The most well-known auteur filmmaker in Japan, Kore-eda Hirokazu, is producing his first movie in his native country since “Shoplifters,” which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2018.
The movie, titled “Monster,” is currently in post-production and marks Koreeda’s second collaboration with writer Sakamoto Yuji, whose works include the popular romantic drama “I Fell in Love Like a Flower Bouquet” from 2021. (His debut was the 1995 film “Maborosi,” which Ogita Yoshihisa had written as an adaptation of a Miyamoto Teru novel).
The main producer is Kawamura Genki, whose many successes include Shinkai Makoto’s blockbuster anime films, including the one presently in theatres, “Suzume.” The upcoming Netflix original series “The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House,” which is scheduled to premiere on January 12, 2023, also features collaboration from Kawamura and Koreeda.
Although the main cast of the new film has not yet been revealed, a release date of June 2, 2023, with Gaga
Since the release of “Shoplifters,” Koreeda has produced two films abroad: “The Truth” (2019) in France and “Broker” (2022) in Korea. Both failed to generate much revenue in Japan, in contrast to “Shoplifters,” which brought in $33 million here in 2018. The new movie, which has two major distributors on board, promises to revive the director’s previous box office success.
In the past year, Kore-eda has been especially outspoken in calling for reform and structural changes in the Japanese film industry. He founded action4cinema/Coalition for the Establishment of a Japan CNC (A4C), a non-profit organisation, along with six other film directors who were members of a group called Eiga Kantoku Yushi no Kai (translation: Voluntary Association of Film Directors), with the goal of addressing systemic issues in the industry and advocating for the creation of a body akin to France’s CNC.
