Review - Broker

Directed by: Hirokazu Koreeda
Written by: Hirokazu Koreeda
Starring: Song Kang-ho Don-won Gang Bae Doona
Running Time: 129 minutes
Rating: 3/5

Broker is a complex family drama that explores the relationships between two child traffickers and a runaway young mother, while at the same time being pursued by the authorities determined to put a stop to the horrible practice. Koreeda returns to filmmaker after winning the Palm d’Or four years ago with his film “Shoplifters” and once again delivers a film with complex messaging that makes you question your side in which you are rooting for. The movie begins with a baby being dropped off into “baby boxes” a service ice in which mothers can drop their unwanted babies at a local church and the children will be raised and taken care of before being put up for adoption. It is here we meet our main characters of Sang-hyeon and Dong-soo who are running an illegal child trafficking business, kidnapping these babies and selling them for profit.

“For being a film about human trafficking it is shocking and spectacular that Koreeda has been able to get me to root for the traffickers to complete their plan, and not for the authorities that are on their tail determined to catch them and stop this horrible trade.”

For being a film about human trafficking it is shocking and spectacular that Koreeda has been able to get me to root for the traffickers to complete their plan, and not for the authorities that are on their tail determined to catch them and stop this horrible trade. Song Kang-ho, fresh off his performance in Parasite, plays the defecto leader Sang-hyeon a middle aged man who is tasked with leading a small family “clan” of adults which include, Gang Don-won who plays Dong-soo and orphan himself who was left himself as a child, and Lee Ji Eun who plays the neglecting mother So-young as they move from buyer to buyer to attempting to find the best deal and find a good home for the baby Woo-sung the baby with the non existent eyebrows. In a way the film is very similar to something like a Little Miss Sunshine and having a rag tag group of people all trying to understand their own journey and ultimately achieve their own goals while at the same time contributing to a final end task.

My only complaint is that the film is that the film tends to fall on the side of the good hearted people are the ones doing this. I shouldn’t root for these people, they are doing something horribly illegal and profiting from it, but the situations in which people are needing a child range from the absurd to ones that you quite frankly understand, and when placed with the same decision might make yourself. This makes the film that much more relatable and interesting as it isn’t always what is best for the child or the characters that ends up happening in the end.