Patron Pick – Monster (2023)

This special reward is available to Patreon patrons who pledge at the $10 or $20 monthly levels. Each month, those patrons will pick a film for me to review. If they choose, they also get to include some of their thoughts about the movie. This Pick comes from Matt Harris.

Monster (2023)
Written by Yuji Sakamoto
Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda

After seeing Hirokazu Kore-eda’s 2017 masterpiece Shoplifters, I was in awe. Watching his follow-up, Broker, was less moving of an experience. It’s a good movie, but it wasn’t as good as the first one I saw. While there is a body of work going back to the 1990s that I want to explore, for now, we move forward to the director’s latest film, Monster. I made sure I went into this film knowing very little other than that the plot focused on two middle-school-age boys. I’m so glad I didn’t know the story’s details because with each loop the narrative made back to its start, I was left wondering where we were being led.

Saori (Sakura Ando) is a single mom raising her son Minato (Sōya Kurokawa), a fifth grader who has started behaving strangely. He randomly cuts his hair, comes home with only one shoe, and otherwise shows the emergence of odd tics and habits. Saori suspects Minato is being harmed at school by his teacher, Mr. Hori (Eita Nagayama). Eventually, a meeting happens at the school, and Hori is brought in, where he confesses that, yes, he has physically struck Minato. There’s something strange about this, too, as Hori is disingenuous in his apology, and the rest of the staff, including the principal, are remarkably cold towards Saori. There’s so much more to what is happening in her son’s life than she realizes. There’s his friend, Yori, who she’s never met. There’s a secret the principal keeps that would destroy her life if it came out. And there’s the hostess hotel that mysteriously burnt to the ground. By the end of this story, it will all make sense, but the question of who the “monster” is will remain.

Perspective is a huge part of this film, as we see the story from three distinct viewpoints: Saori, Mr. Hori, and Minato. With each character’s point of view, what we thought we understood crumbles, and a new narrative emerges a new truth. Saori is so sure her son is being targeted by his teacher. She’s partially correct, but not for the reasons she assumes. Mr. Hori’s reasons for going after Minato are also mistaken because he only sees events from his specific point in the story. It’s only through Minato’s story that we see the truth emerge, and even then, he’s piecing things together that he’s not directly observing. 

Hovering along the fringes of all three is Mrs. Fushimi (Yuko Tanaka). While the principal’s tragedy is not directly related to the film’s central plot, it serves as a thematic pillar – we can think we know who a person is, but you never really can unless you know them on the most intimate level. To Saori, Mrs. Fushimi seems cruel. To Mr. Hori, his boss appears purely manipulative. Minato sees the profound tragedy of her life, but even he doesn’t get the whole story. Is Mrs. Fushimi a monster? That depends on your perspective; there’s an argument to be made for and against that status.

I can’t speak strongly from a perspective outside the United States, so I will have to reference what I know about that culture. Perhaps it will reflect some truths about Japan or other places. If you have looked at the news in the last 48 hours, you might have seen a horrifically tragic story out of Oklahoma. A non-binary child was murdered by their classmates in the school bathroom, and the school seemed to not react in any way that could resemble urgency or concern for the victim. 

There is a profound darkness inside of too many people regarding others living in their truth. It’s aided and abetted by a media industry that has discovered agitprop is quite the financially lucrative avenue. The result of flooding impressionable minds with such hate is that they are becoming savage beasts, wholly invested in the hierarchical power structure of their society rather than seeking to overthrow it. The children who murdered their classmate believed they were above this person, that this person was not deserving of life for the simple reason they were expressing themselves in a way that wasn’t considered the “norm” in their community. 

Monster is a film about how shame over being yourself, exacerbated by social torture, can only lead to tragic endings…or maybe not. The ending of Monster is so profoundly ambiguous that it can be read as a tragedy or triumph. I have always relished well-executed ambiguity in a piece of art, and this is a perfect example of that. We get two scenes as the movie comes to its ending. This can be interpreted as people not sticking around to learn the truth or the same place seen through the eyes of the living & the dead. I’m not sure I know which one I think is my interpretation, but I also have come to a point with art that I can be open to multiple ways of viewing a piece. Life is not a clear-cut experience; why should art be that way?

Throughout the film, Kore-eda emphasizes this is not a story about finding who is to blame. The situation is one where almost everyone would be held accountable to some degree. Responsibility and discipline have a role in making corrections to antisocial behavior, but there also comes a point where aiding the victim is far more critical. There comes a point where you will feel like Saori is the monster, going on a rampage. Mr. Hori seems much better once you see how events unfolded from his perspective and what actually happened to injure Minato. There’s even a point where little Yori starts to look like the monster from some of his initially unexplained behavior. 

I argue that Kore-eda would say no one is a monster. Given a limited amount of information, everyone is searching for meaning in what is happening around them. Saori and Hori’s interactions are the most potent example of this. We are introduced to him as an arrogant man chewing gum after giving a half-hearted apology. Yet, his monstrousness falls away when we see what he knew about his administrator and how the staff protects her. Then, when we see how Minato became injured, it further diminished. Hori thinks he knows Saori because of a misunderstanding about her son. She thinks she knows Mr. Hori because the principal makes him apologize. Neither of them really understands who Minato is, and neither gives much thought to Yori, the emotional core of the whole film.

Monster is another excellent work from Kore-eda. Like Shoplifters, he sees the world as a tragic place for children. They are surrounded by adults who stumble through life just existing for the most part. The adults are in conflict with each other and often don’t even see the children there. These young people suffer at the whims of grown-ups who assume they know what is happening around them. In reality, they are only a little more informed than the children and, increasingly, less informed.