The movie I had been waiting for since I saw it was Koreeda Hirokazu movie from a Sakamoto Yuji script. Ando Sakura is a single mother who notices something weird with her son. She find his hair in the bathroom, there is soil in his water bottle and a wound on his ear and he says that his brain has been switched with that of a pig. Ando Sakura presses her son for answers and he says that he was being bullied by his teacher Hori played by Eita.
Ando Sakura goes to the school looking for answers and all the principal played by Sakamoto Yuji regular Tanaka Yuko can do is give the most generic and lifeless apology ever. The teachers see Ando Sakura is an overprotective parent rather than get to the truth, they want to get rid of the parent.
More things happen and when Ando Sakura goes to the school a second time, Eita says that her son is actually bullying another boy called Yori. We then see the series of events from Eita's perspective and the final act of the movie is showing the audience what really happens. Kind of like Rashomon.
The tagline on the movie poster says 'who is it?' which refers to the title of the movie Monster or Kaibutsu. Monster is a mystery movie told from different perspectives and the Monster in this movie keeps changings according to whose perspective the story is told from.
I wonder if Mitsushima Hikari fought for the mother role with Ando Sakura? Only 3 actresses are worthy of a Sakamoto Yuji script, and that is the before mentioned actresses along with Matsu Takako.
It is hard to talk about Monster without spoilers but it is very well written and acted movie about bullying and being kids and the adults trying to make sense of them. I 100% did not expect the story to unfold the way it did. The ending is very vague but not in a good way like shoplifters. Very watchable and well done, just not must watch for me.
Finally saw this and yeah the vague ending was somewhat unsatisfying. Otherwise a really good movie.
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