Film Review: Broker (2023)

Hirokazu Kore-eda’s latest film, Broker, is a story of murder, morality and broken relationships. Launderette owner Sang-hyeon runs an illegal business on the side with his friend church worker Dong-soo. They steal babies from the church’s baby box and after Dong-soo has erased the church’s CCTV footage, they sell the babies for adoption on the black market. When young mother So-young leaves her baby outside of the baby box, she returns to the church where she discovers Sang-hyeon and Dong-soo’s plan. She decides that she will accompany them on a road trip to interview her baby’s potential new parents herself. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the three, a pair of detectives are on their tail.

There is a moment in Broker where the characters are all travelling together in a car. The car is falling apart, one of the doors held closed with a piece of frayed rope. The characters are all battling their own demons – themselves barely holding it together, and yet they are all laughing and smiling. In spite of the circumstances that they have found themselves in, they have also found each other. Broker may show the audience some of humankind’s most deplorable traits, but it also demonstrates that there is something that overrides all of that – love.

Whilst that might sound like Broker is slightly trite and over sentimental, nothing could be further from the truth. Broker deals with incredibly inflammatory topics, and ethics are one of the issues at the forefront of the film. But Kore-eda deals with these topics with an incredible lightness of hand and the film never judges its characters or their decisions. As a result, nor does the audience and Broker feels like a really well-balanced story in which the audience really roots the characters whilst still acknowledging their bad decisions and murky pasts.

Whilst Broker does deal in certain darker topics, it is far from a dark film. Broker is often light-hearted and has laugh out loud moments. A running joke about eyebrows is a great touch and this is without a doubt a film which will raise many smiles from its audience.

Sometimes the greatest family we can find is the most unlikely. Broker is a tale of finding unlikely friendships and family, all whilst trying to come to with the mistakes we have made and how we found ourselves here. Kore-eda is extremely masterful at digging into the human soul and psyche without it ever feeling overtly like he is doing so.

Accompanied by a lovely score and brilliant performances from all of its cast, Broker is another sure-fire hit from Kore-eda. Highly recommended.