Broker: Movie Review

Cast: Song Kang-ho, Gang Dong-won, Bae Doona
Director: Kore-eda Hirokazu

Moving on from Shoplifters but straying into similar thematic territory, Kore-eda Hirokazu's Broker deals with yet another version of the Japanese family and the problems they face.

In this latest, Song Kang-ho and Gang Dong-won play partners of a gang who take babies dumped by their mothers in a church box and try to rehome them for money. But when one mother gives up her child and then comes back, she works out what is happening - and demands to be let in on the action.

However, on their tail are two detectives determined to end their group.

What could so easily have been overplayed in Broker actually ends up being quite poignant and skillfully crafted, a story with subtlety where heart ache lies.

It helps that in Broker there's humour scattered throughout, but the time spent with this family as they head to try and sell the child actually is given space to feel organic and natural throughout, with a grounded and human performance from Parasite's Song Kang-ho leading the way.

It would be very easy to overplay the elements of Broker, given how a story about those on the fringes would be ripe for exploitation and over-sentimentalism. But it's clear Kore-eda Hirokazu has done his research on adoption and the effect on others - it's heartbreaking to see scenes of rooms filled with children waiting, with statements such as the fact there's no hope for a boy over 7 years old packed with both poignancy and veracity.

At the centre of it all though is a trio of performances that work through nuance and which grow organically during the film. Each dynamic works as the different groups fracture and the truth comes to light.

Carefully shot and sensitively constructed, Broker moves past it to deliver something bathed in sadness and packed with wiser cooler heads. It works through its non-judgement and demonstrates Kore-eda Hirokazu has the power to deliver a film about human connection where there potentially could have been nothing but darkness.