With ‘Broker,’ Director Hirokazu Kore-eda Bolsters His Line of Quiet, Humanist Dramas

A South Korean city drenched in rain. A young woman walking in the city at night with a strange bundle. The familiar face of actor Song Kang-ho, who is talking about erasing a video captured by a surveillance camera. From these first moments of the new movie “Broker,” one might be forgiven for thinking it’s some sort of offshoot of “Parasite,” the Best Picture Academy Award winner starring Mr. Song that features a pivotal scene of nocturnal rain.While it is not a sharp satire or a black comedy on class, director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “Broker” does make a couple of astute comments on social issues such as child abandonment and what constitutes a family. The movie is another in a line of quiet, humanist dramas from the Japanese filmmaker. Accordingly, the early scene’s rainfall doesn’t become a torrent that leads to rage and revenge; the young woman turns out to be carrying a baby and not a rock; and the digital erasure is unrelated to the safety of a state-of-the-art house.The film’s set-up is both straightforward and cluttered: A young girl leaves her infant son at the door of a local church, though she fails to place him in the “baby box,” a warm compartment within the church’s walls made for such a desperate occasion. Two detectives staking out the sanctuary on claims of human trafficking witness the incident and promptly place the child within the baby box. Inside the facility, two night volunteers erase the security camera footage of the box drop-off, with the intention of selling the baby to a childless couple. Their motivation is both avaricious and altruistic; they reason that the child will end up in an orphanage with little chance of adoption, so selling it to a loving family will give it a much better chance at future success. The young girl comes back to the church the next day, only to find that her baby isn’t there, and soon enough she learns of the scheme and wants in. So begins a mini-odyssey in a beaten-up van as the two men, the young woman, and the baby — with a young boy thrown in for extra measure — travel across South Korea to meet prospective parents, with the police never far behind.While all this may sound contrived and a bit cutesy, the film largely avoids sentimentality and easy chuckles in Mr. Kore-eda’s experienced hands. For every line of dialogue articulating the movie’s themes too blatantly, and for every almost-treacle moment, there’s a counterpoint of reticence and unemotional insight. The road trip turns out to be more subtly humorous and heartbreaking, the characters more damaged and nuanced, and the outcome messier than might be expected. Much like the work of director Paul Thomas Anderson, whose “Magnolia” is referenced via Aimee Mann’s masterclass in tuneful self-recrimination, “Wise Up,” Mr. Kore-eda’s characters seek understanding — of themselves and others, even when their dreams are farfetched, and their decisions morally muddled at best. Some might accuse Mr. Kore-eda of making the same kind of genteel family drama he’s crafted before, and I won’t disagree that his masterpiece remains 2018’s “Shoplifters.” Maybe next time he’ll take on tougher characters, ones who don’t forgive so easily, and whose deeper scars refute compassion. For now, though, may we receive “Broker” as we do when we get an unexpected holiday gift from a friend or relative: with gratitude for the thoughtfulness, and perhaps some awkwardness for not having anything to give in return.

With ‘Broker,’ Director Hirokazu Kore-eda Bolsters His Line of Quiet, Humanist Dramas

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