Monster (2023)

Some films come at you with noise. With explosions. With a need to be loud so you do not miss them. But some films arrive quietly. They walk in, sit beside you, and slowly take your hand. Monster is that kind of film. It does not tell you how to feel. It trusts that you already feel deeply. You just need a story that reminds you.

The movie begins with a simple concern. A mother notices a shift in her son. He is withdrawn. He comes home with a wounded heart and silence wrapped around him. His teacher seems to be the reason. That is what she believes. And with that belief, the story begins to take shape. But nothing stays simple in Monster. What we think we know is just the beginning. Because this story is not about a single version of the truth. It is about how the truth changes depending on who is telling it.

Sakura Ando plays Saori, the mother. You might remember her from Shoplifters, where she carried the weight of survival in a world that barely saw her. Here, she does something different but just as powerful. She brings us into the inner world of a mother who is doing her best. Not perfectly. Not heroically. Just honestly. She is trying to love her son through confusion and fear. And you can feel her breaking, even when she looks composed.

Mr Hori, the teacher, is played by Eita Nagayama. His presence in this story is soft and unsure. He is a man caught in a web he did not build but cannot escape. We begin by suspecting him. But as the layers fall away, what we see is not evil. It is misunderstanding. It is misjudgment. It is how quickly the world creates a villain out of someone it barely knows.