Monster

In mountainous Nagano, we see a building mysteriously ablaze. Concerned single mother Saori (Sakura Ando) has confronted her son’s primary school headteacher. Saori’s complaint is that son Minato (Soya Kurokawa) appears to have been bullied by his errant teacher. The school stonewalls the issue, but as events begin again from the teacher’s point of view, a nuanced and surprising story emerges. Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda (Shoplifters and Broker) returns with another delicate, empathetic film about children. Monster also features the beautiful final works by the late composer Ryuichi Sakamoto.