19, 2024A good film that unravels using a plot structure of shifting perspectives to tackle various different issues and themes. Each person deals with their own different challenges caused by their inability to see the whole picture due to lies, denial and socially alienating norms. The strange confusing start leads to a satisfactory explanation in interesting, devastating and also beautifully subtle ways. What this film captures well is the level of cascading tragedy that can spread like cancer from the ignorant and hateful ways in which people deal with issues that they deem inconsequential. The movie was also well shot and had many picturesque scenes. I’ll end this review with a quote that really stood out to me. "If only some people can have it, that's not happiness. That's just nonsense. Happiness is something anyone can have."
- Rowan KrzysiakJanuary 26, 2025A lot of Japanese media uses jilted timelines to hide a poor story. This was very different. It layers in such a way so that the 'reality' becomes clearer but the truth remains in the forced and accidental misconceptions. It's pretty great and recommended.
- Desmond DaleJanuary 24, 2025I really wasn't sold on the movie until about midway through as it blitzed through my shield of skepticism and indifference and captured my heart. It's very naturalistic and serene with shots that are so stunning that they elicit feelings of whimsy. And when the it really narrows its focus it becomes apparent that this is a somewhat tragic love story centered around two angelic blank slates at odds with the ugliness and judgemental nature of the world around them.
- rg9400November 1, 2024I ended up watching this super late, basically a midnight showing. I was very worried that a foreign drama very late in an empty theater would put me to sleep, but no, I was fully engaged. I went in without really knowing anything about the movie other than the famous director. And I think that leads to an interesting experience, but there is no way to really review it without discussing it at a high level. This is similar to Rashomon where the usage of perspective is heavily explored. It starts by exploring events across a few days from one angle, then shifts it to another. It's fascinating just from a technical level because it actually ends up being a bit of a mystery box. You need to keep track of small clues, and see how they morph from different angles. But at the same time, I do think it becomes a bit challenging. My one complaint would be that this storytelling trick sometimes showcases the hand of the director a bit too much. By that, I mean that sometimes the way things are hidden, or the way they get recontextualized, feels less organic and more for the sake of the story. But I would say that only applies to less than 10% of the overall events. Also, to avoid repetition, after switching perspectives, the movie does not hold your hand. It jumps between events, letting the viewer extrapolate what happened given their new understanding of motivations/sequence of events. I enjoyed that, but every now and then I did find myself getting a bit confused with the timeline, thinking something had already happened before it did. A lot of my review has been on the technical/plot aspect of the movie. Partially, because I enjoyed it and found it innovative, but also because talking about the emotional/thematic core would certainly be spoilers. Suffice it to say, I found this movie haunting and beautiful, and an excellent exploration into what really constitutes a "monster" in society.
