by James Mottram
Think again, this delicate Japanese work is the latest from Hirokazu Kore-eda, the director of such acclaimed movies as Nobody Knows (2004), Like Father, Like Son (2013) and the Cannes-winning Shoplifters (2018). A three-part domestic drama, in this case, the titular ‘monster’ is metaphorical, rather than the sort that haunts your nightmares.
The film begins as Saori (Shoplifters’ Ando Sakura) and her young son Minato (Kurokawa Soya) watch safely from their balcony as a fire rages down the street and a hostess bar goes up in flames. It’s an incident that Kore-eda will keep returning to, as events are replayed through different perspectives – a triptych-like structure, of course, that immediately recalls Akira Kurosawa’s monumental Rashomon.
The hugely influential 1950 tale of a murdered Samurai is “a film that I respect greatly”, says Kore-eda, when FilmInk meets him on the rooftop at Cannes’ Marriott Hotel. When he received the script, he immediately “understood” how writer Yûji Sakamoto was paying a debt to Kurosawa. “But I wanted this not to be just about an interesting structure. For me, it was important about how we arrive at [the] final point.”
Certainly, it’s an approach that ultimately impressed the Cannes jury last year, when the film played in competition, with Sakamoto winning the Best Screenplay prize (the movie also became the first ever Japanese title to win the Queer Palm in Cannes). It’s Kore-eda’s first feature since his 1995 debut Maborosi that’s been written by someone else, although screenwriter and director are so in synch, you’d never know.
A renowned writer and director in Japan, including 1996’s Yûri, Sakamoto began working with Kore-eda on the idea for Monster in 2018, before the outbreak of COVID-19. “But I think through COVID, this lack of communication, these divisions in society, really accelerated around the world and that I think comes across in the film and it’s down to the foresight of the writer Yûji Sakamoto,” Kore-eda says.
The story proper begins as widowed mother Saori discovers that Minato’s teacher Mr. Hori (Nagoyama Eita) has injured her son when he was disciplining the boy. Arriving at the school, she rages at the principal, in search of an apology. Instead, she gets a bizarre reaction from the teachers, especially Hori, whose behaviour seems anything but professional. It’s an unsettling beginning.
“I think I was trying to say that even at the most serious moments, if you take a step back, there are really strange and silly things happening,” admits Kore-eda. “And that’s what makes it feel real, I think. So, there are weird things happening in that moment – kissing the sweet, blowing the nose. But that’s what’s real about it. Looking close up, it’s a tragedy but if you remove yourself, it’s a comedy.”
As is so often the case in life, there is more than one point-of-view to appreciate. The second part of Monster sees events replayed from Hori’s perspective, where we see a very different side to the teacher. The final segment spins the story in another direction entirely, as it focuses on Minato’s relationship with his fellow classmate Yori (Hiragi Hinata), a physically weak child bullied by others at school.
“The bullying that takes place in class is because this boy Yori is considered not normal and not masculine,” the director notes. “The teacher tells the boys to be men, to be like men, and these adult values compressed into children’s society… And so, this twisted view of the world that adults might have, gets reflected on the children and that’s what happens in our society as well, in Japanese society, and that’s where the cracks start to appear and the school is just representative of that.”
Bullying isn’t the only issue that Monster raises, as a confused Minato begins to experience feelings for his friend. “I think the fact that this boy begins to see a monster in himself is because he has emotions that he doesn’t understand and he can’t give voice to,” says Kore-eda. “And that emotion is that he loves someone, which is a normal emotion. But he can’t say that, and it just so happens that someone that he loves is another boy.”
As the director points out, these feelings can happen to anyone. “I’ve had experiences of myself of having feelings for someone that I shouldn’t have feelings for. And I think if someone had just told these boys that that’s okay, that would have released them.”
Kore-eda even consulted with an organisation that supports LGBT+ children before filming began, adjusting the script according to their advice. An intimacy coordinator was also deployed throughout the rehearsal period and on set.
Once again, Kore-eda proves just what a master he is at directing children, as he has shown in films like Nobody Knows and Like Father, Like Son. “There is no one method that works for all children,” he says. “It’s like teaching… you have to find the way of teaching that suits that individual child. Same with directing. And what I do is I spend time with those children that I’ve cast and spend time with them thinking about the role. There really is no substitute for time.”
Monster is also a minor musical miracle, with Kore-eda marking his first ever collaboration with the legendary Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, who died last year. The director has been a fan ever since Sakamoto was part of pioneering band Yellow Magic Orchestra. “He was a star. And [his] film music, of course… this is something that I respect hugely, but also his stance on social issues. And the statements that he made – he’s kind of a really respected big brother for me.”
Just over a decade ago, Kore-eda almost worked with Sakamoto on a project that ended up falling through. “As I was in the process of making this film, he was the only person I had in mind for the soundtrack. And of course, he wasn’t well and so I thought it might be difficult, but I decided to write to him anyway. He watched what I put together and agreed to write some music for it. So, I was really proud that I got to work with him right at the very end.”
Monster opens in cinemas now
