Broker
Beurokeo

The latest heartwarming tale of dubious morality from writer/producer/director/editor Hirokazu Kore-eda continues to explore the great Japanese filmmaker's principal theme of family and its ever-evolving definition. This South Korean drama centers on two church volunteers who operate an illegal business selling some of the orphaned infants left in their church's “baby box.” The black market for little ones is strong these days due to the bureaucracy of adoption in South Korea and the prevalence of affluent couples who can't have children of their own. But detectives and rival dealers are watching their every move. Soon a young mother returns for her baby and decides to join them as they clandestinely interview potential parents.

The film becomes a kind of road picture as a band of lovable misfits coalesce around this operation, including folks who are orphans themselves. These young and old abandoned children represent a class of cast-off humanity even more extreme than the switched-at-birth boys of Kore-eda's 2013 Cannes Jury Prize-winning Like Father Like Son or the poverty-stricken "kidnappers" in his 2018 Palme d'Or winner Shoplifters. Broker lacks the tonal perfection of Kore-eda's best work; some of this movie feels sentimental to the point of schmaltz. But the story and themes are engagingly explored by the endearing cast, headed up by Song Kang Ho (the star of Bong Joon-ho's The Host, Snowpiercer, and Parasite; and Park Chan-wook's Joint Security Area, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, and Thirst).