"Monster" is a Japanese psychological dramatic mystery thriller film directed and edited by Hirokazu Kore-eda. The screenplay was written by Yuji Sakamoto. It stars Sakura AndÅ as a mother who confronts a teacher after noticing disturbing changes in her son's behavior.
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The plot revolves around Saori Mugino, a single mother raising her fifth-grade son, Minato. He begins exhibiting strange behavior such as cutting his own hair and coming home with only one shoe. One night, Minato does not come home at all and after calling around, Saori finds him in an abandoned train tunnel. Saori begins to suspect her son's teacher, Mr. Hori, is abusing him and confronts the school about it.
The film had its world premiere at the 76th Cannes Film Festival on 17 May 2023, where it competed for the Palme d'Or and was honored with the Queer Palm as well as the Best Screenplay award. The film was released in Japan on 2 June 2023. It received widespread critical acclaim with special praise for its screenplay, direction, acting, editing, and musical score.
The film explores complex themes such as bullying, homophobia, family dysfunction, uncritical respect for flawed authority, and social media rumor-mongering. It has an IMDb rating of 7.8/10.