Review: Broker

Image courtesy of Neon.

Should family be defined by those among whom you are born and with whom you share blood, or those who raise and take care of you? This is a question frequently pondered in the reflective and gentle films of Hirokazu Kore-eda, whose latest, "Broker," is another examination of a make-shift family made up of disparate figures.

In this case, those figures include a prostitute, her baby, two men who are trying to sell her child to a loving family, a pair of women cops, and a young kid who tags along. This dynamic is similar to that of another recent Kore-eda picture, the Palm d'Or winner "Shoplifters," which is my personal favorite Kore-eda film, and "Broker" gets a good amount of mileage out of it.

As the film opens, a young prostitute in South Korea - the director's films are typically set in Japan, but this one was relocated due to something I'd never heard of called a "baby box" that exists in that country - named Moon So-young (Lee Ji-eun) leaves her newborn baby outside of one of these boxes and is instantly spotted by the detectives (Bae Doona and Lee Joo-young), who follow not only her, but also a pair of men, Ha Sang-hyeon (Song Kang-ho, of "Parasite") and Dong-soo (Gang Dong-won), who take the baby and plan to act as brokers by selling the infant to any couple that seems like a suitable match.

Although a dramedy about child trafficking might sound like it wouldn't yield much in the way of warmth or humor, the film forces viewers to question whether Ha Sang-hyeon and Dong-soo's scheme - which involves selling the baby to a couple, but only if they appear to be people who actually want and intend to care for a child - is worse than plopping the child down in the middle of the Korean foster system.

To complicate matters, Moon So-young tracks down the two men and begins to accompany them as they go to meet the possible parents. She wants a say in the matter as well. As it turns out, she left the baby outside the baby box after having killed the father - to whom she was not married - during an argument over the child and doesn't want the baby boy to carry that stigma all his life. During all this, the two detectives follow this ragtag group around and, during one particularly humorous sequence, attempt to carry out a sting with a hapless pair acting as a couple possibly interested in the child.

After dropping by an orphanage where Dong-soo spent his childhood - he too was abandoned, therefore he brings more humanity to the baby-selling scheme than others likely would have - the group picks up another member, a young boy named Hae-jin (Seung-soo Im) who is also looking for a family and has a hilarious love of car washes.

As is the case with most Kore-eda films, there's not a lot of plot driving the story here, but rather the relationships between these various characters, and how they come to view each other and consider themselves - at least some of them - to be part of a family, of sorts.

Kore-eda's work has long been compared to that of Japanese master Yasujiro Ozu, whose mannered and often devastating human dramas are often ranked among the best films of all time, and it's easy to see why. Films like "Broker" and "Shoplifters" are kind-hearted films in a slow, contemplative style about matters of the heart, although Kore-eda's work has also occasionally been intense ("Maborosi") or wildly imaginative ("After Life").

His latest is another tale of various characters who have suffered hurt or disappointments and are trying to figure out the best path forward and, along the way, meet others who are doing the same. "Shoplifters" remains my favorite of his works (with "After Life" a close second), but "Broker" is a picture filled with strong performances, some humor, a bit of heartbreak, and a lot of emotion that rings true. I found it to be quite effective and affecting.