Japan’s Kore-eda: Sexuality is not the focus of 'Monster’

CANNES, May 18 (Reuters) – Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-Eda said he did not want to focus on sexual identity in depicting the relationship between two schoolboys at the center of his latest film „Monster.”

„The age these kids are at is that their sexual identity may not be complete… they’re not fully aware of it at this point,” Corey-Eda told Reuters on Thursday, the day after the film’s premiere. Cannes Film Festival.

The well-received film is in the running for the festival’s top prize, the Palme d’Or.

Earlier Thursday, Kore-eda told reporters that she didn’t think the story should be seen as depicting two boys with growing feelings for each other, as suggested in some reviews.

„I don’t want to focus too much on it, I don’t want to think of it as a special kind of relationship,” she told Reuters.

„I thought more (of) if you could show your real good friend the feelings and the pain, understand you, walk away and create that distance.”

After seeing the script written by Yuki Sakamoto, the director said he consulted with an organization that supports lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer children.

„Monster” is told in three non-chronological parts — from the perspective of single mother Savori, her son’s teacher Hori and her son Minato — whose misunderstandings culminate in a friendship storm that develops between Minato and Eric, another boy at school.

„Monster” Kore-Eda is once again teamed up with Sakura Ando, ​​who starred in her 2018 Palme d’Or winner „Shoplifters,” and who portrays Sauri in the new film.

After its premiere at Cannes on Wednesday, the film received a six-minute standing ovation.

„It was unbelievable, it felt like an earthquake,” Ando said.

Report by Alicia Powell; Written by Miranda Murray; Editing by Jonathan Otis

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