Skip to main content
Broker film image, director Hirokazu Kore-eda

Broker

This event has passed

VIFF 2022 Closing Film

Working for the first time in South Korea, long-term festival favourite Hirokazu Kore-eda (Shoplifters) has come up with a sprawling crime story about a baby adoption scam. But in characteristic Kore-eda style, the tone is predominantly compassionate and melancholic—even the cops warm to the perpetrators. It helps of course that the baby broker, Sang-hyeon, is played by Song Kang-ho, the charismatic star of Parasite, Memories of Murder, The Host, and so many others (Song was named Best Actor at Cannes for this performance). His scheme involves intercepting infants abandoned at a church baby box, but things get messy when a young mom (Lee Ji-eun) changes her mind and discovers his racket. She decides to go along with him to meet the the baby’s prospective buyers—actually cops in a sting operation.

Kore-eda fashions plenty of twists and turns as Sang-hyeon, his accomplice (Gang Dong-won), and the girl try to evade the law and find a safe home for the child, but as always, he’s more invested in character than plot mechanics, and the truths we learn about this thrown-together family are revealed in simple, telling gestures, looks, and shadings.

Miraculous in its sensitivity, asking questions about issues of ethics, of choice, of money, and murder, and family, and how to find love in all this sorry mess.”—Ella Kemp, Indiewire

 

Best Actor (Song Kang Ho), Cannes 2022

 

Note: the Closing Gala screening of Broker will take place Saturday, October 8, 6pm at the Centre for Performing Arts.

 

Presented by

 

 

Director

Hirokazu Kore-eda

Cast

Song Kang-ho, Gang Dong-won, Doona Bae, Lee Ji-eun, Lee Joo-young

Credits
Country of Origin

South Korea

Year

2022

Language

In Korean with English subtitles

Links
18+
129 min
Award Winners Comedy Drama

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre

Democracy Under Siege

Dir. Laura Nix
90 min

As the USA turns 250, Oscar-nominated director Laura Nix considers the roots of the current political crisis with commentary from historian Heather Cox Richardson, progressive politician Jamie Raskin, and cartoonist Ann Telnaes, among others.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Groundhog Day

Dir. Harold Ramis
101 min

If you haven't seen Groundhog Day that must be rectified immediately. Bill Murray is at his best as the TV weatherman stuck in a purgatory that might just be paradise.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

A Cree Approach

Dir. Tristin Greyeyes
80 min

Tristin Greyeyes embarks on a deeply personal journey to understand why Cree was not her first language, unraveling the story of her late grandmother, Freda Ahenakew. An intimate tribute and a call to action for the reclamation of language and identity.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

King Arthur's Night

Dir. John Bolton
110 min

John Bolton's film of Niall McNeil and Marcus Youssef's musical staging recreates Camelot at Harrison Hot Springs. It's a self-referential piece which joyfully reframes a classical narrative through the prisms of disability, inclusivity, and imagination.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Whispers in the Woods

Dir. Vincent Munier
94 min

A luxuriant, healing immersion in nature with ravishing wildlife photography, this is the cinematic equivalent of "forest bathing," a trip deep into the Vosges, France, with photographer Vincent Munier (The Velvet Queen), his father and his son.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Short Cuts

Dir. Robert Altman
187 min

Altman's adaptation of Raymond Carver short stories, Short Cuts weaves between 8 or 9 overlapping storylines and 22 characters. it's a teeming, caustic and compassionate human comedy; a singularly astringent, often cynical view of America and Americana.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Credits

Executive Producer

Miky Lee, Kang Ho Sung

Producer

Lee Eugene

Screenwriter

Hirokazu Kore-eda

Cinematography

Hong Kyung Pyo

Editor

Hirokazu Kore-eda

Production Design

Mok Won Lee

Original Music

Jung Jae Il