A mother demands answers from her son’s teacher when her son begins acting strangely.

‘Monster‘, the latest movie from Hirokazu Kore-eda is a gripping movie about the relationship between two young boys, their teacher and one of the boys mothers who confronts the teacher when she notices some disturbing changes in her son’s behaviour. It is a movie of changing perspectives (‘Rashomon’ esque you could say), where we follow the different characters as they go through the same events, altering our views on what is really going on at the heart of the story. This approach makes for a movie that always keeps you guessing, with Kore-eda’s mastery of storytelling apparent throughout.

The movie begins from the perspective of Saori Mugino (Sakura Andō), the single mother of Minato (Sōya Kurokawa). She has observed a change in his behaviour and when she finds him in an abandoned train tunnel after running away, she starts to suspect that his teacher, Mr. Hori (Eita Nagayama), has been abusing him. Hori denies this, and the school are not supportive of her claims, but it does have implications on Hori’s career that we’ll learn more about later. The movie then returns to the beginning to follow Hori and we start to see his side of the story, painting a different picture than we had been led to believe through Saori’s viewpoint, before we’ll finally see things from Minato’s view – the only character at the heart of all three individuals stories.

I thought there were similarities with last year’s Belgian movie ‘Close’, in how exceptionally well it explores the relationship between two young boys in Minato and Yori (Hinata Hiiragi), with the performances of the two child actors both brilliantly touching and moving. Like that film, there is a tenderness and care in the storytelling and that really drives your investment in the characters fates. I thought the stylistic approach to look at the story from different perspectives worked incredibly well, giving an additional edge particularly as to how the story ends up unfolding. It also has an excellently ambiguous ending, that coupled with the subtle differences in the segments up to this points, adds additional weight to the movie’s conclusion.

‘Monster’ is another brilliant film from Hirokazu Kore-eda, with a gripping story, terrific direction and strong performances, and I really enjoyed it.

Rating: 4/5

Directed By: Hirokazu Kore-eda

Starring: Sakura Andō, Eita Nagayama, Sōya Kurokawa, Hinata Hiiragi, Mitsuki Takahata, Akihiro Tsunoda, Shidō Nakamura and Yūko Tanaka

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt23736044/