Review: Broker
Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda
Starring Song Kang-ho, Gang Dong-won, Bae Doona, Lee Ji-eun
6.5/10
The relatively obscure criminal underworld of South Korea is explored in a humanistic way in Broker, a film with hardly any judgments or villainy for any of its characters. This makes for a socially conscious film that has its heart in the right place, even if its earnestness gets in the way of it being engaging.
A criminal investigation is closely observing a criminal ‘broker’ organisation, run by Ha Sang-hyeon (Song Kang-ho) and Dong-Soo (Gang Dong-won), where abandoned babies are taken and sold to couples who can’t conceive. They lay a sting operation, where a young baby is taken by the duo and offered up for sale, and the investigators simply have to wait til the baby’s been through the sale before an arrest can be made. With the “mother” along with them, it turns out to be a longer and more arduous sale than the police were expecting.
Without much flashiness in the cinematics or even storytelling, Broker comes across as earnest, but dry. The acting from all is so subdued, the most emotive and expressionistic performance comes from the baby.
At a certain point towards the film’s end, there’s a brief, but strong sense of a family coming together, linked by circumstance rather than blood, which was such a prevalent theme in director Kore-eda’s last film Shoplifters.
All the plot points feel so natural, rather than invested with dramatic intrigue and twists to make it more exciting. But with the story so reserved, as well as the filmmaking, it makes the film feel small. A film like Australia’s The Stranger didn’t overdramatise its own tale of a real life cop sting, but the film was infused with a cinematic sensibility to make it seem more dramatic than it was.
Broker spends a leisurely time setting up this “family” with the audience hardly being aware. It’s a nice continuation of this theme, but it also doesn’t do much for a crime film with very little excitement or intrigue in the story, nor the largest amount of thought for the social ramifications of such a practise. Although Broker is not judgmental, it also seems unsure. At its core, it gets the human side of such a tricky issue right.
DAVID MORGAN-BROWN
Broker plays at UWA’s Somerville Auditorium from Monday, January 30 to Sunday, February 5, 2023. For more information and to buy tickets head to perthfestival.com.au