Hirokazu Koreeda’s “Broker”

Broker (브로커) (2022)

Beautiful and complex yet tender story of family and human connections that touches on hefty concepts while being extremely engaging dented slightly by its denouement

Koreeda has managed to create a film full of real world issues that balances the grit and emotion of its subject matter while not descending into utter despair though it does at times tread close to the line of sentimentality. On the whole, it works very well with terrific performances across its ensemble cast including Song Kang-ho, Lee Ji-eun and Gang Dong-won. Tonally, it sits in the same “dramatic fairytale” neighbourhood as Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia (which is referenced in the film) or Satoshi Kon’s Tokyo Godfathers.

Beginning as a story of black market adoption, it turns into a road movie questioning facets of family and human connections as well as societal norms and justice. The script is quite tight and well paced though its denouement (which Koreeda had rewritten several times) isn’t altogether convincing and doesn’t quite gel with the rest of the film. Also, the variety of perspectives among the characters on some of its topics sometimes feel a bit unbalanced but the characters are convincing though some of the second-tier personas might have benefitted from a bit more development.

Showing how society’s indoctrination limits our choices be it be it broader social expectations to the black and white world of the law, it manages to expose the gradation between extremes while not feeling preachy. For example, it becomes apparent that the title Broker isn’t as clear as one would assume.

If all of this sounds like hard work, it is miraculously not. Peppered with humour and likeable characters across the board, it’s a film that I think most will really enjoy. While not quite to the level of Parasite, I think those enjoyed that will probably take to this as well.