Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		4.0

Monster Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 4, 2024

As strange as it may initially sound, films as disparate as Rashomon and The Children's Hour actually share the common thread of a plot built around differing perceptions and/or accounts of various situations. Rashomon famously presented the "same" story from a number of differing perspectives, leaving it to the viewer to decide which (if any) presented "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth". The Children's Hour (as well as its somewhat more circumspect first adaptation These Three) hinged on whether a potentially malicious student's account of a relationship between teachers is accurate. Somewhat interestingly, Monster might offer a bit of a "combo platter" of both of those aforementioned approaches, and an ultimate reveal in the story actually tethers it quite closely to the Lillian Hellman piece in particular, albeit this time with regard to students rather than their adult mentors at school.

Hirokazu Kore-eda has been rather well served in the high definition era, with releases like the Arrow UK offering Family Values: Three Films by Hirokazu Kore-eda , which aggregated I Wish, Like Father, Like Son, After the Storm, as well as standalone releases like Maborosi, Broker, Still Walking and After Life, among scattered others. Those acquainted with this Japanese auteur will already know of his often rather intimate stories that are often naturalistic to the point of being almost quasi-documentarian in feeling, kind of like Kore-eda's self announced influence Ken Loach (Loach just announced his retirement at the venerable age of 87.

What's interesting about Monster is not necessarily any big difference in Kore-eda's general emotional ambience, which can be kind of tamped down and almost languid at times, but the structure, which indeed replicates Rashomon's approach of revisiting the "same" story from a number of different points of view. The first vignette offers an increasingly distraught single mother named Saori Mugino (Sakura Andō), who ascribes sudden disturbing behavior changes in her son Minato (Sōya Kurokawa) that he's being bullied somehow by his teacher Michitoshi Hori (Eita Nagayama), though there are certain allegations made pertaining to Minato's relationship to another young student, Yori Hoshikawa (Hinata Hiiragi) which already starts to undercut some of Saori's beliefs about what's going on.

The second vignette then revisits this same general storyline from Hori's own perspective, something that suddenly offers even more revelations than were imparted somewhat late in the first section. The film finishes with Minato's point of view, finally getting to the heart of the matter both figuratively and literally. There are a number of sidebars to this overall focus, some of which may arguably distract from that focus, but Monster is a rather moving film that addresses a number of issues in a potent but understated way.

Monster Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Monster is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. Digitally captured with a couple of different cameras and finished at 4K (both data points courtesy of the IMDb), this is a really beautiful looking presentation, though it may intentionally lack a certain "pop", with the palette somewhat gray and stormy, matching the interior lives of some of the characters. That said, when there are some brightly lit outdoor moments in gorgeous sunshine, hues are quite vivid and detail levels typically excellent. There are a number of very dimly lit, even downright dark, moments, including some perilous scenes at night and/or in a violent storm, and if there's one minor deficit in this presentation, it may be a slight lack of shadow detail in such moments.

Monster Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Monster features DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 tracks in either the original Japanese or an English dub. The voicework on the English dub is perfectly fine, but I'd personally recommend sticking with the original language track unless reading subtitles is an absolute deal breaker. The track really opens up quite nicely in the many outdoor scenes, especially some of the forested moments with the little boys, which offer good, realistic immersion of ambient environmental sounds. The film is perhaps going to be of interest to score enthusiasts, since it offers the last work from Ryuichi Sakamato before his sad death from cancer. He actually evidently wasn't strong enough to compose a complete score, and so offered two solo piano pieces in addition to some tracks from a previously released album, but the music, while "minimalistic" at times, is beautiful and sounds full bodied. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Monster Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer (HD: 2:28)

Note: As tends to be the case with Well Go USA Blu-ray releases, the disc has been authored to automatically move on to trailers for other Well Go USA releases after the trailer for this film plays. Those trailers for other Well Go USA releases also play automatically at disc boot up.

Additionally, packaging features a slipcover.

Monster Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Casual fans who see the title Monster and the fact that this Blu-ray is being brought out by Well Go USA might reasonably come to the conclusion it's about an actual monster, but even if this touching "little" film is perhaps a bit unusual for this particular label, it's still great to see Kore-eda's work continue to make it to high definition. Technical merits are solid, and Monster comes Recommended.