The Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Koreeda has often been compared to the old master Ozu (Journey to Tokyo) with his carefully told family and social dramas such as Nobody Knows and Shoplifters. His last film Monster aka The Innocencewith which he adapted a script by Yuji Sakamoto, is made of a slightly different cloth. With its many changes in perspective, it is even reminiscent of Akira Kurosawa’s classic Rashomon.
The Moviepilot editorial team voted Innocence 9th among the best films of the first half of 2024. Now you can also enjoy it from home, because the title is now available on Amazon Prime Video on offer.
New film highlight on Amazon Prime: A masterpiece from the exceptional Japanese director
When the boy Minato (Soya Kurokawa) begins to behave more and more strangely, his mother Saori (Sakura Ando) begins to worry. She suspects the teacher Mr. Hori (Eita Nagayama) of mistreating her son and demands a clarifying conversation with the vice-principal (Akihiro Kakuta).
However, the school claims that Minato is not being bullied by their teacher, but by his smaller classmate Yori (Hinata Hiiragi). At the same time, a house in the city is burning, to which we keep returning to see the story from different perspectives.
Anyone who knows the Japanese film Confessions may have thought after the trailer for Innocence that it was a similar thriller in which the other child than first thought turns out to be a psychopath and arsonist in the end.
When, after several jumps back in time to the house fire, the real reason for the unusual behavior surrounding Minato and Yori is revealed, you are suddenly in a completely different film and everything suddenly makes a shocking amount of sense. The only question left is the “monster” from the original title.
Lots of mystery, lots of heart… and the critics are enthusiastic
Kore-eda managed to get incredibly touching performances out of his young actors and Sakura Ando’s acting as the overwhelmed, confrontational mother is also excellent. Quite contrary to what you might expect, these performances pull the rug out from under you when the hard puzzle with an architectural structure suddenly becomes a very delicate little plant of a film. A monster who doesn’t need tissues in the end.
This is also what the 4-star review of film releases says: “For two thirds, Monster works excellently as a fascinating puzzle drama, which at the same time sheds light on certain inscrutable sides of (Japanese) society with incredible intensity. In the final episode, however, the mystery character is more disturbing […]. Nonetheless, another strong film from Hirokazu Kore-eda.”
The masterpiece, which was awarded in Cannes, is also impressive on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes: 96 percent in the reviews average and 91 percent in the audience rating. The Moviepilot community has so far given it 7.1 out of 10 points – there’s still something going on!
More Kore-eda filmswhich are available on Amazon Prime Video, are Our Little Sister (2015), Shoplifters (2018), La Vérité (2020) and Broker (2023).