Broker (2022 Film)

''Broker'' ( ko, 브로커) is a 2022 South Korean drama film written and directed by Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda, and starring Song Kang-ho, Gang Dong-won, Bae Doona, Lee Ji-eun, and Lee Joo-young. The film revolves around characters associated with baby boxes, which allow infants to be dropped off anonymously to be cared for by others. The film was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, where it was screened on 26 May and won Ecumenical Jury Award and the Best Actor Award for Song Kang-ho. It was released on June 8, 2022, in theaters in South Korea.

Synopsis

Ha Sang-hyeon is the owner of a hand laundry and volunteers at the nearby church, where his friend Dong-soo works. The two run an illegal business together: Sang-hyeon occasionally steals babies from the church's baby box with Dong-soo, who deletes the church's surveillance footage that shows a baby was left there. They sell the babies on the adoption black market. But when a young mother So-young comes back after having abandoned her baby, she discovers them and decides to go with them on a road trip to interview the baby's potential parents. Meanwhile, two detectives, Soo-jin and Lee, are on their trail.

Cast

* Song Kang-ho as Ha Sang-hyeon, the owner of a hand laundry who takes babies from a baby box at a nearby church and sells them with the help of his partner Dong-soo.
* Gang Dong-won as Dong-soo, Sang-hyeon's right-hand man who works part-time at the church and covers for Sang-hyeon.
* Bae Doona as Soo-jin, a police detective who is investigating the two men's illegal business.
* Lee Ji-eun as Moon So-young, a mother who decides to leave her baby at the baby box.
* Lee Joo-young as Detective Lee, Soo-jin's colleague who also participates in the investigation.
* Park Ji-yong as Woo-sung, So-young's baby
* Im Seung-soo as Hae-jin, a child in the same nursery as Dong-soo who joins the brokers' journey.
* Kang Gil-woo as Mr. Lim, a trader who illegally trafficks children.

;Special appearances
* Lee Moo-saeng as Seon-ho
* Ryu Kyung-soo as Shin Tae-ho
* Song Sae-byeok as a kindergarten director.
* Kim Seon-young as the wife of the kindergarten director
* Lee Dong-hwi as Song
* Kim Sae-byuk as Song's wife
* Park Hae-joon as Yoon
* Baek Hyun-jin as Detective Choi
* Kim Ye-eun as Im's wife

Production

Development

The idea for ''Broker'' was initially conceived by Kore-eda while researching the Japanese adoption system for his 2013 film '' Like Father, Like Son'', discovering in the process its similarities with the South Korean adoption system. He learned about Japan's only baby box, a place where people can anonymously leave children, and the criticism surrounding the system in Japan. It can be found all around the world, including South Korea, where it is much more popular in comparison with Japan. After Kore-eda discussed with Song, Bae, Gang making a film together, he decided to combine the two ideas. Kore-eda had previously become acquainted with Song and Gang at various film festivals, while he met Bae on the set of his 2009 film, ''Air Doll''. Kore-eda has described ''Broker'' as being a companion piece to his 2018 film ''Shoplifters'', with the two films sharing a thematic interest in social outcasts who come together to form unconventional families.

The film was announced on August 26, 2020, with Song, Bae, and Gang set to star, under the working title reported to be ''Baby, Box, Broker'' or simply ''Broker''. Kore-eda originally used ''Baby, Box, Broker'' as the goal of the story was to connect the three elements. However, as he was writing the script he settled on ''Broker'' because he "realized that he filmhad this structure where it's the detective's side, Soo-jin's side, that ultimately wants the baby to be sold the most. The 'broker' in the film changes as the story unfolds. And I thought by focusing on the word ''Broker'', the title would become very simple and strong. I really liked this structure where the person wanting to sell the baby inverts as the storytelling progresses."

Writing

After meeting with the three South Korean actors, Kore-eda started working on the script. Kore-eda said the first image that came to his mind was "of Song Kang-ho, wearing a bride's outfit and holding a baby, smiling at the baby and then selling the baby." After the casting of actress Lee Ji-eun, who is also a renowned singer in South Korea, Kore-eda chose to add a scene where Lee sings a lullaby. Even though he had written an initial draft, Kore-eda struggled with the ending of ''Broker'' and he ended up rewriting it many times during the shooting with the help of Song.

Casting

Kore-eda said Song was the South Korean actor he wanted to collaborate with the most and the first person who came to his mind for the role of Sang-hyeon. Gang and Bae came to the director's attention after he saw their performances in ''Secret Reunion'' and ''Air Doll'' respectively, with the latter being directed by Kore-eda himself. In February 2021, Lee Ji-eun was announced to have joined the cast. Kore-eda chose to cast Lee after having seen numerous Korean dramas while in quarantine, including the 2018 television series ''My Mister'' starring Lee, where her performance impressed him. Lee said she accepted because she was looking forward to playing a mother when Kore-eda offered her the role. While preparing for the role, she researched how society views single mothers and the hardships they go through. In March 2021, it was reported that Lee Joo-young had joined the cast. She was picked by Kore-eda after he saw her performance in ''Itaewon Class'' and ''A Quiet Dream''.

Filming

Principal photography took place from April 14 to June 22, 2021. The director of photography is Hong Kyung-pyo. Notable filming locations include Pohang, Uljin and Samcheok.

Music

The score was written by South Korean composer Jung Jae-il. It was digitally released on June 15, 2022.

Songs not featured on the official soundtrack:

* "Tes Bro! (테스형!)" by Na Huna
* "Yeosu Night Sea (여수 밤바다)" by Busker Busker
* "Jin Jin Ja Ra (진진자라)" by Tae Jin-ah
* "The One I Remember (그때 그 사람)" by Shim Soo-bong
* "Wise Up" by Aimee Mann
* "Schlafe, mein Prinzchen, schlaf ein" by Lee Ji-eun

Release

In May 2022, prior to the film's Cannes premiere, Neon acquired the US distribution rights. Picturehouse Entertainment acquired the UK and Ireland distribution rights. The film's rights were also pre-sold to Metropolitan Filmexport (France), Gaga Corporation (Japan), Koch Films (Germany and Italy), Triart Film (Scandinavia), September Films (Benelux), Edko Film (Hong Kong and Macao) and Madman Entertainment (Australia and New Zealand). According to CJ E&M, the film has been sold to 171 countries ahead of its premiere in competition at 75th Cannes Film Festival. The number of countries then rose to 188.

''Broker'' was released in Hong Kong and Singapore on June 23 and in Japan on June 24. It was selected as the closing film of the 69th Sydney Film Festival and was screened on June 19. The Canadian premiere was held at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival in September. It was released in the United States on December 26, 2022. It also was released in France in the same month.

Reception

Box office

''Broker'' was released on June 8, 2022, on 1,594 screens. It opened with 146,221 admissions and topped the South Korean box office. The film crossed 1 million cumulative admissions in 11 days of release, by recording 1,040,709 cumulative viewers. It became the first film directed by Kore-eda to surpass 1 million admissions in South Korea.

, it is at 11th place among all the Korean films released in the year 2022 with gross of US$9,672,172 and 1,260,740 admissions. Its largest international market is Japan, with gross of US$4,470,263.

Critical response

''Broker'' was screened at the Lumière Theater, the main theater of the Cannes International Film Festival, on May 26, 2022. After the film finished, there was a standing ovation from the audience for 12 minutes. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, of reviews are positive for the film, with an average rating of . The site's critics consensus reads: "''Broker'' skirts the edges of sentimentality, but is consistently grounded by Kore-eda Hirokazu's warm, tenderly melancholic approach." Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 76 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Ella Kemp of IndieWire graded the film as A- and wrote, "The execution of this premise is, somehow, miraculous in its sensitivity, asking questions about issues of ethics, of choice, of money, and murder, and family, and how to find love in all this sorry mess."

Writing for ''The Hollywood Reporter'', David Rooney praised the actors' performances and Kore-eda's direction, saying, "much of this might have been formulaic in less artful hands, but Kore-eda has an unfaltering lightness of touch, a way of injecting emotional veracity and spontaneity into every moment."

Nicholas Barber of BBC
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