Hirokazu Kore-eda’s ‘Monster’ Most Likely Headed to Cannes 2023

Back in August, I had mentioned that Hirokazu Kore-eda had wrapped production on a new movie. The Japanese filmmaker made it official in Tokyo on Friday and even gave us a title: “Monster”. No plot details were revealed. Here’s the teaser.

The Japanese release date of June 3rd, 2023 sets up a potential world premiere in May at Cannes, where Kore-eda has been a mainstay. In fact, he returned to Cannes this past May with “Broker,” which garnered mixed-to-positive reviews from critics. This was his first film there since his 2018 Palme d’Or winner “Shoplifters,” but it was shot in Korean. “Monster” is his first Japanese film since his Palme winner.

“Shoplifters” ended up grossing $3.3 million in the U.S, and $69.4 million abroad, for a worldwide total of $72.7 million (I’m sure its budget couldn’t have been more than a million dollars). Regardless, this was the “I told you so!” moment for Kore-eda’s fans, many of whom have been praising the 57-year-old director’s works since his 1995 breakthrough “Maborosi”

Kore-eda is no spring chicken, he’s been in the game now for almost 30 years, releasing well-regarded films such as “After Life,” “Still Walking,” “Like Father Like Son” and “After the Storm,” but he never truly hit the big time until that surprise Palme d’Or win.

We can now add Kore-eda to an already impressive list of 35 potential Cannes 2023 films:

Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon”
Ari Aster’s “Disappointment Blvd”
Wes Anderson’s “Asteroid City”
Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest”
Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things”
Woody Allen’s “Untitled French Thriller”
Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon”
Terrence Malick’s “The Way of the Wind”
Steve McQueen’s “Blitz”
Todd Haynes’ “May/December”
Alexander Payne’s “The Holdovers”
Jeff Nichols’ “The Bikeriders”
Lynne Ramsay’s “Stone and Mattress”
Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla”
Roman Polanski’s “The Palace”
Alice Rohrwacher’s “La Chimera”
Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s “Kuru Otlar Üstüne”
Sean Durkin’s “The Iron Claw”
Michel Franco’s “Untitled NYC Drama”
Matteo Garrone’s “The Captain”
Ken Loach’s “The Old Oak”
Aki Kaurismaki’s “Fallen Leaves”
Jean-Luc Godard’s “Scenario”
Lisandro Alonso’s “Eureka”
Andrew Haigh’s “Strangers”
Catherine Breillat’s “Last Summer”
Bruno Dumont’s “The Empire”
Abdherrane Sissako’s “The Perfumed Hill”
Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall”
Robin Campillo’s “École de l'air”
Maiwenn’s “La Favorite”
Nanni Moretti’s “Il sol dell'avvenire”
Marco Bellocchio’s “La Conversione”
Jessica Hausner’s “Club Zero”
Kirill Serebrennikov’s “Limonov”