monster korean movie review

Monster (2014) Movie Review: A Tonally Wild Thriller on Nurturing Love versus Generational Trauma

South Korean cinema’s post-2000s boom is noted for subversive genre flicks. It’s an era of film that took established tropes and conventions and turned them on their heads to add depth to themes and ideas. While the predictable aspects of a narrative easily immersed the audience, the director and writers twisted those expectations, creating a perfect enriching, and emotional movie experience. Hwang In-ho falls into the same category, choosing to play with the tone of his work as a writer and director. “Monster (2014)” is established in its prologue as an odd duck of a film, as it shifts from a lighthearted, quirky comedy indiscriminately into troubling violence. The writing is economical, establishing a haphazard editing pattern that keeps the viewer on their feet at all times.

We first meet Bok-Soon (Kim Go-eun), a vegetable seller with a developmental disability. She’s fierce, feisty, and considered a psychotic person in her village neighborhood. Bok-Soon lives in her own happy world, often seeing visions of her grandmother in the Sun, having left her with the task of raising her younger sister, Eun-Jeong (Kim Bo-ra). Her world is about to get bigger in ways her innocent mind can never imagine. On the other end of this story is Tae-soo (Lee Min-ki), a psychotic serial killer isolated from the rest of the world. His murderous rage is linked to his horrible childhood under his adoptive stepmother, Kyeong-ja (Kim Boo-seon), and his debt-ridden brother Ik-sang (Kim Roi-ha). Hwang In-ho pens the lead characters’ connection between their isolation in the face of “normal” society and the contrasting relationships with their siblings.

When Eun-Jeong runs afoul of Tae-soo while helping Na-ri (Ah Seo-hyun), a victim on the run, things don’t end well. Bok-soon is lost without her sister, unable to comprehend the violence and drawn to saving Na-ri. Their relationship, too, runs deep, thematically. In a bid to help his brother procure evidence for a high-profile person in business, Tae-soo murders Na-ri’s sister Yeon-hee (Han Da-eun) and comes after her to find said evidence. The writing does exceptionally well to untangle this web of connections, pitting Bok-soon and Na-ri against the cruel forces of Tae-soo, with Ik-sang reluctantly behind him, plotting his own actions. It’s a classic tale of David versus Goliath, balled into a chase thriller and revenge plot. Hwang In-ho’s fascinating treatment makes that marriage of conventional storytelling arcs all the more exciting.

At times, comedy feels insulting to its central characters, especially Bok-soon’s disability. However, the film’s burst of comedic moments and melodrama really enhance the tension when Tae-soo’s disturbing acts come into play. Using humor to undercut the tension works surprisingly well, especially in conjunction with how simple Hwang In-ho keeps the craft of the film. There’s an element of childish fantasy to the quest Bok-soon, and Na-ri go on to attain revenge for their sisters. Though trauma bonded by their past, the duo is too young and naïve to comprehend the dangers ahead, let alone mull in their grief. Things become a touch theatrical, but the writing reins in the emotion. The screenplay charts how wild this journey is, especially for a country bumpkin like Bok-soon as she heads to the city to protect Na-ri from the wrath of Tae-soo.

It clashes well with the tonal shifts not just in writing but also in style when the viewer enters the disturbing world surrounding Tae-soo. His scenes with his estranged family are rife with tension. Color in Bok-soon’s journey goes from bright to slightly muted; for Tae-soo, the color in his scenes is dark and desaturated. The music too, jumps with no continuity between light and touching to distracting and harsh, echoing the psyche of the protagonist versus the antagonist. These disparate styles come clashing together as the protagonist and antagonist finally collide.

Their arcs and psyches merge with the narrative, intelligently woven through craftsmanship. This all helps highlight the film’s core theme: the idea of how unconditional love can be a boon in a selfish world. The tragedy of Tae-soo’s psychotic behavior is connected as much to his nature as it is to his upbringing in a family using him for their own means. Though Hwang In-ho does best to highlight this, he also somewhat falters in the climax in making this message clear.

However, with Bok-soon and her growing bond with Na-ri, the writing is still gentle and tender despite a lack of political correctness. It all ostensibly leads to Bok-soon going off the extreme deep end in a bid for revenge, but still finds heart in her escape into violence. Her condition also means that, much like the jumping tone, her character conveniently brushes past pain and violence to see the brighter side. Living inside her world has its benefits, even when the film’s resolutions become ridiculously easy. With that in mind, Hwang In-ho’s “Monster” isn’t as provocative with the narrative or structure as it is daring in tone. Yet somehow, this adherence to tropes and archetypes works wonders for the film. It all comes down to conviction; even when “Monster” takes odd diversions and reaches ridiculous heights with Bok-soon’s actions, it feels believable and immersive.

Amidst an increasingly cynical viewing public, a plot like “Monster” works because of the belief that the audience will engage with the characters. As outdated as his treatment of Bok-soon is, the empowerment story of her seeking her revenge envelops the viewer. Hwang In-ho understands the need for the public to root for an underdog, and Bok-soon is etched as the perfect one thanks to Kim Go-eun’s endearing performance. Returning from a short-acting hiatus to her sophomore feature film, Go-eun sinks her teeth into the role.

She has fun with the scenes of levity, selling with ease her absurd worldview and explosive demeanor. We understand how deeply her love for her sister sustains her and how that transfers to her concern over Na-ri. It’s invigorating and disheartening to see Bok-soon struggle with the outside world, especially the ruthless city, as she briefly loses her sense of self to take on Tae-soo.

Lee Min-ki as Tae-soo is thus the perfect foil to her, not just in character but also as a performance. When the Police first ask Bok-soon to describe him, she uses the word handsome, which fits perfectly. There’s a disarming charm to Tae-soo despite the emptiness inside of him. Min-ki provides a balancing act, his psychotic tendencies just simmering under the simple shift of an eye and a smile that thankfully doesn’t border on cliché. Both actors understand their assignment and their directors’ intent as their dual narratives come to closure together. In them, Hwang In-ho finds the conduit to highlight how the right kind of nurturing can move past any deficiency and trauma to win over one’s basest nature.

Read More: The 39 Best Korean Movies of the 21st Century

Monster (2014) movie links: imdb , rotten tomatoes , wikipedia , letterboxd the cast of monster (2014) movie: lee min-ki, kim go-eun monster (2014) movie genre: action/mystery & thriller, runtime: 1h 53m, where to watch monster, trending right now.

Aneesh Raikundalia is a Filmmaker/Animator, with a passionate thirst for learning and watching everything on film. His current short stop motion film; ‘Panda’ (Winner, Best Animation at 5th Eldoret Film Festival) is currently playing on Comic Caper Productions YouTube channel.

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Monster (2014) 몬스터

Directed by: Hwang In-ho (황인호) Starring: Lee Min-ki (이민기), Kim Go-eun (김고은), Ahn Seo-hyun (안서현), Kim Bu-seon (김부선), Kim Roi-ha (김뢰하), Kim Bo-ra (김보라), Bae Seong-woo (배성우), Heo Joon-seok (허준석) Release Date: March 13th, 2014

By the time Hwang In-ho’s Monster  rolled around in 2014, South Korean thrillers had become a dime a dozen. And if they weren’t receiving rave reviews upon release, non-native Korean audiences like myself, who often have to go out of their way to track down subtitles or even a decent quality presentation of the film, may have been keen to pass and put their film watching efforts towards something else.  Monster  was one such thriller outing that I initially passed on that I’ve come to regret.

A factory owner asks his nephew Ik-Sang (Kim Rai-ha) to deliver $300,000 in cash to a former female employee  who is currently blackmailing him with a recorded video on her cell phone of the owner slapping her face multiple times. Ik-Sang delivers the cash to loan sharks he’s indebted to after his newly constructed building fails to rent out any units. With his demanding uncle expecting the cell phone with the compromising video returned to him, Ik-sang reluctantly asks for help from his estranged brother Tae-su (Lee Min-ki), for whom death and killing is no stranger.

Meanwhile, Bok-soon (Kim Go-eun), who has been called stupid and crazy her whole life, lives alone with her younger sister Eun-jeong (Kim Bo-ra) in the countryside where she barely earns a living by selling vegetables on the side of the street. Finding herself getting into fights with land developers who pressure her to move locations, her sister Eun-jeong decides to move to Seoul where she’ll study in order to earn enough money so that her and Bok-soon will finally earn some respect. Devastated that her one and only sister will leave, Bok-soon pleads Eun-jeong to take her with her. But before the night is through, a mysterious young girl (Ahn Seo-hyun) shows up on alone their doorstep unable to speak.

Unbeknownst to the girls, Tae-su has been tracking the young girl in connection with the cell phone retrieval mission. In a sick game of his own making, Tae-su, who has already murdered the young girl’s older sister in front of her, vows to kill anyone she seeks to protect her. And less than 24 hours later, all three girls find themselves face to face with the monster who mercilessly kills Eun-jeong before disappearing with her body.

As the village idiot, Bok-soon is unable to convince authorities of the horrifying encounter and is forced to take matters into her own hands. Armed with a vegetable knife and few dollars, Bok-soon and the young girl, Nari, head for the big city of Seoul to confront their sisters’ killer. With the odds against them, Bok-soon must channel her rage and in order to become a formidable Monster of her own if she’s to stop Tae-su’s endless wake of destruction.

Monster  is a very strange movie. If the bright colors and oddly timed comedic gags (mostly found within the Bok-soon side of the story) early on throw you for a loop, don’t take it personally. The creators of  Monster  made a special effort to create a thriller experience like none other . Not only does it feature some of the most unique characterizations ever to be found within the thriller genre by pitting two small stature female characters, one just 10 years old, against an unstoppable psychopath who turns his victims into clay pots, but the evolving nature of their personalities pushes the weirdness even deeper into uncharted territory.

In the red corner, we have Tae-su who is without a doubt one of the more bizarrely psychotic killers out there. He lives as a hermit in an old house in the countryside where he makes his own pottery. His family fears him and avoids contact at all costs. But the most interesting and frightening aspect of Tae-su’s personality is the sad realization that his destructive nature stems from the trauma of his early family abandonment. Now, his desire to keep others from ever leaving him again spurs him to harvest the souls of his victims by melting down their bodies in a kiln and molding their remains into clay jars he collects in his basement. In this way, Tae-su temporarily frees himself from loneliness while the seemingly unattainable dream of spending quality time with his mother and brother continue to fuel his monstrous ways.

And Bok-soon, in the blue corner, is undoubtedly a strangely mad woman. She sings dirty hymns and has her own set of rules for life. That being said, she’s a loving sister and her spiritual energy can fill a room quickly. She can be crude and childish but she remains pure at heart. It’s hard to imagine a world where she could square off against a bloodthirsty serial killer, but her energy appears limitless so when her inner beast is unleashed, take cover or run for hills because there’s a new monster in town.

Lee Min-ki (Spellbound, For the Emperor) channels a weird sort of loveless yearning for affection through his mix of subtle glances and cold stare downs as his eagerness to please his family drives him closer and closer towards the edge of sanity. All the scary talk of, “Whatever you do, don’t bring him anywhere around here” and even the bizarre hiring of a somewhat mentally challenged fighting expert (Bae Sung-woo) to act as Ik-sang’s bodyguard when he visits his brother helps to build up tension and curiosity surrounding Tae-su’s unpredictability and ferociousness. This way, Tae-su remains largely an enigma until deep into the third act of the film, where the sad nature of his own molding into the monster he has become is satisfyingly revealed during the final encounters he has with his family.

Fresh off her brave and award-winning performance in  Eungyo  (2012), Kim Go-eun has a special ability to elevate her roles to that next level which makes me like her more and more with everything I see her in. In  Monster , she pulls of a strange mixture of being weak and helpless in one aspect while being capable of conjuring up the spirit of a demon in another, especially in regards to protecting her loved ones. This is definitely an actress for whom the sky is the limit.

For those looking for nail-biting tension or nonstop thrills,  Monster may come off as too uneven in tone with its random moments of comic relief. But for those that like mixing things up for fresh experiences, there is a lot to enjoy here. The final act of  Monster  is tight and well written as it evolves into one of the most darkly comedic yet disturbing family dramas I’ve seen in a long time . And even though the set design in a few scenes doesn’t feel properly dressed for full cinematic emersion, coming across too clean or empty and perhaps more suited for daytime dramas, the cinematography by Kim Gi-tae (Bedevilled, Slow Video ) is outstanding as it beautifully captures both the remote countryside mountains as well as the densely packed and narrow urban streets of downtown Seoul’s back alleyways.

Like director Hwang In-ho’s debut film Spellbound (2011) , a romantic comedy and horror mashup,  Monster  is a curious mix of screwball comedy and bizarre family thriller that make for a completely twisted yet fresh viewing experience .  Monster  ambitiously attempts to sandwich laughs in between the devastating misfortunes of its lead characters who’ve all fallen victim to broken homes torn apart by brutal violence, greed, or other mental challenges. As hard of a task as this may sound to do and although  Monster  takes time to find its footing, the third act almost blissfully balances these two extremes as it bookends one of the most visceral and rage-filled bloodbaths I’ve ever seen with smiles on either end .

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'Monster' Review: Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Multilayered and Genre-defying Mystery Defies Easy Interpretation | Cannes 2023

The latest film from the director of 'Broker' and 'Shoplifters' doesn't answer every question it raises yet still leaves an impact all the same.

On the surface, Hirokazu Kore-eda 's Monster seems to merely be about a boy struggling at school with his single mother doing her best to keep their life together. When an incident leaves her son injured, she storms into said school to demand consequences for the teacher she believes caused the injury. Kore-eda crafts a careful story, full of hidden twists and turns that reveal themselves with time and patience. Based on a screenplay by Yuji Sakamoto , Monster is the first film since 1995 that Kore-eda has directed without writing himself.

The story starts from Saori's ( Sakura Andō ) perspective. She's the single mother of Minato ( Soya Kurokawa ). Hard-working, loving, and a dedicated mother, Saori is rightfully concerned when her son comes home from school with all the telltale signs of being bullied. But the truth is more complicated than she thinks. When Saori demands answers from Minato's teacher Hori ( Eita Nagayama ) the story quickly spirals out from there.

RELATED: The Iconic Horror Movie You Won’t Believe Premiered at Cannes

Hirokazu Kore-eda Weaves a Narrative With Multiple Protagonists

The success of Monster lies in the fact that as the film progresses and as we see this story through Saori's eyes, then Hori's eyes, and then finally in Minato's eyes, a surface level story gains amazing depth. If you're paying attention, you might see some of the writing on the wall before it gets to the final act, but that doesn't make it any less satisfying.

Sometimes, the story presents threads that it never truly completes, like a storyline with Minato's principal ( Yūko Tanaka ), or one with Eri ( Hinata Hiiragi ), Minato's classmate, and his father ( Shidō Nakamura ). But that doesn't take away from the story at the center of Monster . It's hard to talk about the film without giving away its best parts, but in a Groundhog Day -like move, we relive the same set of days, turning Monster into a sort of mystery.

Monster is technically a drama, but Kore-eda dresses the film in different genres, sometimes as a Gothic horror, sometimes as a thriller, and sometimes as a mystery. The way Kore-eda positions the camera and builds suspense is done carefully. From Saori's perspective, we know the least. Like it or not, parents tend to be the adults who know the least about their children. We're left to wonder along with Saori about what is happening to Minato, our minds jumping to the worst case scenario. The end of Saori's segment feels directly ripped from a Gothic novel, complete with howling winds and an oncoming typhoon.

'Monster' Defies Genres With an Ambiguous Ending

With Hori, we go deeper. We see Minato at school and we see the conclusions that Hori comes to, but having seen him at home, Hori's interpretation is also not fully accurate. But our opinion of the teacher changes after walking the proverbial mile in his shoes. Kore-eda takes a generally unlikeable character who makes some crass remarks and acts irreverently to Saori and turns him sympathetic.

With Minato, the pieces finally come together, and it's not a horror movie or a thriller that we're in. It's something softer, sweeter, and more innocent. Its heartfelt and emotional center is only revealed in the final act as we learn the source of Minato's troubles and the truth of what is going on in his life. Peeling back the layers through different perspectives shows us just what kind of kid Minato is, a vast difference from who we met in the first third of the movie.

Fitting with the format of the film, the story ends ambiguously, leaving the ending open to interpretation. Kore-eda does enough heavy lifting through the film that even this feels satisfying in some way. We still have questions, but those questions don't leave us feeling unfulfilled at all.

Monster had its world premiere at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival.

‘Monster’ Review: Kore-eda Hirokazu Hides Surprise Plea for Acceptance Beneath Much Darker Themes

A tricksy timeline and the selective unveiling of crucial information keeps audiences from guessing where this convoluted portrait of a pre-teen in turmoil might be headed.

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

Chief Film Critic

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In film after film, from “Nobody Knows” to “Shoplifters,” Japanese master Kore-eda Hirokazu has proven himself to be among the medium’s most humanistic directors, inclined to see the best in people, especially children. So how to reconcile the way “ Monster ” makes us feel?

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When the explanation for Minato’s behavior finally does emerge, it comes from left field, but pulls so many of the movie’s other mysteries together … except for one: Why would Kore-eda choose such a convoluted way of telling this particular story? By sharing only select pieces of each character’s private life, he all but obliges us to leap to incorrect conclusions, distracting with topics such as bullying, aggression and suicide when the real subject — how children are socialized, and the unfair pressures this puts on anyone who doesn’t fit the norm — is so much simpler than any of the intriguing dimensions teased along the way.

When Saori finally realizes something’s wrong, she calls a meeting with the school principal (Tanaka Yuko). Believing Minato’s claim that Mr. Hori is responsible for the way he feels, Saori demands to know what kind of school lets a teacher insult and hit the students. As the slight wisps of one of Ryuichi Sakamoto’s last compositions underscores her concern, Saori’s heart (and ours) breaks a little to hear her son say, “My brain was switched with a pig’s.”

Obviously, someone must have put that idea in Minato’s head, but we can’t possibly know enough at this point to comprehend his turmoil. The malicious “pig’s brain” comment eventually traces back to a hardly seen side character. The trouble is, Minato believes it about himself, and fear of being found out drives a wedge in his friendship with Yori — a theme previous explored in last year’s Cannes breakout “Close.” Neither film quite knows how to deal with the idea that some kids can sense at a very young age when they’re not wired like their peers, and so long as prepubescent queerness remains such a touchy subject, identifying as such remains incredibly difficult.

About 45 minutes into the film, Kore-eda allows us to think something terrible has happened to Minato amid a typhoon, before resetting the timeline and taking another look from Mr. Hori’s vantage. There’s a “Rashomon” quality to that strategy, although the events themselves don’t change, only the perspective does, as Kore-eda demonstrates how easy it is to jump to false conclusions about other people (especially when misdirected to do so by a manipulative screenplay). In short order, we realize Minato misled his mother. “Monster” is less clear about why the boy might have lied, subtly observing as Mr. Hori teases his students with remarks like “Are you a real man?” and assigns them essays about who they want to marry when they grow up.

In the third and final run-through, Kore-eda rewinds and replays things once again, this time with a more omniscient understanding of his characters’ motives. We learn that the school principal, whom Saori witnessed tripping a rambunctious child at the local supermarket, has a devastating secret of her own. In the film’s most touching scene, Minato confesses to her, and she assures him, “Happiness is something anyone can have.” From here on, “Monster” stops messing with us and reveals its message. The typhoon hits town for a third time, and instead of suggesting that the boy might be in danger — of self-harm or drowning — the sun comes out. And so does Minato’s secret. “Monster” might have ended terribly, when in fact, Kore-eda’s humanist instinct has been at work all along.

Reviewed at Cannes Film Festival (Competition), May 17, 2023. Running time: 125 MIN. (Original title: “Kaibutsu”)

• Production: (Japan) A Toho Co. Ltd., Fuji Television Network Inc., Gaga Corporation, Aoi Pro. Inc., Bun-Buku Inc. presentation of an Aoi Pro. Inc production. (World sales: Goodfellas, Paris.) Producers: Kawamura Genki, Yamada Kenji, Banse Megumi, Ito Taichi, Taguchi Hijiri. Executive producers: Ichikawa Minami, Oota Toru, Tom Yoda, Ushioda Hajime, Kore-eda Hirokazu. Co-executive producer: Usui Hisaishi.
• Crew: Director: Kore-eda Hirokazu. Screenplay: Sakamoto Yuji. Camera: Kondo Ryuto. Editor: Kore-eda Hirokazu. Music: Ryuichi Sakamoto.
• With: Mugino Saori, Hori Michitoshi, Mugino Minato, Hoshikawa Yori, Fushimi Makiko.

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Original Title: 몬스터

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Currently you are able to watch "Monster" streaming on The Roku Channel, Tubi TV, Freevee for free with ads or buy it as download on Amazon Video. It is also possible to rent "Monster" on Amazon Video online

Bok-Soon runs a street stall, cares for her younger sister, and is feared by many because of her quick temper. When Tae-Soo murders her sister, rage consumes her completely as she stalks the killer.

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‘Monster’ Review: Three Perspectives, One Truth

This drama from Hirokazu Kore-eda traces a series of events from the perspectives of a single mother, her preteen son and his fifth-grade teacher.

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By Natalia Winkelman

The stretch of time that unfurls in the sublime Japanese drama “Monster” begins with a fire and ends during a monsoon. These elemental disasters, and a fragile cluster of events that fall between them, are viewed from the perspectives of three characters entwined in a messy struggle for understanding: a boy, a mother and a teacher.

Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda (“Broker,” “Shoplifters”) and written by Yuji Sakamoto, “Monster” opens as Minato (Soya Kurokawa), a sensitive preteen, begins fifth grade. His single mom, Saori (Sakura Ando), grows concerned when Minato comes home distressed and with injuries. She soon casts blame on his teacher, Hori (Eita Nagayama), who is fired over the accusation.

A master of family affairs, Kore-eda directs with a discerning but delicate style, and “Monster,” with its triptych structure, initially feels more schematic than is typical of his works. There is a deep pleasure, though, in marrying this screenplay’s layered form with Kore-eda’s sensitivity and low-key naturalism. While the film’s first segment gestures at science fiction — Minato insists his brain was replaced with a pig’s — the second seamlessly pivots into something Kafkaesque. That’s all before Minato’s point of view excavates the story’s essential truths.

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. Put a different way: It’s easy to call someone a monster before you squelch a muddy mile in their shoes.

Monster Rated PG-13. In Japanese, with subtitles. Running time: 2 hours 6 minutes. In theaters.

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Monster (2024) Review

Following cinematic adventures in Paris ( The Truth ) and South Korea ( Broker ), Hirokazu Kore-eda returns to his homeland of Japan for another round of fractured families, isolation and loss. In essence, Monster is The Towering Inferno meets Rashomon meets Waterloo Road : the director spinning a compassionate tale from the point of view of a parent, then a teacher, then a pupil. It’s sometimes tough to follow but it is shot through with a gentle, generous spirit, lucid filmmaking and terrific performances, confirming Kore-eda as one of the best directors of children working today.

The starting point for each story cycle is a deliberate fire at a hostess bar in a lakeside Japanese town. Who actually started the fire is an overarching mystery that gurgles away beneath the narrative, but Kore-eda locates the story firmly in his delicate-drama wheelhouse. The core of the story starts with 11-year-old Minato (Sōya Kurokawa) confessing to his mother Saori (Sakura Andō) that he has been struck by teacher Mr Hori (Eita Nagayama), rumoured to be a frequenter of the burning knocking shop, and the fallout that follows.

Yet another beautiful meditation on the difficulty in finding happiness

Is the boy lying? Is the teacher a weirdo? All potentialities are given a thorough work-out as Monster plays out the events from different vantage points. Each different rendering deepens your understanding of the characters and, more importantly, makes your sympathies and allegiances slip and slide like a ’90s Essex foam party. The events themselves don’t change, only the perspectives, Kore-eda playing fast and loose with our tendency to always assume the worst.

The director is working from Yuji Sakamoto’s screenplay (the first time he hasn’t written his own for nearly 30 years), but this still feels like a Kore-eda joint. There’s lots of lovely detail on display — a single running shoe resonates more strongly in each version — and, as ever with Kore-eda, the performances are on point. Shoplifters ’ Sakura Andō is a force as the mother tearing into teachers she believes are concealing Mr Hori’s bullying, and the film misses her presence when it switches tack. Kurokawa is yet another product of the Kore-eda School Of Child Acting Prodigies, his friendship with Hinata Hiiragi as an androgynous classmate beautifully etched.

It lacks the easy simplicity of the filmmaker’s best work — the structural shenanigans sometimes work against its emotional efficacy — but it’s yet another beautiful meditation on the difficulty in finding happiness. It also gets a cherry on top with Ryuichi Sakamoto’s score (his last), the plaintive, piano-led pieces adding an air of melancholia  — the cumulative effect of which is released in the film’s final moments of joy.

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‘Monster’ Review: Hirokazu Kore-Eda’s Latest Is Powerful ‘Rashomon’-Style Human Drama – Cannes Film Festival

By Pete Hammond

Pete Hammond

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Hirokazu Kore-Eda On Working With Late Composer Ryuichi Sakamoto And Reteaming With ‘Shoplifters’ Actress Sakura Ando On His New Cannes Movie ‘Monster’

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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.

Minato seems to be in a deep funk, behaving quite oddly, not wanting to get out of bed, jumping from a moving car, and other strange behaviors that are puzzling to Saori until he says he was hit by his teacher who said he had a “pig’s brain” and insulted him in other ways. Saori storms into the principal’s office demanding an explanation but instead gets a profound apology from that teacher, Hori (Nagayama Eita), as well as other officials including the distant principal Fushimi (Tanaka Yuko), but believes there is much more to this than just that. She gets in their face demanding answers about what has happened to her son in this school, but Fushimi, having recently returned from experiencing a family tragedy, and Hori are not forthcoming.

RELATED: Read All Of Deadline’s Cannes Reviews

With superb casting Kore-Eda gets excellent work again from Sakura, as well as Eita, the latter as a teacher thrust into a personal crisis that has him teetering on the edge all due to a child’s lie. Veteran actress Tanaka Yuko also delivers with subtle work as the principal whose own secret and suffering slowly comes to a boil. Both the primary child actors here are superb, their relationship in some ways similar to last year’s Cannes Grand Prix winner Closer in terms of complex examination of vulnerable kids experiencing their own levels of trauma in their young lives.

Monster also benefits from a first association for Kore-Eda with the late great Oscar-winning composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, bringing a moving final musical score that turns out to be pitch perfect here.

Title: Monster Festival: Cannes (In Competition) Director: Hirokazu Kore-Eda Screenplay: Sakamoto Yuji Cast: Ando Sakura, Nagayama Eita, Kurokawa Soya, Hiiragi Hinata, Tanaka Yuko Running time: 2 hr 6 min Sales agent: Goodfellas

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‘monster’ review: hirokazu kore-eda measures the weight of bullying on childhood friendship in tender but diffuse drama.

The director’s first film made in Japan since his 2018 Palme d’Or-winning ‘Shoplifters’ applies the Rashomon effect to a story of fractured families and boys seeking connection.

By David Rooney

David Rooney

Chief Film Critic

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The movie opens with a blazing fire lighting up the night sky, destroying a building in a small regional city (the unidentified setting is Suwa on the shores of a lake in the Nagano prefecture). One floor of the building houses a hostess bar, and the rumored presence there that night of a new teacher at a local elementary school, Mr. Hori (Eita Nagayama), deepens the shadow cast across him through much of the narrative.

Nearby resident Saori (Sakura Ando, from Shoplifters ) watches with her preteen son Minato (Soya Kurokawa) from their apartment balcony as fire engines converge on the scene. Saori is a sharp-edged but loving mother living on modest means; she encourages Minato to honor his late father’s memory, humoring him with his fanciful questions about reincarnation.

A thread running through the original screenplay by Yuji Sakamoto illustrates how traditional Japanese reticence can muddy the truth, whether out of formality, shame or the desire to spare someone’s feelings. This comes through in the invigoratingly spiky scenes where a fired-up Saori confronts the carefully composed school principal, Fushimi (Yuko Tanaka), a dignified older woman who recently lost her grandson in tragic circumstances. She acknowledges the school’s responsibility, but reveals little, reading prepared statements before stepping away and leaving Saori to deal with three men on the faculty.

When Hori humbly apologies, first directly to Saori and then in front of the assembled 5th grade students’ parents, the matter would appear to be closed. But a shift from the perspective of Saori to Hori reveals the situation to be not so straightforward, raising questions about Minato’s relationship with another student, Yori (Hinata Hiragi). That kid is a frequent target of class bullying, being raised by his divorced father, a possibly abusive drunk.

Sakamoto’s screenplay builds low-key intrigue by intimating that the teachers feel they are being quietly crucified, shouldering blame for false transgressions to keep complaining parents quiet and avoid reprisals from the education board. This is echoed in the rumor that Fushimi has kept her professional reputation intact by scapegoating her husband in the death of their grandson.

In one beautiful scene, Principal Fushimi and Minato guardedly unburden themselves to each other, providing valuable insight into the social constraints on both adult and child. But it’s primarily in the interludes of refuge shared by Minato and Yori, roaming the woods or hanging out in an abandoned train carriage there, that the boys find sanctuary and the movie gets past its cumbersome structure to transmit Kore-eda’s characteristic empathy and tenderness.

Performances are lovely across the board, reaping rewards from the director’s unimpeachable skill at working with children. The visuals are unfussy and naturalistic but emotionally resonant in images like the two friends running joyfully across a stretch of sun-dappled green. The drama is complemented throughout by a gentle score of piano and occasional atonal horns by the late Ryuichi Sakamoto, to whom the film, his final project, is dedicated.

Monster is not a major Kore-eda entry, no doubt withholding too much to work completely, but for admirers of the director’s films, there are pleasures to be found.

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Monster Reviews

Alana is resourceful, but she’s also plagued with that specific horror movie disease where people repeatedly leave their weapons behind after only using them once. It’s a frustrating watch.

Full Review | May 17, 2024

Great idea – dialogue is overrated! – but Monster offers no real surprises or suspense.

The adept cast and simple set-up suggest that Monster should be considerably better than the final result, which proves by turns contrived, implausible, exasperating, and palpably ridiculous.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | May 10, 2024

Monster from Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda is a family drama that dives into the 'muck of morality'

"Family," writes American author Don DeLillo in his seminal novel White Noise, "is the cradle of the world's misinformation."

"Over-closeness, the noise and heat of being"; per DeLillo, these are the identifiers of the family unit.

These same traits suffuse the oeuvre of Hirokazu Kore-eda – the Japanese director who, over his three-decade career, has probed the dysfunctions and delights of families in varying states of strife.

DeLillo, in his novel, charts a nuclear clan facing a climate apocalypse, while Kore-eda's latest film Monster deals with the much more prosaic catastrophes of the schoolyard. But the same quandaries resonate: To what lengths might a family go to protect themselves from nebulous threats? What narratives may we invent to justify our actions?

Fittingly, Kore-eda's films are mostly set in and around the home. In his Palme d'Or winner Shoplifters, a dingy dormitory is a makeshift hide-out for a band of small-time crooks bound not by blood, but by survival.

In 2008's Still Walking and 2016's After the Storm, families – estranged, grieving, wounded – reunite under one rooftop, where old tensions tumble to the fore. The houses of both films become boiler rooms, as resentments resurface and illusions shatter. The noise and the heat, once repressed, suddenly detonate.

Monster revolves around a household of just two: a young single mother, Saori (Sakura Andō) and her tween son Minato (Sōya Kurokawa).

Minato, heading into fifth grade, is at an age where alliances are slippery and non-conformity is punished in the playground. The classroom, frequently, is a den of vipers: a never-ending stream of pranks and jeers searching for a victim.

The film opens with a series of omens: a building engulfed in flames, smoke ascending towards the stars, sirens piercing the dark. From their balcony, mother and son survey the scene with the fervour of sports spectators. "Go for it!" Saori squalls, cheering on fire trucks in the distance.

Soon, Minato's own behaviour begins taking on a bizarre sheen. He hacks his hair off in spiky clumps; he's bike-riding into the woods at the dead of night; he returns home one evening missing a sneaker.

Saori's frenetic energy belies her keen eye. She extracts an explanation from Minato – who claims his nervy new teacher Mr Hori (Eita Nagayama) has been physically and verbally abusing him – and before long she's wreaking havoc in the school principal's office.

There, a battle emerges between an unstoppable force and an immovable object. Saori seeks justice with a maternal tenacity, only to be met with futile, frustrating formalities: perfunctory bows and mealy-mouthed apologies.

One could easily imagine Monster continuing down this path, tracing an increasingly high-stakes fight against bureaucracy.

But, instead, Kore-eda performs a bait-and-switch. With a flick of the wrist, he tunnels back to the inferno which opened the film – and then again, for a third time – to recount the same events from the perspective of Mr Hori and Minato himself.

Every slice of the triptych undermines the earlier act, unpeeling the mystery and destabilising our understanding of all parties. Who is the victim and who is the so-called monster?

It's a slight change of pace for Kore-eda, whose prowess often lies in his poetry. Kore-eda's films move like liquid: We float from one scene to another as if we are simply dreaming.

Monster, in comparison, reveals the cogs of its own filmmaking. Its time jumps are deliberately jagged, forcing us to interrogate the muck of morality as our own assumptions about each character are proven false again and again.

It's a twisty film, and sometimes it comes across too calculated – though the final third is well worth the preceding tricks.

After so much adult bickering, we glimpse the world from fresh eyes: those of Minato and his classmate, the precocious outcast Yori (Hinata Hiiragi), who remains devastatingly bright-eyed despite the constant torment of his peers.

This last act of Monster brims with pinwheeling glee and Kore-eda's signature warmth, even as the film lurches towards a perilous conclusion. You might wish it lasted longer.

Monster is in cinemas now.

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Uncle Samsik’ On Hulu, Where A Corrupt Fixer And An Idealistic Young Politician Team Up In Postwar South Korea

Where to stream:.

• Uncle Samsik
• Korean Dramas

Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The 8 Show’ On Netflix, A Dark Comedy Where People Join A Strange Game Show Where Time Is Literally Money

Stream it or skip it: ‘blood free’ on hulu, a korean drama with miracle meat, corporate intrigue, and dangerous secrets, stream it or skip it: ‘parasyte: the grey’ on netflix, about a woman sharing her brain with an alien parasite, stream it or skip it: ‘a killer paradox’ on netflix, where a regular guy becomes an accidental serial killer and is pursued by a tenacious cop.

Most US film and TV fans know Song Kang-ho was in the 2019 Oscar-winning film Parasite , but he’s been an A-list movie star in South Korea for decades. Now, like many movie stars, he’s starring in a prestige TV series, about an uneasy political partnership in the tumultuous post-Korean War period of the late-’50s/early-’60s.

UNCLE SAMSIK : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Park Doo-chil (Song Kang-ho), a South Korean businessman, talks about how “out of love and respect,” people call him “Uncle Samsik” or some variation of it, and he loves it.

The Gist: In an unknown location in South Korea in 1960, a man named Kim San (Byun Yo-han) is questioned about Park; he explains what the nickname “Samsik” means: “Sam” is “three” and “Sik” is “food.” He made sure people had three meals a day, even during the war.

November, 1959 in Seoul. Two men who are part of a gang that got caught stealing oil from US troops come to Uncle Samsik to get their guys out of lockup. One of the two men coming to Samsik refuses to call him by that nickname. Samsik wants them to do him a favor first: Break the legs of a rival gang leader, who happens to be part of the Liberal Party. Samsik promises the two men the rival’s turf if they do it.

In the meantime, Kim San is going to work as a middle manager in the Ministry of Home Affairs. He studied economics in the US on an Albright scholarship, and he certainly has higher ambitions than his current position; he gets frustrated when his presentation to the home minister about steps to convert South Korea from a agricultural economy to an industrial one is interrupted when the minister is called away by President Rhee.

The president has taken his name out of reelection consideration, but there are protests demanding he jump back into the race. Kim is supporting Joo In-tae (Oh Kwang-rok), a candidate that not only eventually wants reunification but shares Kim’s view that the country needs to attract industry to survive. He’s going to a big speech Joo is making, at the invitation of his daughter, Joo Yeo-jin (Jin Ki-joo).

Samsik thinks he’s made a deal to acquire shares of an oil company and has entered into a partnership to develop waterfront property. He definitely thinks it’ll get him elected to the Cheongwoo Federation. He talks to one of the federation members about his experience eating pizza and how they can eat pizza when they’re flush with industrial money. But that deal might fall through, due to the American companies’ insistence on more control.

A young Liberal Party assemblyman comes to Samsik and asks him to kill the same rival whose legs Samsik wants broken. He’s already got a plan in place for the gang he brought on to take care of the rival’s gang during a speech by Joo In-tae.

During that speech, a melee predictably breaks out between the rival gangs, and Joo In-tae is escorted out. But in his stead, Kim gets up on stage and defends the candidate when one assemblyman in the crowd calls Joo a “commie.” When Kim mentions eating pizza when he studied in the US, he gets Samsik’s attention.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Uncle Samsik is somewhat of a Korean House Of Cards , where uneasy political alliances are made in order to further careers and business interests.

Our Take: Most people in the U.S. know Song Kang-ho for his role in the Oscar-winning film Parasite , and his performance is the centerpiece of Uncle Samsik . Park Doo-chil is a very pragmatic businessman; he knows what needs to be done in order to advance his interests. And when he talks about pizza with one of his fellow industrialists, he does so in a way that shows he’s got a vision and a dream about what he thinks postwar South Korea should be. If he has to break some legs — or worse — to do it, so be it.

But we also appreciated Byun Yo-han’s restrained but powerful turn as Kim San. He knows that there’s more in store for him than just being a paper pusher in the home ministry office. He’s going to put all of his skills and ability behind Joo In-tae’s candidacy, but Samsik certainly sees something in Kim, and the partnership between the two of them will be fascinating to watch, mainly because Kim seems to be a pretty ethical person when Park/Samsik is anything but.

However, sometimes opposites make for great partners. And the push and pull between the two as Samsik takes Kim under his wing will certainly be the driver of this series’ drama.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: Samsik pays close attention to Kim’s defense of Joo In-tae.

Sleeper Star: Joo Yeo-jin, played by Jin Ki-joo, will have a lot of influence over Kim San, and we wonder how that influence will affect Kim’s partnership with Samsik.

Most Pilot-y Line: During his speech about pizza, Samsik talks to his business associate about the ingredients, then realizes that his associate has never heard of cheese before.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Two fine lead performances drive the drama in Uncle Samsik , as does the fictionalized world that is postwar South Korea.

Joel Keller ( @joelkeller ) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com , VanityFair.com , Fast Company and elsewhere.

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Monster (2024) Streaming: Watch & Stream Online via Netflix

By Vrinda Mundara

Monster (2024) is an Indonesian horror-thriller drama film. Helmed by Rako Prijanto, the plot follows two best friends’ happy lives turning horrific after being abducted by a mysterious man outside their school. The film is an official remake of the 2020-released horror-mystery drama movie titled ‘The Boy Behind the Door.’

Here’s how you can watch and stream Monster (2024) via streaming services such as Netflix.

Is Monster (2024) available to watch via streaming?

Yes, Monster (2024) is available to watch via streaming on Netflix.

Alana and her friend Rabin, attend their school daily. However, their happy life routine is upended into chaos when they are deliberately kidnapped by a mysterious man. Will Alana be able to play the mind game and save their lives from looming danger?

The Indonesian horror-drama flick stars Anantya Kirana as Alana, Sulthan Hamonangan as Rabin, and Alex Abbad as Jack, among others.

Watch Monster (2024) streaming via Netflix

Monster (2024) is available to watch on Netflix.

With acclaimed drama shows like Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar, She, You, Stranger Things, Riverdale, Terzi, Thank You, Next, and so on, global OTT giant Netflix provides a curated canvas of entertaining content in different formats and languages for you to enjoy as per your preferences at any time of the day.

You can watch via Netflix by following these steps:

• Visit netflix.com/signup
• $6.99 per month (standard with Ads)
• $15.49 per month (Standard)
• $22.99 per month (Premium)
• Enter your email address and password to create an account
• Enter your chosen payment method

The cheapest Netflix Standard with Ads Plan provides all but a few of its movies and TV shows. However, it will show ads before or during most of its content. You can watch in Full HD and on two supported devices at a time.

Its Standard Plan provides the same but is completely ad-free while also allowing users to download content on two supported devices with an additional option to add one extra member who doesn’t live in the same household.

The Premium Plan provides the same as above, though for four supported devices at a time, with content displaying in Ultra HD. Users get to download content on up to six supported devices at a time and have the option to add up to two extra members who don’t live in the same household. Netflix spatial audio is also supported.

NOTE: The streaming services listed above are subject to change. The information provided was correct at the time of writing.

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A Hollywood movie and series buff who loves binging all things right from Marvel to Netflix followed by Kardashians ! A writer at heart always !

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Back to Black

The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time. The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time. The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time.

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How Marisa Abela Channeled Amy Winehouse

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• Trivia Marisa Abela had done most of the singing in this film herself. She trained extensively to mimic Amy Winehouse 's vocals.

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• Runtime 2 hours 2 minutes

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