Notable Mentions: Hinata Hiiragi as Yori Hoshikawa, the Third Act
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I was like, where are they going with this film? Is this an actual monster film? Is it horror? The film is presented like a mystery/ thriller film. Is this a film about bullying? Minato is the bully. His Mom is oblivious, in denial. Minato is bullying Yori. Yori is scared to speak up. No. Yori is the bully. Don't let that cute face fool ya. So young, yet so manipulative. He's bullying Minato. Poor Minato. Is he going to hurt himself? Yori is a monster. The monster! The school is hiding something. Both the teacher and the principal are sus. What is this film?! What is happening?!
And then came the third act. The big reveal. The third act was tender. Monster boils down to a coming-of-age story. After watching the third act, I question if the first two acts' theatrics were necessary. If Kore-eda made this film like a conventional coming-of-age film, would it be just as effective? Would it have kept my attention for the entire 2-hour runtime? I don't think so. How this story was told, how this film was presented made the story, the film interesting.
Monster birthed a star and his name is Hinata Hiiragi, who played Yori in the film. The youngest actor in the film shined the brightest. Child actors are hit or miss. They either do nothing or too much. Like I felt Kurosawa did a little too much, just a little, during the first two acts to demonstrate his character was troubled. On the other hand, there was never a moment throughout the film, where I felt Hiiragi was overacting to obviously, cheaply convey an emotion. I felt Yori's pain and struggle without Hiiragi putting on a big frown. Hiiragi's Yori was soft on the outside and strong on the inside. Yori was hurting. Terribly. But he put on a front. There is complexity to that character. Hiiragi was 10 or 11 when he filmed Monster. Not all 10, 11-year olds can grasp the concept of Yori and play that role as well as Hiiragi did.
