‘Monster’ Review: Hirokazu Kore-Eda’s Latest Is Powerful ‘Rashomon’-Style Human Drama – Cannes Film Festival
deadline.comJapan’s most prolific and successful contemporary filmmaker, Hirokazu Kore-Eda, is back in a favorite place, Cannes, for the unveiling of his latest effort, a return to his Japanese storytelling roots and a good one at that.
For his seventh film in the main Cannes competition and his ninth overall (counting two that appeared in Un Certain Regard), Monster represents the first movie since his 1995 debut feature Mabofosi that the director has not had a screenplay credit on — this film being written by Sakamoto Yuji — but clearly with its humanist family-centered themes is right in this master craftsman’s wheelhouse.
After last year’s lighter Cannes entry, Broker which was his first Korean film, Monster is more in line with his touching 2013 Jury Prize winner Like Father, Like Son and his 2018 Palme d’Or winner Shoplifters which also earned him a foreign language Oscar nomination.
In fact he is teaming here again with a star of the latter, the wonderful Ando Sakura who plays Saori, a take-no-prisoners widowed mother now bringing up her son Minato (Kurokawa Soya) who as the film’s first act demonstrates is going through some tough times in his elementary school.
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