‘Monster’ review: intricately woven mystery bolstered by Ryuichi Sakamoto’s final film score

Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda brings warmth, humanity and understanding to this complex puzzle box story about troubled childhood and the perils of perspective. As such, it’s a beautifully constructed and emotionally engaging tale that’s constantly surprising.

The story begins with an arresting image: an apartment building on fire in a small Japanese town. A rumour quickly goes around that local teacher Mr Hori (Eita Nagayami) was seen leaving a hostess bar in the building, so single mother Saori (Sakura Ando) is already suspicious of him when her young son Minato (Soya Kurokawa) tells her that Mr Hori has been abusing him at school, both verbally and physically.

A furious Saori heads to the school to complain, but is stonewalled by a bizarrely formal apology orchestrated by the principal (Yûko Tanaka). Eventually, Mr Hori reveals that in fact Minato has been bullying another child, sensitive classmate Yori (Hinata Hiiragi). But what’s really going on?

Kore-eda uses an intriguing structural device to tell the story, looping back twice to replay the same events from different perspectives. It’s not quite the Rashomon effect – the events themselves don’t change – but each perspective offers extra information that completely changes our interpretation of the story, and the characters’ motivations.

The result is fascinating, not least because of the way it alters the central themes of the film. At first it appears to be a drama about bullying and institutional cover-ups, but it gradually shifts and reveals itself to be about something altogether more sensitive, exploring coming-of-age elements like identity, social pressure, friendship and the damage caused by dysfunctional family relationships.

The script, by Yûji Sakamoto, is intricately constructed, drip-feeding little details of the larger mystery in a way that rewards paying close attention. In particular, Kore-eda makes great use of certain recurring objects – a shoe, a lighter – to the point where their final appearances feel like the pieces of a puzzle clicking satisfyingly into place. On a similar note, he also constructs an elaborate tease involving the film’s title, with the word “Monster” repeating several times in the film, in different contexts.

Kore-eda’s sensitive direction plays interesting games with the audience’s sympathies throughout, underlining the film’s key point about the importance of perspective. This pays off beautifully in the third act, when the full story reveals itself and the characters’ true motivations are touchingly laid bare.

The performances are superb, with Nagoyami, Kurokawa and Hiiragi each carefully shading their characters, so that they fluctuate between suspicious and sympathetic. There’s also strong support from Tanaka, whose character turns out to have a dark secret of her own.

In addition, Kore-eda creates a great sense of place, aided by some superb locations and set design work, most notably with an abandoned train car in the forest, which serves as a sort of trouble-free idyll for Minato and Yori, somewhere where their imaginations can be given free reign.

On top of that, there’s a terrific score, including tracks composed specially for the film by the late composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, to whom the film is dedicated. The sound design work is impressive too, especially during a key typhoon sequence, and a surprisingly moving scene involving brass instruments.