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The seventh round of Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-Eda in Cannes competition, Freak, received a six-minute standing ovation Wednesday at the Grand Théâtre Lumière. He won the Palme d’Or in 2018 for Shoplifters. Can he start over?
Kore-Eda spoke in Japanese: “Thank you. Some people couldn’t be here. I can’t wait to go back to Japan and show them the film… to tell them about this absolutely marvelous premiere. It will remain in my heart.
This is the filmmaker’s ninth film at the festival (including two that appeared in Un Certain Regard). Freak is his first film since his first feature film in 1995 maboroshi on which the director did not have script credit.
Freak follows Saori (Ando Sakura), a widowed mother without a prisoner, who is now raising her son Minato (Kurokawa Soya) who is going through tough times at his elementary school. Mom learns that her son’s strange behavior may be linked to his teacher, who Minato says hit him. The photo is told in rashoman The style from several different points of view, including that of the teacher, Hori (Nagayama Eita), Minato and his friend Yori (Hiiragi Hinata).
Pete Hammond’s review tonight says, Freak is “a film shrouded in secrets and lies, with the truth landing in gray areas depending on who has focus at any given moment. Family, as is often the case in Kore-Eda films, plays a big role here as well as the lasting effects of grief and the divisions and walls we build for ourselves.
Freak also represents the latest film by the late Oscar-winning composer Ryuichi Sakamoto.
RELATED: Hirokazu Kore-Eda on Working With Late Composer Ryuichi Sakamoto & Reteaming With ‘Shoplifters’ Actress Sakura Ando on His New Cannes Film ‘Monster’
Kore-Eda won the Ecumenical Jury Prize last year at Cannes for another family drama, Broker, which focuses on abandoned babies and those who find them homes. He won the jury prize in 2013 for Like father, like sonwhich also received the Ecumenical Jury Prize.