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This review was originally published in May out of the Cannes Film Festival.
We are recirculating it now timed toMonsters theatrical debut.
But the burning building also becomes an emotional specter hovering over the movie.
Saori always seems to be calling for Minato, and hes not always there.
The boy has been acting odd of late, withdrawn and temperamental.
One day, Saori comes home to find him cutting his mop of hair, citing school rules.
Another time, he comes home with only one shoe.
A mysterious bruise shows up on his arm.
More ominously, he claims his brain was switched with a pigs.
Its a parents worst nightmare the growing fear that your child might be losing their mind.
Saori tries to maintain her calm demeanor for the sake of her son.
We will provide appropriate instruction in the future.
Their blank, zombie-like faces as they deliver this terrifyingly bureaucratic statement freaks her (and us) out.
I dont see any life in any of your eyes.
Am I talking to human beings?
At one point, Teacher Hori breaks and blurts out that her son is bullying another kid.
Things escalate even further from there.
Kore-eda then doubles back to the beginning, and we now see things from Horis point of view.
Saoris assumptions (and, of course, our own) turn out not to be the full picture.
It all leads to a profoundly haunting final shot, whose ultimate interpretation is left up to us.
Were not really seeing different stories, but rather the same story assembled via differing pieces.
