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"What really happened doesn't matter. You will defend our school." Well Go USA has revealed the official US trailer for an acclaimed Japanese film titled Monster, the latest film from prolific Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda. Set to open in art house theaters this Nov/Dec. Koreeda already won Palme d'Or a few years ago for Shoplifters, and debuted his Korean film Broker in Cannes last year, returning to Cannes this year for this premiere. A mother demands answers from teacher when her son begins acting strangely. The film has a score by the late Ryuichi Sakamoto. The cast includes the talented Sakura Ando, Eita Nagayama, and Yuko Tanaka, who overwhelm the audience with their transformative performances, and rising stars Souya Kurokawa and Yota Hiiragi, who play the two boys with freshness and emotion, as well as Mitsuki Takahata, Akihiro Tsunoda, Shidou Nakamura. The Rashomon-esque story follows a boy at school,...

Toho in Japan has revealed a full-length official trailer for Monster, the latest film from prolific Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda. He already won Palme d'Or a few years ago for Shoplifters, and premiered his Korean film Broker in Cannes last year, and is back at the festival again. This trailer dropped moments after the film was announced as a major premiere at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, playing again in the competition. The story spun by Hirokazu Kore-eda this time is colored by the world-class music of Ryuichi Sakamoto (who sadly passed away recently). The film's cast features the talented Sakura Ando, Eita Nagayama, and Yuko Tanaka, who overwhelm the audience with their transformative performances, and rising stars Souya Kurokawa and Yota Hiiragi, who play the two boys with freshness and emotion, as well as Mitsuki Takahata, Akihiro Tsunoda, Shidou Nakamura. The Rashomon-esque story follows a boy at school, examining who...

Legendary Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto has signed on to write the music for Palme d’Or-winning director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s forthcoming feature film Monster (Kaibutsu), Tokyo-based production company Gaga Corporation revealed Thursday.

Sakamoto will provide newly written compositions as well as some of his pre-existing music for the film, producers say. A musical polymath, Sakamoto made his film debut with the iconic score for Nagisa Oshima’s Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983), starring David Bowie. He later won an Oscar with his music for Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor (1987) and a Golden Globe nomination for his compositions for Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s The Revenant (2015). The partnership with Kore-eda marks his first work on a high-profile Japanese title in some time.

Monster is also Kore-eda’s first Japanese film since he won the Cannes Palme d’Or in 2018 with Shoplifters. It follows the director’s French film The Truth, which opened...