Broker (2022), dir. Hirokazu Koreeda. Friday, January 20, The Main Cinema or whatever it’s called nowadays.

I always go to see Koreeda movies, because they’re calm and patient and funny and, even if they’re flawed, as Broker is, I really enjoy my time with his people. They’re smaller stories with folks who don’t get too riled up, who make bad choices with sometimes hard consequences, but they’re never shattering–people don’t die tragically, you don’t leave one of his movies weeping. You don’t leave them all charged up, either. The only other director I can think of who works in a similar mood is Bill Forsyth, who did Local Hero, one of my favorites.

I don’t have much to say about Broker, except that I enjoyed its languid pace, and wished he hadn’t thrown in so much plot in the end. The story is that a young woman wants to give up her baby to an orphanage of sorts, but it’s intercepted by a pair of silly dudes (one of whom is the great Song Kang-ho, the star of Parasite), who want to give it up for adoption themselves, for money. Their clients are people who typically can’t officially adopt, for a variety of reasons. And yes, if you stop to think about it, none of this makes sense, which is fine. The appearance of gangsters and a police officer who wants to adopt and an evil widow is where it gets weirdly complicated, so much so that my friend and I had to spend a half hour trying to unpack all this stuff. And we still couldn’t figure shit out. There’s a ton of loose plot points that don’t make sense even as I write this.

Weirdest of all is that the woman who wants to give up her baby takes it to the orphanage (that’s what I’m calling it, I don’t know another name for this weird service) after hours. There is a huge drop box in which there’s a wicker crib, and people can open the box and put the baby inside for the workers to accept. Really? Since no one makes any bones about this in any reviews I’ve read, I assume that’s a thing in Korea? I guess when you open and close the box the staff are alerted. But a drop box for a baby? God damn.