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Monster

Directed by Kore-eda Hirokazu
2023
Japan
127 minutes
Unclassified 15+
Direct from the Cannes Competition, Monster is an intense, mysterious and morally complex drama from Kore-eda Hirokazu (Shoplifters, SFF 2018; Broker, SFF 2022), told through multiple perspectives.
Young Minato starts to behave very strangely. He insists that he is a monster; that his brain was switched with a pig’s, and he also bears physical injuries. His concerned mother, Saori, discovers that a teacher, Hori, is responsible for her son’s distress and storms into the school demanding the truth and that the teacher be disciplined. All she gets in response are robotic apologies and the claim that it has all been a “misunderstanding”. As the battle between mother and school intensifies, Kore-eda deftly switches perspectives, and everything Saori thinks she knows comes into question. Kore-eda, a brilliant director of children as in Nobody Knows, draws nuanced performances from the child actors here, who are sometimes vulnerable and sweet and at other times terrifying. As the intricate details are gradually revealed, and Kore-eda X-rays these characters and community, Monster keeps you on the edge of your seat, weaving a provocative and mesmerising contemporary tale.

Kore-eda Hirokazu’s directorial debut, Maborosi (SFF 1996), won the Venice Film Festival’s Golden Osella. Other films include: After Life (SFF 1999), Distance (2001); Nobody Knows (2004), Hana (SFF 2007); Still Walking (SFF 2009); Air Doll (2009); I Wish (2011); Like Father Like Son (2013); Our Little Sister (SFF 2015); After the Storm (2016); Shoplifters (SFF 2018) and Broker (SFF 2022).
This is a film created with a great moral intelligence and humanity.
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
A minutely observed, profoundly compassionate chronicle of untidy contemporary lives.
Nicholas Barber, BBC

Tickets

Fri 16 Jun
6pm
State Theatre
Assisted Listening
Wheelchair
Subtitled
Past Event Cancel
Sat 17 Jun
11:45am
State Theatre
Assisted Listening
Wheelchair
Subtitled
Past Event Cancel
Sun 18 Jun
3:15pm
Hayden Orpheum Cremorne - Cinema 4
Assisted Listening
Wheelchair
Subtitled
Past Event Cancel
Program Strand
Official Competition
Year
2023
Classification
Unclassified 15+
Country
Japan
Language
In Japanese with English subtitles
Director
Kore-eda Hirokazu
Producer
Kawamura Genki, Yamada Kenji, Banse Megumi, Ito Taichi, Taguchi Hijiri
Cast
Ando Sakura, Nagayama Eita, Kurokawa Soya
Screenwriter
Sakamoto Yûji
Cinematographer
Kondô Ryûto
Editor
Kore-eda Hirokazu
Premiere
Australian Premiere
Genre
Cinephile, Cannes Selected, Asia
Company Credits
Australian Distributor: Madman Entertainment
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