Broker

Hirokazu Kore-eda's story about two baby brokers and a sex worker is a sensitive, oddball, often surprisingly funny family road movie.

The film is also suffused with humour as the members of this odd family gradually become closer. There are some lovely, delicately handled scenes, the type of scene at which this director is adept.

Screenwriters are always told to simplify and clarify: Hirokazu doesn’t hold with such rules. His films get stranger and more beautiful as they go.

... the stage is set for a quietly eccentric road movie that appears to be about the nature of families (a perennial Koreeda theme) but is really about the yearning for intimacy in the modern world of alienation.

Broker is nothing if not a film of surprises... a swaddled-up mix of road movie, social realism, crime cliffhanger and even knockabout comedy. Genres collide. A little like life.

If it’s not God-tier level Kore-eda, Broker explores the toughest themes — emotional and physical abandonment — with the gentlest touch. Treat yourself.

Broker is one of the must-watch films to come out of South Korea this year.

Broker is a beautiful film that gives no answers to the big questions, only offers, and expects, an empathetic response.

“Broker” never felt like a cohesive whole. It felt like “Shoplifters” (2018) with a dash of “After the Storm” (2016) and “I Wish” (2011).

Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Broker takes an extremely dark reality and relies on a strong plot to make it a heartwarming watch.