Monster

"Are they the ones we dream of, or the ones we fail to see among us?"

2023 2h 5m JA

🙌

7.9

BANGER

🔥

97%

CERTIFIED FRESH

👌

METACRITIC

⭐

7.8

IMDB

★7.9TMDB · 973🍅97%Rotten Tomatoes●79Metacritic★7.8IMDB · 40,489

MysteryThrillerDrama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

After an outburst at school involving her son, a concerned single mother demands answers, triggering a sequence of deepening suspicion and turmoil.

“Are they the ones we dream of, or the ones we fail to see among us?”

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Cast

Sakura Ando
Saori Mugino
Soya Kurokawa
Minato Mugino
Hinata Hiiragi
Yori Hoshikawa
Eita Nagayama
Michitoshi Hori
Yuko Tanaka
Makiko Fushimi
Mitsuki Takahata
Hirona Suzumura
Akihiro Kakuta
Shoda Fumiaki
Shido Nakamura
Kiyotaka Hoshikawa

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda
Writers: Yuji Sakamoto
Languages: Japanese
Countries: Japan

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 7

ERA

Did you know

Released 3 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, shot by Ryuto Kondo. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Ryuichi Sakamoto. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Hirokazu Kore-eda shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 7

CAST

Did you know

Sakura Ando and Soya Kurokawa and Hinata Hiiragi carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 7

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Are they the ones we dream of, or the ones we fail to see among us?".

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 7

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt23736044 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Hirokazu Kore-eda directs. Ryuto Kondo behind the camera. Ryuichi Sakamoto scores. Hirokazu Kore-eda cuts. Produced in Japan. Dialogue in Japanese.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Released 3 years ago.
2Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, shot by Ryuto Kondo. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
3Original score by Ryuichi Sakamoto. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
4Editor Hirokazu Kore-eda shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
5Sakura Ando and Soya Kurokawa and Hinata Hiiragi carry the top of the cast.
6Marketing tagline: "Are they the ones we dream of, or the ones we fail to see among us?".
7IMDB entry: tt23736044 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
8Classified under 23 themes, including "friendship", "japan", "bullying", "elementary school".
9Released under 23 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Ryuto Kondo
Original score: Ryuichi Sakamoto
Editing: Hirokazu Kore-eda
Production design: Keiko Mitsumatsu
Costume design: Kazuko Kurosawa
Makeup / hair: Mutsuki Sakai
VFX supervisor: Tomasz Dyrduła
Runtime: 125 min · 2h 5m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Original language: JA
Certification (US): PG-13
IMDB: Monster (2023)
Rotten Tomatoes: 97% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 79/100
IMDB rating: 7.8/10 · 40,489 votes
MPAA: PG-13
US box office: $434,585

Awards

11 wins & 41 nominations total

Queer Palm
Best Screenplay Award

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Hirokazu Kore-eda

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

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Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Lachlan Thiele2023-05-18
★ 7/10
INT. COOKIE MONSTER – NIGHT Monster is the latest entry in the Kore-eda filmography (a filmography I still need to dive deeper into). Still, just like his previous films, It's a deeply personal look into a character, their motives but most importantly, how that motive affects those around them. Monster is a multi-layered beast; it retells one story from multiple perspectives giving us the whole cookie instead of just the crumbs. Usually, I'm a crumb kinda guy; I like to figure things out myself, putting them all together to get my cookie. Still, Kore-eda gives me the cookie; at points, he just hands the cookie over when instead I would have preferred the traditional 'show, don't tell' filmmaker mentality. Yet, without that one little critique Monster would have shot right up to a 4-star thanks to its standout performances from Sakura Ando as the mother and excellent direction (especially when it comes to blocking actors within a scene, yeah, I know a weird thing to point out but something I wrote down while watching) Anyway, please head out and see this one. It's worth the spoon-feeding. FADE OUT.
Brent Marchant2023-12-05
★ 8/10
The perspective from which we view a situation infallibly provides us with a clear, irrefutable picture of its truthfulness, right? But what happens if we encounter someone who witnesses the same incident and comes away from it with a totally different interpretation? Both views can’t be “right,” can they? Or is it possible that none of us can see the totality of a scenario and claim to know everything about it? That’s the core takeaway from director Kore-eda Hirokazu’s latest feature, an ambitious, skillfully crafted tale told from multiple vantage points, all of them “correct” in their own right, despite the myriad differences that distinguish them from one another, a storytelling technique first developed by Japanese master filmmaker Akira Kurosawa in the screen classic “Rashomon” (1950). Kore-eda’s cinematic homage to the famed auteur, told in three separate but interconnected segments, focuses on the exploits of a rebellious pre-teen (Soya Kurokawa) seemingly prone to acting out as a bully. The youth’s unpredictable behavior, however, doesn’t tell the whole story. His actions appear to be cryptically interwoven with those of his overly protective widowed mother (Sakura Ando), his young middle school teacher (Eita Nagayama), his aging, softspoken principal (Yuko Tanaka), and his effervescent best friend (Hinata Hiiragi), many of whom aren’t always what they seem to be. There are forces at work here that are a cause for concern, prompting the often-asked question, “Who is the monster?”, a query that provides the inspiration for this film’s title. It’s intriguing to watch how the picture’s various story threads come together, reminding us of the old adage of not judging a book by its cover, poignantly illustrating that, no matter how much we may think we know about a particular situation, there’s a good chance we’ll never get a complete picture of it. Kore-eda serves up an eye-opening tale, one that gives us pause to think about our impressions and preconceptions in an age when many of us are all too quick to superficially judge what we see – and in a frequently flawed framework at that. The picture could stand to be a little more swiftly paced at times (especially in the final act), but this is arguably the director’s best and most sensitive work to date, one that, we can only hope, will have the kind of profound impact we need in an age where open-mindedness and tolerance are traits we could all stand to develop to a much greater degree – particularly when pieces of the puzzle are missing.
CinemaSerf2024-03-16
★ 7/10
I'm not usually a fan of children leading films, but hats have to come off here for a really delightful performance from the young Hinata Hiiragi as the shy and shunned "Hoshikawa". We will get to him in a minute, but first the film is delivered in three parts as a fire slowly devours a city centre tower block. The first episode introduces us to "Minato" (Soya Kurukawa). He's a bright and friendly boy who lives with his widowed mother (Sakura Ando). She starts to notice that his behaviour is a becoming a bit erratic and after some investigation begins to suspect that he is being bullied at school. A visit to the recently bereaved Principal (Yûko Tanaka) reveals that his teacher "Hori" (Eita Nagayama) might be the culprit and apologies are made. The next segment takes up the same story, only this time we look from the perspective of the teacher, a caring and enthusiastic professional. Though there are similarities between the two scenarios, the conclusion from the first doesn't quite tie up with the information from the second. Then to the final instalment where the two boys take and hold really well the centre stage of this drama and we get to grips with the puzzles set already and discover more about their complex characters. It's this third phase that is quite captivating to watch. The older boy must tread a thin line between a peer pressure that thinks his friend is odd, even that he has "a pig's brain" whilst he, himself, realises that "Hoshikawa" is a friendly, curious and loyal lad who has quite a few domestic demons of his own to face, on pretty much a daily basis. Amongst the adults, there's plenty going on too. The head teacher is clearly sitting on a fairly hefty secret of her own and "Mr. Hori" faces a series of predicaments that reminded me a little of the recent "Teacher's Lounge". A typhoon, some tunnels and an old railway carriage provide a perfect focus for the concussion that isn't so much that, it's an invitation to see what might happen next. The director excels here at putting us into the minds of the children and of the adults whilst also allowing our own observations to watch a story of two young children at a sensitive stage of their lives - and it really does make you think and reminisce about your own childhood in equal measure.