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The official YouTube channel for the live-action adaptation project based on the Oshi no Ko manga series has started streaming a final version trailer for the upcoming movie, Oshi no Ko - The Final Act- . The trailer revealed that Kazunari Ninomiya , a 41-year-old member of the idol group Arashi, plays the role of Hikaru Kamiki. And the character's boyhood is also be played by 15-year-old Soya Kurokawa . Hikaru Kamiki is a mysterious figure who knows the truth behind Ai's death, and the trailer shows a tense scene where he finally appears before Aqua and confronts him directly. Additionally, an updated poster visual including Hikaru Kamiki is also revealed. Related: Oshi no Ko Live-Action Web Drama Releases 2nd Trailer The eight-episode web drama series has streamed exclusively on Amazon Prime Video worldwide since November 28, 2024. The feature film that then tells the drama's sequel story will release in Japan on December 20, 2024. Smith,...

The Japanese director of Shoplifters uses different takes on a single story to tell the fraught tale of two troubled boys

A frazzled widowed mother, Saori (Sakura Andô), suspects that all is not well with her preteen son, Minato (Soya Kurokawa). The boy seems subdued and withdrawn; she catches him hacking inches from his mop of hair. He asks odd, troubling questions: if the brain of a pig was transplanted into a human, what would the resulting creature be, human or pig? Or some kind of monster? And then there are the injuries – an ear yanked so brutally that it bleeds; a livid facial bruise. Saori soon deduces that her son’s new teacher, Michitoshi Hori (Eita Nagayama), at his provincial Japanese elementary school, is responsible for her son’s brooding disquiet. She confronts the school principal (a confounding reflecting prism of a performance from veteran actor Yūko Tanaka), but...

The Japan Academy Film Prize Association held the 47th edition of its awards ceremony on March 8, 2024. The nominees are selected by the Nippon Academy-Sho Association of industry professionals from the pool of film releases between January 1 and December 31, 2023 which must have screened in Tokyo cinemas.

Following its success at the recent Blue Ribbon Awards and leading with 12 nominations, Toho Studios' and Takashi Yamazaki's kaiju cinema masterpiece “Godzilla Minus One” takes top honours winning Picture of the Year and a slew of technical awards. Sakura Ando cements her place as one of Japan's top actresses securing both awards for Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role (for “Monster”) as well as Supporting Role (for “Godzilla Minus One”).

The full list of winners is described below.

Picture of the Year

Monster

Godzilla Minus One

Mom, Is That You?!

September 1923

Perfect Days

Animation of the Year

Kitaro Tanjo – GeGeGe no...

Known for his exploration of universal themes including family, happiness and memories, Japanese director, producer, screenwriter and editor Hirokazu Kore-eda‘s newest feature Monster (2023) has received acclaim from critics and fans alike. Monster follows mother Saori whose son Minato (Soya Kurokawa) starts behaving strangely, leading her to think that something must be wrong. Soon discovering that a teacher is responsible, she storms into the school and demands to know what’s been happening to her son. However, as the story unfolds and the truth gradually emerges, it may not be anything close to what Saori imagined. Using clever storytelling methods to keep us intrigued, fantastic performances from the young leads and beautifully explored complex themes, Monster fits tidily into Kore-eda’s filmography as a heartbreaking study of childhood, growing up, and the harrowing idea that we may not know our children as deeply as we think we do.

The storytelling...

When a large building catches fire, everybody stops to look. It’s such a dramatic sight that it pulls us, temporarily, out of the everyday, reminding us of a bigger reality. There’s a sense of threat in the way that Hirokazu Kore-eda films it, even though we are observing from a distance, as if it signifies the encroachment of a larger catastrophe. The mother and son beside us are about to be overwhelmed by events that neither of them fully understand, and the later arrival of a dramatic weather event serves to remind us of the existential threat against which all our individual stories are now playing out – yet Monster, surprisingly, will emerge as a film full of hope.

The mother, Saori (Sakura Ando) is a widow and has devoted herself to creating a good life for her 11-year-old son Minato (Sōya Kurokawa). When his behaviour suddenly changes, becoming sullen and.

The 66th edition of the Blue Ribbon Awards, presented by the Association of Tokyo Film Journalists, has announced its winners on January 24, 2024. The nominees are selected from movies released in 2023. The trifecta wins for “Godzilla Minus One” come as no surprise, sweeping the Best Film, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress categories. Yuya Ishii picks up the Best Director award for both his movies “The Moon” and “Masked Hearts”.

Best Film

Masked Hearts

Ichiko

Egoist

Monster

The Dry Spell

Godzilla Minus One

Mom, Is That You?!

(Ab)normal Desire

The Moon

One Last Bloom

Perfect Days

Bad Lands

September 1923

Do Unto Others

As Long as We Both Shall Live

Best Director

Yuya Ishii – The Moon, Masked Hearts

Hirokazu Koreeda – Monster

Daishi Matsunaga – Egoist

Takashi Yamazaki – Godzilla Minus One

Yoji Yamada – Mom, Is That You?!

Best Actor

Goro Inagaki – (Ab)normal Desire

Ryunosuke Kamiki – Godzilla Minus One, We're Broke, My Lord!

TBS announced on their official website that the live-action series of Teasing Master Takagi-san is set to start airing on March 26, 2023.

New scene cuts from the upcoming live-action series have also been revealed, offering fans a glimpse into the on-screen chemistry of the lead characters.

Prior to its Japanese release, the live-action series will be available to stream worldwide on Neflix. The exact date is yet to be revealed.

It was previously revealed that Rui Tsukishima, who is an exclusive model for Shueisha’s Seventeen magazine, will play the role of Takagi, and Soya Kurokawa, known for his role in Hirokazu Koreeda’s Monster, has been cast as Nishikata.

Teasing Master Takagi-san live-action series was entirely filmed on Shodo Island at Kagawa Prefecture, which also served as the setting for the anime adaptation.

Rikiya Imaizumi will serve as the director while also co-writing the scripts with Tomoki Kanazawa and Jun Hagimori.

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"Monster", directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, is one of the most acclaimed movies of 2023 that you probably haven't heard of yet.

Set in Japan, the film follows three people: the single mother Saori Mugino (Sakura Andō), her young son Minato (Sōya Kurokawa), and Minato's teacher Michitoshi Hori (Eita Nagayama). Saori begins to suspect that Hori is abusing her son, while Hori suspects that there's something sinister in the boy's head. The truth, which I'll leave unspoiled, is a lot sadder. The film is told from their three perspectives. Seeing the same sequence of events three times highlights how hard it is to truly understand someone by looking at them from the outside.

"Monster" enjoyed a film festival run, taking home the Queer Palm (bestowed to Kore-eda) and Best Screenplay (to Yuji Sakamoto) awards at the 76th Cannes Film Festival in May...

To say Monster made a splash at this year's Cannes Film Festival back in May would be an understatement. Even prior to its world premiere there, all eyes were already on director Hirokazu Kore-eda and his film. Monster would, after all, mark the Japanese filmmaker's return to directing in his native language since 2018's Shoplifters. Of course, the movie did not disappoint; Kore-eda walked away with the Queer Palm (the highest honor for an LGBTQ+ film at the festival), and screenwriter Yûji Sakamoto nabbed the coveted Best Screenplay Award.

In our interview with Kore-eda at TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) last September, the filmmaker sang Sakamoto's praises, proclaiming it was a dream come true to finally work with the screenwriter's words. In our recent conversation with Sakamoto, we naturally couldn't help but share Kore-eda's comments with him. Humbled, Sakamoto replied, "Of course, I'm honored and very happy that he spoke so highly of me.

The new trailer for the upcoming live-action adaptation of Teasing Master Takagi-san teases Nishikata and Takagi's budding friendship and teenage romance.

Fans of Sōichirō Yamamoto's manga received a special treat on Friday when TBS dropped the first footage from the live-action adaptation. The brief trailer promises a faithful adaptation of the romantic comedy, capturing Takagi and Nishikata's palpable chemistry in brief scenes of banter and playful antics. The teaser was revealed well ahead of the show's March 2024 premiere, building anticipation for the series drop. Teasing Master Takagi-san will be serialized Tuesdays on Netflix in Japan and on the Tokyo Broadcasting System's programming block.

Netflix Reveals First Look at Live-Action Yu Yu Hakusho's Yusuke Urameshi in Geeked Week Trailer

The first footage confirms the perfect casting for the show's lead stars, who capture the spirit of the manga characters to a tee. Takagi will be played by Sōya Kurokawa,...

Exclusive: UTA has signed Hirokazu Kore-eda, the internationally celebrated Japanese filmmaker known for titles like Monster and Shoplifters, for representation in all areas.

The deal is particularly significant, Deadline hears, as the agency continues to expand its presence in Japan, and throughout Asia more broadly. Kore-eda will work closely going forward with UTA’s Asia Business Development division, which looks to amplify Asian and Asian-American voices by creating and curating a diverse array of opportunities, between Hollywood and Asia, for clients, partner companies, and brands.

Kore-eda’s most recent feature, Monster, had its North American premiere at the 2023 Toronto Film Festival after world premiering in Cannes, where it was awarded the Queer Palm and the prize for Best Screenplay. The film penned by Yuji Sakamoto watches as a mother confronts her young son’s teacher after she notices him acting strangely. Sakura Andō, Eita Nagayama, and Sōya Kurokawa star.

Kore-eda...

Hirokazu Koreeda returns to Japan for his latest feature, “Monster,” another outstanding entry in the director’s already impressive filmography. For “Monster,” Koreeda collaborated with screenwriter Yuji Sakamoto, who wrote the screenplay, and music composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, who produced his final film score before passing away. As such, a dedication to the memory of Sakamoto is included. Upon making its world premiere at the 76th Cannes Film Festival, competing for the Palme d’Or, the movie was met with an overwhelmingly positive reception, winning the Best Screenplay award and being honored with the Queer Palm. Its theatrical run has also been met with acclaim.

Monster is available from Wellgo USA

Regarding the story, single mother Saori Mugino grows concerned for her son Minato when she notices disturbing changes in his behavior. Things only become more concerning as time progresses. Upon learning that schoolteacher Michitoshi Hori is responsible for her child’s behavioral shifts,...

Who is the real monster when the truth comes out?

Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “Monster” marks the director’s return to films set in Japan for the first time since winning the Palme d’Or for 2018 film “Shoplifters.” Kore-eda went on to helm “The Truth” and “Broker,” set in France and South Korea, respectively. “Monster” is also the first film Kore-eda has directed from another script since 1995’s “Maboroshi.” The “Monster” screenplay, written by Yuji Sakamoto, went on to win the Best Screenplay prize at Cannes 2023.

The official synopsis reads: When her young son Minato (Soya Kurokawa) starts to behave strangely, his mother (Sakura Ando) feels that there is something wrong. Discovering that a teacher (Eita Nagayama) is responsible, she storms into the school demanding to know what’s going on. But as the story unfolds though the eyes of the mother, teacher, and child, the truth gradually emerges.

“Monster” also...

Exclusive: Well Go USA Entertainment has set an awards-season U.S. release date for Monster, the latest film from Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-Eda that won the Best Screenplay prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

The pic, which was released in Japan in June, will start its U.S. run November 22 in New York, followed by December 1 in Los Angeles before going wider through the winter.

Check out the trailer above and the poster below.

Monster centers on Minato (Soya Kurokawa), a young boy who is displaying increasingly worrying behavior both at school and at home. His mother Saori (Sakura Ando) decides to discuss it with the teaching staff at his school. It soon becomes apparent that his teacher, Hori (Eita Nagayama), is the source of all the problems. But as the mystery unfolds, the truth turns out to be more complex than expected.

In his review, Deadline’s...

"Monster" is a follow-up to director Hirokazu Kore-eda's critically acclaimed "Shoplifters", and it lives up to the high expectations with its exceptional filmmaking. The film seamlessly blends different genres, creating a captivating and mysterious storyline that keeps viewers engaged from start to finish. The performances in "Monster" are outstanding, particularly Sakura Ando's portrayal of a single mother who balances love, loss, and the secrets that bind her family together.

2018’s Shoplifters brought the work of director Hirokazu Kore-eda to a larger audience with his Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nomination. His hotly anticipated follow-up, Monster, sees him leave the writing to screenwriter Yûji Sakamoto (We Made a Beautiful Bouquet) and focus on directing. The result is another phenomenal work of art. From cinematography to performances to the score, Monster is as relentless with its pursuit of perfect filmmaking as it is with its desire to keep the viewer...

Teasing Master Takagi-san's live-action adaptation is coming to Netflix next March.

According to Anime News Network, the upcoming live-action remake of Soichiro Yamamoto's hit series will debut worldwide on Netflix in March 2024, with new episodes premiering on the platform every Tuesday. Following its Netflix debut, TBS (Tokyo Broadcasting System) will air the show on its "Drama Stream" programming block for viewers throughout Japan. In addition to Takagi-san's release window, the showrunners have also revealed more details about the staff and cast, including who will be portraying the lead roles of Takagi-san and Nishikata.

Related: Teasing Master Takagi-san: Season 3's Biggest Teases Pay Off in the Finale

Rui Tsukishima, a popular model for Shueisha's Seventeen magazine, will star as Takagi-san. Her previous acting roles include a guest appearance for Episodes 11-12 of Kamen Rider Geats. The role of Nishikata will be portrayed by Soya Kurokawa, who previously appeared in...

"I don't know if I'm hopeful, but I definitely am not completely discouraged," said Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda during our conversation at the Toronto International Film Festival. Sitting in a windowless conference room inside the festival's press and industry headquarters, we met to discuss his newest film, Monster, which just made its North American premiere here. Considering how his film examines — perhaps, more correctly, skewers — many timely themes, from ignorance and bigotry to the failure of institutions meant to keep us safe, themes that are products of our "post"-pandemic world, his current outlook on the world seemed a natural place to start.

Kore-eda's first film set in Japan since 2018's Shoplifters, Monster weaves three separate narratives that each center around why young Minato (Sōya Kurokawa) starts acting out at home and in class. The first chapter focuses on Saori Mugino (Sakura Andō), Minato's mother, who learns that her son's...

Kore-eda Hirokazu returns to Japan for his latest film “Monster,” which poses this question to audiences: “Who really is the monster?” While location scouting, the filmmaker was looking down at a lake, dark and almost black, and “I thought of Sakamoto Ryuichi music. He was the only person who could do the music for this film.”

It would mark the first time in years that the legendary composer behind “The Last Emperor” and “The Revenant” had worked on a Japanese title

The film opens with Minato, played by Kurokawa Soya, an 11-year-old fifth grader who watches a burning building from afar. Kore-eda returns to this sequence three times, each from a different perspective. Is young Minato the monster? Or is it Mr. Hori (Nahayama Eita), the schoolteacher, or Minato’s mother, Saori (Ando Sakura)? The plot twists and turns in each retelling, as it’s revealed Minato has feelings for...

19th edition of fest to run September 28-October 4.

Monterrey International Film Festival (ficmonterrey) has appointed Diana Cadavid head of the international industry section and announced the Latin American premiere of Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Cannes best screenplay winner Monster for its upcoming 19th edition (September 28-October 4).

Monster was nominated for the Palme d’Or this year and also won the Queer Palm. Sakura Ando and Soya Kurokawa star in the drama about of a mother who searches for answers when her son begins to act strangely.

Festival president, Lorena Villarreal said, “It is with great pleasure that we announce the exclusive Latin American premiere of Monster,...

by Paweł Mizgalewicz

At this point in Hirokazu Koreeda's career, it's only expected to hear that his newest work, “Monster”, is easy to recommend – but it's quite tricky to describe. The reason for that is the amount of surprises awaiting us during the film's two hour course, not at all limited to usual within-genre plot twists. Truth be told, basically everything in “Monster” is not what it initially seems – the characters, the conflicts, the events, and even the overall focus of the tale and what the movie's broad subject is. Yes, if you are a bone fide spoilerophobe, I would even advise not to check out which awards was the movie called up for at the 2023 Cannes Festival, as it might be really exciting to discover some of the themes at the time when the movie had still been swaying in so many other directions. Thankfully, the main award...

When her young son Minato (Soya Kurokawa) starts to behave strangely, Saori (Sakura Ando) feels that there is something wrong. Discovering that a teacher Hori (Eita Nagayama) is responsible, she storms into the school demanding to know what's going on. But as the story unfolds through the eyes of mother, teacher and child, the truth gradually emerges. (Source: 76th Cannes Film Festival Press Kit)

Monster is the sixteenth feature film by acclaimed director, Hirokazu Kore-eda, and his seventh to be featured in Competition at Cannes. Screenwriter Yuji Sakamoto wins the Best Screenplay Award and the film was also awarded the Queer Palm 2023. A release date is yet to be announced.

Hirokazu Kore-eda returned to the Cannes Film Festival to debut his ninth feature film, marking his seventh entry at the popular international event and his first in which he does not pen the script for a feature since his debut. In his first Japanese language film since Shoplifters, the director collaborates with the renowned Japanese TV writer, Yuji Sakamoto. Monster reveals a story about adolescence, lies & deceit, and the consequences thereof from a humane perspective, slowly revealing intricate details of life’s biggest complications through three vantage points. The film demands a great deal of patience from you, but the payoff and the events leading up to it are well-earned emotional depositions.

The story follows a young boy Minato (Soya Kurokawa) as the challenges he faces at school begin to result in his strange behavior. His concerned mother, Saori (Sakura Andō) believes his actions stem from something that is more than meets the eye,...

Few stories are as gratifying as the narrative jigsaw. How to fool the viewer into believing one thing without lying about what happened? It’s difficult enough to execute on the page, but much more can be hidden in writing. With film it’s a matter of obscuring the context of what we both see and hear, which requires some trickery. Like any sound cinematic tool, it can be misused and abused (see: the MCU), but with tasteful restraint it can be the backbone of a masterclass in mystery. See: Monster.

Writer, editor, and director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s 17th feature––his fourth in five years, the third of those to debut in competition at Cannes, with Shoplifters taking the Palme d’Or in 2018––is exactly that: a masterclass in mystery. Or, perhaps, context. What starts as a relatively clear story about sinister pyros, “pig-brained” kids, and abusive teachers transforms, through labyrinthine story mechanics,...

Japanese director Kore-eda offers a deliberately dense but ultimately hopeful examination of how to negotiate family dysfunction with intelligence and humanity

Hirokazu Kore-eda challenges us with intricacy and complexity in this family drama about bullying, homophobia, family dysfunction, uncritical respect for flawed authority, and social media rumour-mongering; all working together to create a monster of wrongness. Kore-eda is collaborating with screenwriter Yûji Sakamoto and the late composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, whose score creates a layer of nuance and meaning. Its plangent, sad piano chords will often counterintuitively be added to a scene of apparent drama or tension, implying that the meaning of this scene has not yet been disclosed. Monster is a movie that does not render up its meanings easily in general, and its repeated motif is to replay the same events from a different viewpoint; in another type of film this might deliver the smooth and gratifying narrative click...

Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. Well Go USA releases the film in theaters on Wednesday, November 22.

Scary as it sounds, “monster” can be such a strangely comforting word. Not only does classifying someone as inhuman absolve us from acknowledging the most difficult aspects of our shared humanity, it also reaffirms the smallness and simplicity of an infinitely complex universe that continues to expand no matter how much we might want to wrap our arms around it. “Monster” is a period at the end of a sentence; it’s the permission we give ourselves to demonize whatever we don’t understand.

And, for all of those reasons, it’s also a very unexpected title for a new feature by the great Hirokazu Kore-eda, whose achingly humanistic stories of families lost and found have never had any use for such a stiflingly judgmental term.

After making The Truth in France and Broker in South Korea, Hirokazu Kore-eda returns to a Japanese-language project for the first time since his justly lauded Shoplifters five years ago, working with another writer’s script for the first time since his head-turning 1995 debut, Maborosi. Many of the peerless humanist’s frequent themes figure in Monster (Kaibutsu) — loss, isolation, the elusive nature of happiness and the struggles of imperfect families — viewed through a somewhat imposing multi-perspective Rashomon-esque prism. The director’s customary delicacy, compassion and sensitivity ripple through the drama, though its affecting moments of illumination are more intermittent than cumulative.

With its fragmented exploration of childhood bullying, stigma, peer pressure and homophobia, as well as the age of its young protagonists, Monster vaguely recalls Belgian director Lukas Dhont’s Close from last year, albeit with more restraint and less sentiment, for better or worse. It’s a frustrating film in many ways,...

Japanese auteur Hirokazu Kore-eda is a perceptive observer of families, keenly detecting the quirks that make an individual unique and the whole stronger and more complicated. 2018’s masterful Palme d’Or winner “Shoplifters” was perhaps the finest display of Kore-eda’s skills and preoccupations as a minimalist artist of mysterious domestic rhythms, informed by social and financial realities.

His make-shift family in last year’s arguably more populist “Broker” didn’t hit a note as high, but “Monster,” the director’s return to this year’s Cannes competition, feels closer to the subtly multilayered tales we came to expect from him.

A sweet, unknowable and often purposely misleading red herring of a whodunit that morphs into an unexpected tale of friendship, “Monster” feels like a departure for Kore-eda, mostly because of its intricate structure that recounts the same event from three different viewpoints. An obvious (and quite accurate) association point...

Hirokazu Kore-Eda is back in Cannes Competition after winning the Palme d’Or for Shoplifters in 2018 and last year presenting Korean-language Broker, which won best actor for Song Kang-ho. His new title, Monster, reteams him with Shoplifters actress Sakura Ando and is the last film to be scored by Oscar-winning composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, who died in March at 71 following a battle with cancer.

Scripted by Yuji Sakamoto (We Made a Beautiful Bouquet), Monster revolves around a single mother (Ando) who suspects there is something wrong at her son’s school when he starts behaving strangely. She storms into the school and accuses a teacher of bullying her son, only to have the teacher claim the boy is bullying another pupil, an eccentric child who appears to be having problems at home.

The cast also includes Eita Nagayama (Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai) as the teacher and veteran actress Yuko Tanaka...

Wild Bunch International (Wbi) and Japan’s Gaga Corporation have announced that the two companies will again collaborate on international sales on Monster, directed by award-winning filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda.

Gaga will handle sales for Asian territories, while Wbi will handle worldwide territories excluding Asia. A promo will be available for buyers at the upcoming European Film Market (EFM) at Berlin film festival. The film has been widely tipped for selection at this year’s Cannes.

Wild Bunch and Gaga have teamed up for sales on several of Kore-eda’s titles, starting in 2011 with I Wish, which played at the Toronto and San Sebastian film festivals, and more recently Shoplifters, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2018.

Monster is scheduled for release in Japan through Toho and Gaga on June 2, 2023. Scripted by Yuji Sakamoto (We Made A Beautiful Bouquet) and with with music by Oscar-winning composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, the...

Sakamoto Scores Again

Celebrated composer Sakamoto Ryuichi has been tapped to provide the score of “Monster,” the previously announced upcoming film by Japan’s Kore-eda Hirokazu (“Shoplifters”). The film has been in post-production since November last year, but only now is the cast being unveiled. It includes Ando Sakura Nagayama Eita (“Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai”) and Tanaka Yuko (“Backwater”). Two children actors Kurokawa Soya and Hiiragi Hinataare were also revealed. The film, handled jointly by Toho and Gaga, is set for a June 2, 2023 release, making it a favorite for selection at the Cannes festival in May.

Close Encounter

Lukas Dhont’s “Close” added to its awards haul with the announcement that it had earned two more prizes at China’s Silk Road International Film Festival. The festival in Xi’an concluded on Tuesday with prizes for best film and best film going to the Belgium-France-Netherlands co-production. The best screenplay...

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...

Oscar-winning composer Ryuichi Sakamoto and Sakura Ando have boarded Monster, the new film from Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-Eda.

Produced by Genki Kawamura and Kenji Yamada, the film is in post-production and being lined up for theatrical release in Japan on June 2, 2023. Production partners include Toho, Gaga Films, Fuji Television Network, Aoi Pro and Bun-Buku.

The film also stars Nagayama Eita, Takahata Mitsuki, Kakuta Akihiro, Nakamura Shido and Tanaka Yuko. Gaga said that child actors Soya Kurokawa and Hinataare Hiiragi also were cast following auditions.

Monster is scripted by Yuji Sakamoto (We Made a Beautiful Bouquet), but the story of the film is being kept tightly under wraps.

Sakamoto’s credits include composing the music for films including Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983), The Sheltering Sky (1990) and The Revenant (2015). He was the first Japanese winner of Best Original Score at the Oscars with The Last Emperor in 1987.

Monster will mark the first...