Criticism of ‘Broker’, the South Korean family of Hirokazu Kore-eda

The master Kore-eda returns to address some of the themes that have supported his filmography, but this time, from comedy. Thus, ‘Broker’ could be the warm reverse of ‘A family matter’, since in it we find many of his leitmotifs: the construction of a dysfunctional family in which there are no blood ties and a critical look at society (in this case, Korean) through a group of disinherited people who find themselves on the margins trying to be picaresque in order to survive. However, although his new work is kinder and more conciliatory, it does not stop containing a trace of deep discomfort. Mothers who cannot take care of their children, baby traffickers, class hypocrisy, moral misery, exclusion, child defenselessness and urban dehumanization. Poverty. The director addresses these issues with the humanistic, deeply empathic look that characterizes him and manages to make the impossible easytalk about extremely sensitive issues without falling into dogmas or prejudices, addressing all angles without falling into schematism, with depth and without cynicism.

‘Broker’ develops through a road movie structure, sometimes crazy and others, deeply reflective and melancholic, never sentimental or sweetened, focusing on its creatures, on their uprooting, on their helplessness, on their profound fragility. They all have a story behind them, they could all be tried (the two men who trade in abandoned babies, the mother who has worked as a prostitute and has committed a homicide), but Kore-eda loves her characters, understands them, and protects them, because no one else could in a world fraught with hypocrisy.. There are speeches, there are silences, there are moments that shrink due to their emotional rawness. The director has a transparent way of narrating, capable of capturing the lights and shadows of his entire troupe, configuring a memorable collective portrait of beings alone, orphans, facing a cruel world.

To laugh, cry, reflect and get excited without prejudice

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DATA SHEET

Direction: Hirokazu Koreeda Distribution: Song Kang-ho, Gang Dong-won, Bae Doona, Lee Ji-Eun, Lee Joo-young Country: South Korea Year: 2022 Release date: 21–12-2022 Gender: Drama Script: Hirokazu Koreeda Duration: 129 min.

Synopsis: One rainy night a young woman abandons her baby at the doors of a church. The newborn is picked up by two men who steal abandoned babies to sell to parents willing to pay a fee. When the young woman returns to the church, repentant, she discovers the illegal business of both men and decides to join them to find the most suitable adoptive parents. On this unusual road trip, the fate of those who cross paths in the boy’s life will change radically.