Monstruo

The story isnt that complex but the journey the film maker takes us on is complex, exaggerating along the way the opacity of the conundrums facing the subjects. Life is difficult, until you see the end result, so navigating life can be extremely taxing and frustrating. This movie is called Monster, meaning that assumptions are often the monsters that they lead us down painful paths, often unnecessarily.

This is a deeply compassionate film. It requires an investment from the viewer but pays off handsomely in the end. This is a filmmaker who is improving with every release. Soon he will be in the same strata as Park Chan Wook.

Ryuichi Sakamoto's music, the precise editing, the great use of anamorphic lenses, the surprisingly dynamic soundscape, the great use of the Ronin 4D compact camera system, Hirokazu's brilliant directing and surprisingly dynamic staging. All of this existed to serve the impeccable performances and the brilliant story.

Yes, it's very much a contemporary piece, made with contemporary gear, set in the present. Still, the story felt timeless. I think that's why comparisons to the classic Rashomon are often made about this film, though I find them incredibly stretched. We are never lied to like we would've been watching Rashomon in this film, we experience the story exactly as the characters experience them.

In a time where meta films like Babylon and Asteroid City are starting to re-examining their own value, and even big blockbusters like Oppenheimer and Dead Reckoning needed to remind a post-COVID audience of their "return to practicality" techniques to bring them to the cinemas, this is the one that truly reminded me of why I go to the movies in the first place.

Lightning in a bottle.

Lovingly detailed and accented by an aching score from Ryuichi Sakamoto, who died in March, Monster is one of the finest films of the year, and its structure - like its circle of characters - carries secrets that can only be unraveled through patience and empathy. By cutting things up and showing us the perils of fractured perspectives, the director, demonstrates that compassion is more than just a natural state of being. This absorbing, ambiguously titled movie builds to a moving finish, one that reaffirms Kore-eda's peerless skill at directing young actors in particular..

My Rating : 8.5/10.

I went into this movie with only an inkling of the plot because i enjoy kore-eda's films and was familiar with several of the actors. For a movie like this, the impact is greater if you don't know too many details and can reach your own conclusions without preconceived notions.

The story is constructed like a kaleidoscope. Just when you have pigeon holed people into a role, a quick twist presents a slightly different picture although the characters remain the same.

I thought it was thought provoking, emotional, and beautifully acted. Kore-eda has a genius for finding amazing children who create such nuanced and natural performances at a young age.

It's been a while since I've seen a movie with such a smart and yet unpretentious and delicately constructed script, all the while managing not to "flex" it's wiseness on the viewer like most western script-focused works do.

The movie takes three perspectives of charatcers with wildly differing outlooks on a situation, as well as problems in their lives, to guide you through a series of events that starts as looking like a typical case of teacher psychological and physical abuse, but, through the juxtaposing of these three different perspectives, manages to paint a picture with details and nuance hardly ever found on movies, and reveal that the issue was about something else entirely. With characters with complex emotions and issues, as well as not always clear or comprehensive actions, like real life human beings, it is a captivating watch.

With no spoilers, as I feel the movie works best going in without knowing a single thing about it, I can only describe or hint that there are no monsters at all in the movie, the 'Monster' in the title here would have been better translated as 'Beast', or something non-human, sub-human specially, and it is a commentary on how we are all made to feel sub-human sometimes for the way we feel and how we act, a commentary on the shortcomings of humans as individuals, as well as the fact that this 'un-humaness' sometimes projected into us by our peers is in fact what makes us Human. Everyone in this movie (save a few non-protagonist characters) is capable of great love as well as great harm. As a troubled kid, deeply misinterpreted during my shcool years, who suffered abuse and neglect, but also caused great harm on others, I couldn't help but cry copiously during some scenes in this movie, and I can count on my fingers the amount of times I've cried during a movie. Acting is on point as well, with a special mention to the kid's duo who manage to protray an immensily complex and believable relationship. On a techical level the film is subdued, although it shines here and there (one scene specially): the photogrphy is nothing mind blowing, the same can be said for the soundtrack, but I feel these elements, that can often break the suspense of disbelief, ot take too much attention to itself when being over the top, was left purposefully barebones for the audience to focus on the characters and the stories being told. Excellent film, so far Koreeda's best (that I've watched) and I hope it wins as many Best Foreign Picture awards as possible.