Review of Monster / 怪物, directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda

Lately, I’ve been getting back into my groove with Asian cinema. My last two semesters of graduate school, which consisted of me trying to get my master’s thesis on Korean women’s literature done, I had very little time to actually watch movies and then blog about it. A lot of people don’t realize the effort it goes into blogging—and most people don’t make any money off of it! So they’re doing a job on top of it.

But when grad school ended and I was waiting for my flight to South Korea, it was time to kick myself back into watching movies and reading an insane amount of books. In the time between May 2024 and mid-June 2024, I learned to test my limits when it came to consuming these forms of media.

Anyways, I watched Monster on the flight to Korea. After a disappointing flight to San Francisco, I was delighted to see that the options going to Seoul were actually pretty good.

I’ve been trying to see this movie for a while, but no theatres in a ten mile radius showed it around me. Hirokazu Kore-eda is usually a solid pick for me, and straight up I did enjoy this film a lot.

This would be the second movie I watched during this time. I don’t want you to be bored with the details of my flight, so let’s get into the review and summary then, shall we?

A young, struggling boy lashes out against the adults in his life as he feels misunderstood.

Monster begins with a conflict: Saori Mugino’s a single mother in Japan, and her son Minato is in the fifth grade. Lately, he’s been acting out and exhibiting some bizarre behavior as he goes out in his daily life. For example, he’s trying to cut his own hair, or only appears at home with a single shoe on.

Saori becomes majorly concerned one night when Minato doesn’t come home at all one night. She makes her phone calls, then gets into the car to find him herself. Eventually, she does find him in a train tunnel. With context clues, she deduces that her son’s homeroom teacher is abusing him in front of the other students.

She goes to the school and demands an answer for what is happening. The meeting with faculty and the principal ends terribly, as she thinks they’re acting cold towards her and doesn’t actually believe what she thinks is happening to her son. But when Saori goes up to the teacher, Mr. Hori, he claims that Minato is actually bullying another student named Yori.

After hearing this, Saori decides to visit Yori. She goes to his home and discovers that Yori is also a little strange, but he seems friendly hearing about Minato. Mr. Hori is let go from the school due to the outrage that has broken out from the case, but comes back to confront Minato (also a bit odd). When Mr. Hori goes up the steps, Minato falls down them trying to escape him.

One night, a rain storm begins. Despite the downpour, Mr. Hori goes to Saori’s home, and the two learn that Minato is missing. It’s this moment the movie inverts on itself and shows us what really happened.

It’s in Mr. Hori’s perspective, and he noticed how Minato was showing erratic behavior in the classroom, including locking Yori into a bathroom. Mr. Hori goes to Yori’s home and discovers his father is not only abusive, but an alcoholic as well.

When Saori noticed what was happening, the school told Hori they would handle it and forced him to resign. Journalists hounded him to ask what really happened, and then his girlfriend dumped him because of the scandal. Mr. Hori came to confront Minato that day, but then almost decided to kill himself after he fell down the steps.

At home, he looks at Yori’s homework, which had a code spelling out Minato’s name. That’s when Mr. Hori decided to come to Saori’s home and tell him that he thinks there’s nothing wrong with him and his behavior. In the present day, Hori and Saori go out and try to find him.

By the tunnel, there’s an abandoned railcar. The only thing there is his poncho.

We then get another flashback: it’s from Minato. We see how Yori is bullied by other students, and Yori was the one who cut off Minato’s hair. Minato defended him, which Mr. Hori misinterpreted, and Minato begins thinking that he has romantic feelings for Yori.

This leads to a spiral of self-doubt, but he goes to Yori’s home one night and discovers his father tried to make him straight. When the rainstorm happened, Minato found Yori all alone, and they run away. The path they tried to take no longer has a gate, and they run down it.

Overall Thoughts

I absolutely adored this movie, and the soundtrack, which is the final score from Ryuichi Sakamoto before his death, is stunning throughout the film. I was not expecting this movie to take the turns it did, but it shows how adults sometimes don’t even know best and even fail children sometimes.

With that ending, I don’t think the kids are dead at all. It’s an open ending for sure, but it would be a bit tragic in my eyes to say it ended that way, and there aren’t any clues I spotted to imply that they did pass away.

Most impressive though is how these kids acted. They were so believable, and there was a lot to admire in the simplicity in their performances. I think this is a movie I will be returning to throughout my life because of this.

Definitely go watch the film if you’re interested. It’s thoughtful art that adds a lot of meaning to the world.

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