Japanese auteur Hirokazu Kore-Eda looks set for a return to the international festival circuit in 2023 following the announcement that he has been quietly working on a new film titled Monster, which is now in post-production.
The director’s long-time distributor Gaga Corporation announced the film on Friday, saying it would be co-distributing the work with Toho.
The new film is based on a screenplay by Yuji Sakamoto, the prolific TV writer whose popular shows include Mother, The Best Divorce and A Woman as well as the 2021 hit feature I Fell in Love Like a Flower Bouquet.
“The two, who share the mutual respect to each other, work for the first time together,” said Gaga of the new collaboration.
It’s the first time, Kore-Eda has directed from another writer’s screenplay since his 1995 feature directorial debut Maborosi.
Details of the storyline and the cast were kept under wraps.
Veteran producer Genki Kawamura, who recently won best director for his directorial debut A Hundred Flowers, is lead producer on the feature.
His credits include the thriller Confessions and social drama Villain as well as Makoto Shinkai’s hit feature animations Mirai, Belle and Suzume.
Kore-Eda and Kawamura previously worked together on the Netflix original series The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House.
Production partners on the feature are Toho, GaGa, Fuji Television Network, AOI Pro., Bun-Buku.
The feature will be Kore-Eda’s first Japanese language film since his 2018 Cannes Palme d’Or winner Shoplifters.
In the interim, he made the Korean drama Broker, which premiered at Cannes earlier this year, winning co-star Song Kang-ho best actor, and the 2019 French-language drama The Truth, starring Catherine Deneuve and Juliette Binoche.
Gaga said the feature is in post-production and will be released theatrically in Japan on June 2, 2023, suggesting a Cannes debut is on the cards.
