2023-05-18 13:08:00
Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s new film “Monster” premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. The director of “Shoplifters” this time turns to the story of two teenagers who quarreled at school – there are no fantastic monsters in this story. The soundtrack for this picture was written by Ryuichi Sakamoto – this is his last work in the cinema (the composer died on March 28). Film critic Anton Dolin talks regarding one of Kore-eda’s best films of late.
It is better to know as little as possible regarding the plot of this film so that the viewing experience is stronger, but something should still be warned regarding. Although Japanese cinema has a venerable tradition of monster films, from Godzilla to The Ring, Hirokazu Kore-eda’s drama has nothing to do with it. There are as many monsters here as there were parasites in Parasite.
However, it’s not just regarding metaphor. The main characters are teenagers, and the children’s belief in monsters and miracles plays an important role in the development of intrigue.
Japanese trailer “Monster”
gaga official channel
If we talk regarding the national cinematic canon, it is impossible not to recall the more archaic classics. Not only regarding the pacified, though internally broken world of Yasujiro Ozu’s family tragicomedies, which, admittedly, is inherited by Kore-eda, a tireless researcher of the crisis of the family institution, but also regarding Ozu’s antipode, Akira Kurosawa. “Monster” is built on the principle of his “Rashomon”: the same story, told from several points of view, acquires a different meaning, depth, emotional content. It is much more interesting to watch this internal development than the intrigue as such, which testifies to the special virtuosity not only of Kore-eda himself, but also of film and television playwright Yuji Yamamoto, who worked with him for the first time and is very revered in Japan.
The first act of “Monster” introduces us to two characters. Saori (Sakura Ando, known at least from the “Shoplifters” of the same Kore-eda) is a single mother, following the death of her husband she brings up her son Minato (Soy Kurokawa), a fragile and withdrawn teenager. Anxious and caring Saori does not leave the child, it seems, not for a second, and still he eludes her: he runs away, and then is in a deserted urban area, comes home from school with strange abrasions, answers questions at random, and one day he is on the verge of suicide . Mom goes to the school to sort it out, where she finds the alleged culprit – the boy’s teacher and mentor, Mr. Hori (Eita Nagayama).
Cannes Film Festival
In the second act, he is the main character. As it turns out, a modest and indecisive, but definitely a good person, he arouses suspicion by a ridiculous coincidence, and sometimes takes the blame consciously. There is something from Prince Myshkin (also Kurosawa’s favorite hero) in him. This almost angelic and slightly comical figure is especially emphasized by the headmistress of the school (Yuko Tanaka is a Japanese movie star who once voiced Lady Eboshi in Princess Mononoke), whose husband recently accidentally knocked their granddaughter to death.
In the third act, which implies a denouement, events, on the contrary, take an unexpected turn and only get confused. At the center of events is not only Minato, but also his obedient, always smiling and bullied classmate Yori (Hiragi Hinata) for this. And here it is definitely time to stop, without plunging the viewer into further details.
Is it possible to promise that if the first third of the film can seriously scare, and the second intrigue, then the third will inevitably touch. Having passed through pitch darkness, together with the characters, the audience will meet the dawn and receive a well-deserved catharsis. Suddenly, a rhyme will appear – probably not intentional, but even more beautiful – with the apocalyptic “Asthenic Syndrome” by Kira Muratova (which also takes place at school): here the headmistress will also try to express the unspoken, playing wind instruments.
Cannes Film Festival
The plot for all three stories – we recall, synchronized in time – is the night fire of a multi-storey building, which all the characters become witnesses of. The climax occurs during heavy rain, leading to flooding. The elements become a monstrous expression for feelings that a person is afraid to express. The range of these sensations is extremely wide, from panic fear to the first love.
Kore-eda and his screenwriter Sakamoto gradually move from extreme, almost ceremonial restraint to intertwined dramas of several very complex people without making children more readable or simpler than adults. No wonder the youngest artist in the history of the festival, Yuya Yagira, was awarded for his role in Kore-eda’s film “No One Knows” at Cannes. The teenage protagonists in Monster are also strikingly natural and expressive.
The material and theme of the picture do not appear immediately either. From the relatively traditional exploration of unhappy families, living through the loss of a loved one and searching for sources of violence in society, the director moves on to something more universal. Ultimately, his new work is regarding the courage not to be like everyone else, regarding honesty with oneself, regarding the ability to be alone and the happiness of sharing this loneliness with someone.
Cannes Film Festival
Koreeda started out as an interesting experimenter (“After Life”), gradually developed his own language and style, began to drown in routine self-repetitions. The sudden triumph of Shoplifters, crowned with the Cannes Palme d’Or, gave him a second birth. As if relearning how to shoot, he tried – with varying success – to work with other cultures, languages and countries: he shot Pravda in France, The Intermediary in Korea. Kore-eda returns to Japan as a completely mature and original author at the peak of his talent. “Monster” will definitely rank among his best films.
Another important aspect of the film is its soundtrack. This is the farewell work of an outstanding composer, whose contribution to film music is huge – the recently deceased Ryuichi Sakamoto. Has just been published playlistcollected by him before his death, especially for the funeral: among others, Bach, Sati, Ravel clearly influenced Sakamoto.
The music for “Monster” might not have been played at the funeral, but for a private memorial service for the composer, nothing better might be done. Composed of tracks from his last lifetime album 12 and two new compositions commissioned by Kore-eda (he listened to Sakamoto while working on the film and dared to ask the dying composer for original music), this soundtrack naturally closes Sakamoto’s creative path in cinema, which began with an unforgettable theme from Nagisa Oshima’s Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence.
Paradoxically, the plot of “Monster” seems to refer to that famous tape. And the music written for him by Sakamoto is emphatically simple and transparent. It seems to connect the opposite leitmotifs of “Monster” – first love and inevitable death, fear of the unknown and the stoicism of comprehending the truth regarding oneself.
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