Monster (Japanese)

Ideally, a coming-of-age film of pre-teen attraction/love/friendship between two boys, I would not classify this as a queer love story. Yes, it is somewhere there is the overall spectrum, but this film is a delicately elegant and extremely meticulous exploration of love and fear. I had heard about this film, ever since it premiered in Cannes and for some reason had been delaying watching it. And when I finally did, I realized that how much this film makes you think. The premise is about an incident with a school boy in his class, and its ramifications, both domestic and institutional; and how the story is told from three different perspectives. 

We meet a single mother raising her young son Minato, who’s starting to behave strangely, ask unsettling questions, develop injuries, and chant about some sort of unknown monster. He even goes missing in a storm drain, jumping from his mother’s moving car. One day when he comes home with a facial injury, he says that a teacher Mr. Hori  is responsible for it. When she goes to school to complain, she meets the very indifferent school principal. She gets repeated deferential apologies, but no explanation, especially around Mr. Hori's conduct and most importantly "why". We then see the situation taking us back from day 1 and the film shows us the perspectives of Mr. Hori and finally from the young boy Minato himself. We see how Mr. Hori comes to believe that it is actually Minato who has been bullying his smaller, fewer classmate, a young boy named Yori. But it is Minato's perspective on eventually what had happened. How the two boys became freinds, how it may seem Minato was a bully but it's the affection and a relationship between boys beyond their age and beyond what some adults may want to think and imagine. The two close friends live in their own semi-private fantasy world in woods in a deserted train compartment.

The film is not really about who did it or why. I guess it is constantly is asking who is the monster? The adult characters went clear answers to who is victim and who is the villain. But it is sometimes situations and other indirect characters. The principal just lost her grandchild but the rumors behind it may suggest the reasons for her indifferent behavior. Yori’s alcoholic single father may be his real abuser, implanting a ludicrous lie in the boy’s mind – that his brain was transplanted with a pig’s – which ripples maliciously through the action. As a viewer, even your perspective keeps changing based on what you see form the characters point of view (first the mom and then the teacher). Who could have known, or really seen everything that happened, and why didn’t everybody respond better? Monster is about what children hide when they believe they have to, and how that translates to the older and more experienced adults believing they have a grasp on the struggles of the youth. The film take sits time into showing the 'real answers'. It’s only in the last ten minutes where you really grasp the heavy burden of Minato’s experiences. Once that happens, everything clicks into place, and you’re left with so many lingering thoughts about childhood, acceptance, and the longing for freedom.

It is a film about misunderstanding and carries an important lesson about acceptance coming from a traditionally conservative nation. It is slightly long and sometimes tests your patience especially since a few scenes get repetitive owing to three different perspectives, but it is a masterclass in intricate character relationships. At some level it is a naive, intensely pure romance of sorts between two grieving boys, played by two very talented boys. They are both brilliant. I especially enjoyed how Yori is shown completely free and fun in his own world and is a happy boy despite the bullying. The film is sadly not for everyone. This is a deeply compassionate film. It requires an investment from the viewer but pays off handsomely in the end. (7.5/10)