To be a kid in a film by Hirokazu Kore-eda is to have a seemingly rough start in life. In his previous movies, kids have been swapped at birth (Like Father, Like Son), abandoned in a Tokyo apartment (Nobody Knows), separated from their siblings by divorce (I Wish) or have been orphans who have fallen in with a gang of petty thieves (the Cannes-winning Shoplifters).
The Japanese director’s latest feature starts with a newborn abandoned in a church “baby box” in Busan, South Korea. Only the kid is spirited away by a laundry worker (Parasite star Song Kang-ho) and his accomplice (Gang Dong-won), who run a black-market operation in selling babies to desperate would-be parents.
But, like Kore-eda’s
