Hirokazu Kore-eda returns to his native Japan with Monster & spins a tale of mystery, weaving three different perspectives to render the growing pains & delicate bond between two unlikely school friends.
Featuring the plaintive score by the late great Ryuchi Sakamoto, Kore-eda is an alchemist at work in making real the joy and heartache of broken souls & makeshift families.
Complementing the film, we hosted a pre-screening live performance by cellist, Lucinda Chua, playing a piece inspired by the late great Sakamoto. We followed the film with a post-screening panel featuring Qiuyan Chen, Paris Zarcilla & ShayShay, moderated by Cici Peng.
Our event unfolded at the Picturehouse Central on 12 March.
You can see highlights from our special preview here.
Cici Peng is a film journalist, film programmer, film producer and community organiser based in London. She has written for British GQ, LWLies, Dazed & Confused, i-D, and led and edited an editorial project for gal-dem. She has programmed screenings and events at the BFI, ICA, the Barbican among others. She is part of Sine Screen, a film collective dedicated to highlighting films from ESEA filmmakers.
Qiuyan is Chinese LGBTQ+ activist, worked for LGBTQ+ grassroots organisations in Mainland China, and the litigant of the lawsuits against China's Ministry of Education for homophobia university textbooks. She founded Queer China UK to support Chinese LGBTQ+ diaspora community.
Paris Zarcilla is the 2018 Winner of The Cat Distribution Award and voted 2019 Best Cat Dad of ALL TIME , Paris Zarcilla is a dedicated, full time cat dad. When time permits they are an amateur sommelier, Tiger conservationist, part-time chef, avid painter, and polyglot. They sometimes write and direct film.
ShayShay (they/them) is a non-binary Japanese/Irish writer, director, and drag artist, working across theatre, queer cabaret and television. They are co-founder of queer Pan-Asian collective The Bitten Peach, whose mission is to diversify Asian representation, provide safe spaces, and empower the queer Asian community.
