It received widespread critical acclaim with special praise for its screenplay, direction, acting, editing and musical score and appeared in many lists of top ten years best.

Hori is eventually fired from the school, but returns days later and Minato falls down a flight of stairs trying to escape from him.

He notices Minato exhibiting disruptive behavior, such as throwing other students' belongings around the classroom and seemingly locking Yori in a bathroom stall.

When Saori begins inquiring about her son, the faculty pressure Hori to let them handle it to protect the reputation of the school, ultimately requiring him to resign.

Realizing the two boys were actually in love, Hori rushes to the Mugino household to apologize and assure him nothing is wrong with him.

During the rainstorm, Minato finds Yori fully clothed in his bathtub, covered in bruises, and the two escape to the abandoned railcar, which has become their hideout.

Sakamoto described Kore-eda as the "world's best screenwriter" and recalled looking up to him when the two filmmakers attended the same school and occasionally rubbed shoulders.

[8] Sakura Andō, Eita Nagayama and Yūko Tanaka were cast in the lead roles along with the two child actors Sōya Kurokawa and Hinata Hiiragi.

Kore-eda praised them for their shared on-camera chemistry, which contrasted the apparent differences in their facial appearances and personalities.

[10] The prolific filmmaker and best-selling author Genki Kawamura [ja] served as the film's lead producer.

[11] Kawamura previously worked with Kore-eda in producing his Netflix series The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House (2023).

In a commentary, Sakamoto stated that the film deals with an "esoteric theme" and that it was difficult to discern who the eponymous "monster" was.

[12] Monster was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival,[21] where it had its world premiere on 17 May 2023.

The website's consensus reads: "Gently devastating in its compassion, Monster is a masterpiece of shifting perspectives that surprises to the end.

"[31] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 79 out of 100, based on 40 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

[35][36][37] In March 2024, The Asahi Shimbun published a dialogue between two of the critics, Mizuki Kodama and Rio Tsuboi, and Kore-eda.