Broker (2022)

It's a good movie. I found it difficult to pull in all the nuances of the story line. There were several different lines of conflict going on and it all was not made clear. I can't tell if the fault is the screenplay or direction.

This actually starts off with rather a sad indictment of modern society. The church in Busan has a "deposit your unwanted children" box. It's all heated with a jingling toy inside, but it seemed slightly surreal to think that a mother would turn up and leave her child for the church to care for. It's exactly that, however, that "Moon So-young" (Ji-eun Lee) does and it shortly afterwards, part-time employee "Dong-soo" (Gang Dong-won) deletes the video evidence and takes the child to his laundry-owning friend "Ha Sang-hyun" (Some Kang-ho). Now on the face of it, we think they are going to look after the child, but pretty soon we realise that they have far more commercial plans for this offspring. These plans looks kyboshed, though, when the mother returns to collect her child after a night of soul-searching, and the church can find no trace of the bairn. The two "brokers" conclude that it is better to tell her what happened - and hope that she believes they were acting in the best interests of the child... Meantime, two police officers are shadowing the mother and the pair with a view to an arrest for child trafficking. Add to the mix the un-related (or is it?) murder of a man in a nearby hotel and we have the ingredients for a quickly paced and amusing crime drama that is well written and characterised by the adults - and by the mischievous and very observant young orphanage escapee "Hae-jin" (Seung-soo Im). As they travel the length and breadth of the country looking for clients, they try to stay one step ahead of the increasingly involved detectives whose plans to apprehend them they successfully - if almost entirely unwittingly - manage to thwart until, well you can guess the ultimate conclusion. This is an entertaining story that knits threads of friendship, loyalty, hope and despair, comedically, but potently. Each character has their own story and also an abiding decency that though venally motivated at times, still demonstrates a degree of integrity. These guys are not just going to sell the kid to a sweat shop! It offers some food for thought, this film, without pontificating or moralising and there is loads of on screen chemistry from the characters who work well together on this most curious of road movies. Well worth a watch.