The three-part structure of the film "allows above all one thing: it is that we can move forward, finally, in the story, we never really understand what is happening," explained the director, sacred on the Croisette with "A family affair".
Breaking with his habits, Kore-Eda relies this time on a script by Yuji Sakamoto, which describes the events from different perspectives, allowing to "better bring out the humanity of the characters".
"I wanted the viewer to be able to search, in the same way that the characters do in the film, and ask themselves: who is the monster?" added Hirokazu Kore-eda, 60.
After breakaways in France and South Korea ("The Good Stars", in competition last year), he delivers a feature film with characters full of humanity and "friendship" and a universal message about institutions, in this case the school system, that protect themselves.
"It happens to be a primary school but I think what we wanted to point out was the fact that, when an institution puts at the top of its priorities the fact of protecting itself, what really happened does not matter," he said, taking up one of the replies of the director of the school.
"It's not just for the Japanese education system," the filmmaker added. I think this applies to most institutions, communities, which generally tend to want to protect themselves first and foremost."
Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda (c) and actors Hinata Hiiragi (l) and Soya Kurokwa (r) Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda during a photo shoot for his film "Kaibutsu" ("Monster") at the 76th Cannes Film Festival, May 18, 2023 © Valery HACHE / AFP
Particularly appreciated at Cannes, Hirokazu Kore-Eda distinguished himself in 2004 with "Nobody Knows", which earned Yûya Yagira the Best Actor Award, then in 2013 with the Jury Prize for "Like father, like son", before the Palme five years later.
© 2023 AFP