What does it mean to be a monster? There are several kinds of monsters in Hirokazu Kore-eda's latest film, or, more accurately, several kinds of monstrous feelings.
Set in an anonymous town in rural Japan, Monster opens with widowed single mother Saori (Sakura Andō) who's worried about her son Minato (Sōya Kurokawa) after he starts behaving strangely: he comes home from elementary school with a bloody ear, disappears in the night, and jumps out of a moving car. When he blames his teacher, Mr. Hori (Eita Nagayama), Saori storms into the school and demands apologies and dismissals, but the truth isn't quite as simple as it first appears and the key to decoding Minato's behavior appears to be Yori (Hinata Hiiragi), a bullied outsider in his class who forms a bond with Minato.
