Monster

Awarded for screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival, Monster is the latest film by Japanese director Hirokazu Koreeda, with a farewell soundtrack by Ryūichi Sakamoto.

The author of Shoplifters has remained a sensitive and mindful observer of unusual human friendships and family ties. This time, he weaves his story like Kurosawa in Rashomon, using three threads representing different points of view. A single mother sees her son's odd behaviour and suspects a teacher of bullying him, but the school's administration fails to react. Monster is more than a depiction of childhood or a critique of Japan's heartless education system. It's a film about how quick we are to pass judgment without knowing the context and unwilling to listen to the other side's arguments. Koreeda cleverly misguides us, tampers with our emotions, and patiently attacks and absolves his characters, steering his film toward a moving story about the search for acceptance and freedom. Wise and remarkably compassionate cinema.

Marcin Pieńkowski