"A minutely observed, profoundly compassionate chronicle of untidy contemporary lives..." - Nicholas Barber, BBC

"Kore-eda does not hold back on big feelings. There is a profound drama at the center of the film, a dawning acceptance of self lyrically rendered." - Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair

In mountainous Nagano, we see a building mysteriously ablaze. Concerned single mother Saori (Sakura Andō) has confronted her son’s primary school headteacher. Saori’s complaint is that son Minato (Sōya 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 Ryūichi Sakamoto.