Hirokazu Kore-eda is set to make a splash on this awards season once again with his latest film, Monster, just as the Japanese filmmaker has done recently with Broker and Shoplifters. Well Go USA has now set an awards-qualifying theatrical run beginning on November 22nd in New York, followed by December 1st in Los Angeles with a wider rollout to come in the winter.
Monster finds 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 earlier this year.
The film came away with two awards at Cannes, including Best Screenplay for Sakamoto.
Check out a new trailer for Monster below! Here’s hoping it arrives at Middleburg Film Festival (tickets found here) in a couple of weeks!