Sakura Ando On The Making Of ‘Monster’

Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s latest film, Monster, stars Sakura Ando as Saori Mugino, a single mother who suspects that something is troubling her son.

Written by Yuji Sakamoto, Monster boasts an unusual story structure that has been compared to Rashomon, Akira Kurosawa’s 1950 classic which explores the clashing memories of an ensemble of characters.

Monster slowly inches toward a central mystery through the eyes of several characters, none of whom really understand the full picture.

Sakura Ando previously worked with Kore-eda, starring in his 2018 film Shoplifters, which won her critical acclaim and won Kore-eda the Palme d’Or, the most prestigious award of the Cannes Film Festival.

This year, Monster won the Queer Palm award and Best Screenplay at Cannes. Ando, however, came perilously close to not appearing in the award-winning film at all.

Sakura Ando spoke to me about her experience working on Monster, and how her initial hesitation led to creative inspiration.

“I received [the screenplay] right after I finished Shoplifters,” she said. “The fact that Mr. Kore-eda wanted me in his project was really a great honor for me, I was very happy and excited. On the other hand, I had some doubts.”

Ando admits that after reading the screenplay, she actually turned the offer down. “It wasn’t because I didn’t like the story,” she explained. “It was because I had serious doubts about whether I could fill the demands of the role.”

Then the global COVID-19 pandemic arrived: “I couldn’t think of shooting a movie during the pandemic — it just didn’t jive with me. So it took me a long time to come to a decision.”

For Ando, there was no uncertainty regarding the quality of the screenplay, or the talent of the creative team behind the project. She explains that “there were major personal hurdles that I had to overcome before even considering the project.”

The isolation and malaise caused by the conditions of the pandemic, however, proved to be an unlikely motivator. “What changed my mind was the idea of rising up from the depressed feeling I felt about life in general during the pandemic,” Ando said.

“I found my emotional and mental level declining because I wasn’t able to work, I wasn’t able to get involved in a movie project. I saw this as a challenge to make myself rise up from where I was, and an opportunity to participate in Mr. Kore-eda’s project with his crew.”

Monster’s many layers of perspective are clouded by emotional distance, circumstance and timing. The nature of the relationship between two young boys, Minato (Sōya Kurokawa) and Yori (Hinata Hiiragi) lies at the center of the story, but is misunderstood by the adults that surround them.

Ando’s character, Saori, bookends the film as the first perspective given to the viewer, and one of the last.

At the beginning of the film, her son, Minato, appears to have been abused by his school teacher Mr. Hori (Eita Nagayama). Saori is furious and demands justice, but encounters cold indifference from the school principal, Fushimi (Yūko Tanaka) and a confusing reaction from Mr. Hori.

“For me, what was important was to capture the anger and the indignation that I felt when I read the screenplay,” Ando says. “I also wanted to be a good role model and a positive influence on the child actors, as a fellow actor and as a mother. That was really important for me.”

Ando went on to explain the behind-the-scenes dynamic of Monster, and how creativity was nurtured by the director and his crew.

“In Mr. Kore-eda’s team, everyone is an equal — there is no difference between a child and an adult actor. For example, Hinata, the boy that played the role of Yori — he was the youngest on the set. He was the kind of person who expresses opinions a lot. Some of them were a little immature, but the entire team always listened to what he had to say and worked with him as an equal participant.”

Monster steadily peels away one layer at a time, each perspective revealing more nuance; only when the film has reached its conclusion can the viewer truly understand the full picture.

Monster is a triumph of storytelling, its unconventional structure emphasizing how distant the inner lives of children can be from their parents and teachers, highlighting how societal norms can easily alienate the vulnerable.

For Ando, Monster was a formidable challenge that altered her own perspective.

“This project really changed me, how I approach acting and how I approach life,” Ando said. “I became focused on doing what I love, going to set to work with people who I really love to work with. I became much freer, and things became more simple as a result.”

Monster opened theatrically in NYC on Nov. 22, coming to L.A. on Dec. 1; it opens in the U.K. February 2024; other dates to be announced.