Monster

A single mother in Japan grows worried when her young son Minato starts behaving strangely and comes home withdrawn. When she learns that a teacher may be responsible, she goes to the school demanding to know what has been happening to him, but the staff are slow to respond. As the story unfolds from the perspectives of the mother, the teacher and the child, what initially looks straightforward turns out to be more complicated than any of them assumed.

This 2023 Japanese drama is directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, the thirteenth of the sixteen films he has directed in chronological order, following Broker (2022) and preceding Ashura no Gotoku (2024). The screenplay is by Yuji Sakamoto. Sakura Ando plays the mother, Saori Mugino, with Soya Kurokawa as Minato and Hinata Hiiragi as Yori Hoshikawa; Eita Nagayama, Yuko Tanaka and Mitsuki Takahata also appear. It runs 125 minutes and was produced by TOHO, Fuji Television Network, AOI Pro. and BUN-BUKU.

The film took about 20 million dollars worldwide. Audiences rate it 7.8 out of 10 on IMDb from roughly 41,000 votes and 7.9 out of 10 on TMDB from around 961 votes. A critics' rating stands at 8.2 out of 10 from 173 reviews, placing it somewhat above the audience scores.