Can you have a Cannes Film Festival without Hirokazu Kore-eda? Fortunately, my favorite director also works extremely fast, and so we don’t have to experience such a thing. He has become a staple of the festival, with films such as Like Father Like Son, After the Storm, Our Little Sister, Palme d’Or winner Shoplifters, and last year’s Broker earning numerous accolades. And now Kore-eda returns to Cannes with Monster, a film that marks a change-of-pace for the filmmaker.
Monster will find Kore-eda adapting another’s screenplay for the first time since 1995’s Maborosi. The film has a script by Yuji Sakamoto (I Fell in Love Like A Flower Bouquet), and centers on a mother who demands answers from a teacher when her son, a student at the school, begins acting strangely.
Kore-eda reunites with Shoplifters actress Sakura Ando, along with Nagayama Eita, Takahata Misuki, Kakuta Akihiro, Nakamura Shido, Tanaka Yuko, and child actors Soya Kurokawa and Hinataare Hiiragi. Composing the music was legendary composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, who sadly passed away just last month.
Check out the trailer below. Yeah, it’s in Japanese but it’s Kore-eda and the emotions are clear. We’ll update with a U.S. version when available.
