BROKER Teenage prostitutes, abandoned babies, human traffickers and murderous gangsters: on the face of it, Broker could be one more piece of ghastly news reportage. Instead this might well be the most charming, heartwarming and humane film you see this year, another small marvel from Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda, who, following 2018’s sublime Shoplifters, is emerging as modern cinema’s poet laureate of patchwork, improvised families.
A young woman, So-young (sometime K-pop queen Lee Ji-eun aka IU) leaves her newborn at a Busan church by a box for abandoned babies. It is received by a church volunteer, who wipes the CCTV and takes the infant to his friend Sang-hyun (Song Kangho, the). Together they plan to sell the child to wealthy couples unable to legally adopt. However, the mother returns and, discovering their scheme, wants a share of any fee. As the three set off to meet prospective parents, they’re tailed by two detectives investigating human trafficking…
