Among all the resources and tools that a filmmaker can use to shape a feature film and differentiate it from others that could be considered homologous due to their theme or plot, tone rises as the absolute hallmark for any kind of storyas well as as a determining factor to underline the fragility of the rating system by gender.
There is no doubt that the existence of film genres is enormously useful both industrially and personally, but these, like energy, they are continually transformed until they almost lose their original meaning. It is at that moment when the tone makes an appearance and completely breaks the schemes and prejudices associated with a less precise label than expected.
The last example we can cling to to defend this position is ‘Broker’, the magnificent new film by Hirokazu Koreeda. With it, the Japanese filmmaker has not only squeezed every last drop of the overflowing talent of his South Korean cast; but he has shaped an emotional road movie which, unexpectedly, works like real balm for the heart despite being built on a narrative core worthy of the darkest and most devastating exercise imaginable.
question of tone
With ‘Broker’, Koreeda returns to project his interest —perhaps obsession— for the meaning of the family, its nature and its dynamics after doing the same in films as celebrated as ‘Like Father, Like Son’, ‘Nobody Knows’ or ‘Still Walking’; replicating the warmth of ‘A family affair’ while not hesitating to dive into particularly thorny ethical and moral issues and dilemmas.
The trafficking of minors, the central axis of the story, is combined with police investigations, prostitution, murder, and even with a perhaps too directed debate —if there is one— between abortion and abandonment in what could have been a thriller really suffocating. but the tokiota rules out plunging his work into a dense gloom to, in contrast, overflow it with luminosity and dress it with a good dose of syrup.
Far from being artificial, this spirit of feel good movie It works perfectly thanks, mainly, to a treatment of characters that is as lucid as it is successful. Scene after scene, the director and screenwriter close ties between the public and an assortment of protagonists made up of a handful of losersunfortunate and of dubious morality that make their way to the heart with a blow of sweetness and charm.
Of course, this exercise in empathy would not have been possible without a cast that lives up to its roles —which, in this case, is even higher than them. The always impeccable Song Kang-ho —’Parasites’—, with his kind look and complicit smile, he stands as the great star of the show, managing to outshine names like those of Bae Doona —which coincided with Song in ‘Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance’—, Gang Dong-won or the surprising idol Lee Ji-eun.
‘Broker’ far from being a perfect production. Its plot, at times, is capricious by dilating, convoluting and giving opportunistic swings, and its evident emphasis on moving can be counterproductive. However, these minutiae vanish in the face of Koreeda’s staging and the intelligent search for sensitivity through containment in planning and the austerity of the chamber.
But, if there is something that makes this film worthy of sneak into the lists with the best of the yearIt is his ability to move in an honest and profound way. An achievement that, efforts aside, is not within everyone’s reach, and that does not understand genres or tonal bets.