Broker marks another minor miracle from writer-director Hirokazu Kore-eda, featuring another one of his makeshift families. A young woman (Lee Ji-eun) who considered leaving her newborn baby anonymously at a church instead gets caught up with two men (Song Kang-ho and Gang Dong-won) who broker such babies on the black market, selling them to couples who can’t have children of their own. Are they all involved in theft, protection, or benevolence? (All three words come up in the course of the movie.) Lee—also a Korean pop star, as IU—registers most strongly as the conflicted mother; she has a direct stare that she mostly turns on herself. Song, best known for his collaborations with director Bong Joon-ho (Parasite, The Host), once again amusingly plays the sort of guy who has to smack his van door in just the right place in order to get it to open (but he always gets it to open). Broker might also be one of Kore-eda’s most gorgeous films, as he and cinematographer Hong Kyung-pyo take the furtiveness of the story as a cue to stage compositions involving shielding rain, anonymous silhouettes, or nighttime vignettes—all punctuated by neon signage in the background. Perhaps only a rushed, somewhat unclear ending keeps Broker from being among Kore-eda’s absolute best.
(12/22/2022)
