‘Monster’ (2023): A Movie About Happiness
Do “monsters” deserve love and happiness?
Monster is the latest movie by Kore-eda Hirokazu, a renowned director and screenwriter with multiple awards. Though I have only seen a couple of Kore-eda’s movies, I find his works embody a quintessential aspect of Japanese cinema: A nonchalant portrayal of tragedy. Rather than overtly dramatizing anguish, Kore-eda presents it as part of everyday life. And maybe that’s true; tragedy can come to anybody on any day.
Monster is no exception. This movie centers around Mugino Minato, a fifth-grader, and his relationships with three people: his mother — Mugino Saori, his homeroom teacher — Mr. Hori, and his classmate — Yori.
Before getting to the plot, I think it’s quite interesting that Monster starts with a fire and ends with a storm, both symbols of destruction and renewal. Just as old trees must burn for new growth, storms bring rainfalls and fresh nutrients.
In Monster, storms and fires also carry these two meanings. The fire at the beginning is like a signal for all troubles to come. It burns away all the facades to reveal ugly truths beneath. Then, the rainstorm arrives and washes everything away, leaving a clear sky with two kids laughing together.
Between these two events, we get three stories told from three different perspectives: Saori, Mr. Hori, and Minato himself, all related to the word “monster”. During the first story based on the mother’s viewpoint, Monster seems to focus on school violence, with the school board as the main antagonist: A teacher hurts his students, and other teachers cover it up for him. The mother Saori perceives the school board as “monsters”, representing a system devoid of humanity.
However, when the story flips to Mr. Hori — the homeroom teacher’s viewpoint, the audience receives a different truth: The school teachers see Saori as a “monster parent”, a Japanese term for unreasonable and overprotective parents. From there, the viewers start to wonder which details are truths and which are lies. Is Mr. Hori an abusive teacher? Did Minato bully Yori? Is Minato lying? All details are spread out, but the audience still doesn’t know which picture they created.
Among all that confusion, the movie reaches the third story, a story told directly in Minato’s eyes. That’s when the audience learns the truth behind the word “monster”, a “monster” with human skin and a pig brain that Yori often talks about. That’s a label Yori’s father puts on Yori because he is gay.
Despite growing acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community, the movie highlights lingering prejudices, especially the part when Yori’s father tries to fix his son into a “normal” boy. How ironic people call elementary love between a boy and a girl cute, but if the same thing happens between two boys or two girls, many will say it’s weird, strange, or crazy.
Minato and Yori are only in fifth grade, an age where they should remain innocent and carefree. Yet, because of adults’ prejudice, they have talked about death and rebirth, wondering whether only “normal” people can reach happiness.
I feel so sad watching the scene when Minato listens to his mother saying her and his departed father’s wish, “I have promised your dad that I will try my best until Minato gets married and has his own family. Just a normal family like other people is okay.” I believe it’s a wish coming out of their goodwill. But this very wish hurts Minato to his core because he believes he has turned into the “pig-brained monster” and can’t have a family anymore.
The pressure from adults, whether out of good or ill will, pushes both Minato and Yori to run away from home in the rainstorm. They run to their usual hidden basement, waiting for the so-called “Big Bang” so they can be reborn and become normal.
There are many arguments over whether two boys survive the rainstorm, but I think it doesn’t matter. Seeing them both laughing under a clear sky after all the traumas is enough for me to believe they will have their own happy ending.
