A scene from ‘Broker’
A van full of liars takes a cross-country road trip across South Korea to sell a baby to the highest bidder, and Hirokazu Kore-eda, in Broker, Makes us root for all of them.
On a rainy night, Moon So-young (Lee Ji-eun) leaves her baby outside the church. She leaves him in a baby box, specially made for when people want to leave their baby in the care of the church. On the other side of this baby box, are Ha Sang-hyeon (Song Kang-ho) and Dong-soo (Gang Dong-won), who await the arrival of abandoned babies, who then sell them to couples who , who are unable to have children. a baby.
These persons have not got sympathy from our society. While single mothers like So-young pursue these options in the last stages of helplessness, we have no reason to be moved by people who calculate profit margins on babies. but in Broker, Kore-eda weaves its perfect song of estranged family around itself. Throw in a delectable roadtrip in a shabby van across the streets of Busan through downtown Incheon, and you find yourself in the middle of a compelling story.
When So-young changes her mind and finds her baby missing from the church, she is accosted by two ‘pimps’, as she initially names them. Eventually, she joins the deal to ensure that her child (Woo-sung) finds a safe home. The plot becomes infinitely safer in Kore-eda’s hands, as it leans into a sweet optimism.
Broker (Korean)
the director: Hirokazu Kore-eda
Throw: Lee Ji-eun, Song Kang-ho, Gang Dong-won, Bae Donna, Lee Joo-young, Park Ji-yong, Im Seung-soo, and others
period: 129 minutes
story: Two men who sell abandoned babies and orphans at church go on a road trip with a young mother to find a suitable buyer for her son
As the trio (and the kid) travel to meet potential clients, they are also followed by two detectives (Bae-donna and Lee Joo-young), whose objective is to catch the ‘pimps’ in the act. Therefore, at some point everyone develops a vested interest in selling Woo-sung. But Kore-eda later turns his wishes into a singularity: getting Woo-sung a safe house because it matches the mood of the audience gives an immediate boost to the narrative structure.
While these characters begin with motivations that are uncomfortable to digest, through the course of the film, they are given the depth to question our initial decisions. As a mother who is about to sell her child, So-young is one who goes through many changes. From the woman who left her baby alone on a rainy night to the one who thanked her for being born on an equally damp night before selling it. or Dong-soo, who is familiar with the future of the abandoned from his experience as an abandoned child in an orphanage. Even the cold-blooded detective slips easily into the vocabulary of motherhood. Somewhere along the line, the baby-selling crew turns into a team of Woo-sung guards.
Despite bringing in characters to fill in a traditional cat-and-mouse race between cops and criminals, Kore-eda imbues them with enough depth to blur the edges of their morality. This hazy landscape, where motivations become increasingly difficult to predict, is where most of the film unfolds.
Backed by a strong cast, Broker With stories of Woo-sung’s unknown future family and the detectives catching on fast, it is able to keep the audience’s curiosity up. The addition of a small subplot involving So-young’s past by Kore-eda, which bleeds into the present timeline, threatens to detract from an otherwise smooth journey. Luckily, Kore-eda gives it a short amount of time so it doesn’t have a huge impact.
Beyond that, the film remains a near-perfect watch, and Kore-eda remains content with his expertise — creating the most thoughtful of families during an incongruous situation (a plotline that would also work well in his latest Netflix show). Is) Makanai, full of humor that is forced to conjure during a gloomy time, Broker Takes an extremely gory reality and relies on a strong plot to make it a heartwarming watch.
Pimp is currently playing in cinemas