Three crooks and a baby: Japan's Kore-eda brings Korean road trip drama to Cannes, with "Broker"

Record ID: 1674573

  • Title: Three crooks and a baby: Japan's Kore-eda brings Korean road trip drama to Cannes, with "Broker"
  • Date: 27th May 2022
  • Summary: CANNES, FRANCE (MAY 26, 2022) (REUTERS) ***WARNING: CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** (L-R) "BROKER" ACTOR SONG KANG-HO, DIRECTOR HIROKAZU KORE-EDA, ACTORS LEE JI-EUN (KNOWN AS IU), LEE JOO-YOUNG, AND GANG DONG-WON ON STEPS OF PALAIS DES FESTIVALS AFTER PREMIERE OF FILM LEE JI-EUN AND LEE JOO-YOUNG SMILING/ FILM TEAM WALKING DOWN STEPS KORE-EDA AND LEE JI-EUN WAVING SONG SMILI
  • Embargoed: 10th June 2022 13:43
  • Keywords: BABY BOX BROKER KORE-EDA HIROKAZU SONG KANG-HO SOUTH KOREA
  • Location: CANNES, FRANCE/ VARIOUS FILMING LOCATIONS
  • City: CANNES, FRANCE/ VARIOUS FILMING LOCATIONS
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Arts/Culture/Entertainment,Europe,Film
  • Reuters ID: LVA001111527052022RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text:PLEASE NOTE: TRANSLATIONS FROM JAPANESE TO ENGLISH WERE PROVIDED BY FILM TEAM/ TRANSLATIONS FROM KOREAN TO ENGLISH WERE PROVIDED BY CANNES FILM FESTIVAL TEAM
    Acclaimed Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda collaborated with an all-star Korean cast for his story of three crooks and a baby in "Broker", which premiered Thursday (May 26) at the Cannes Film Festival in southern France.
    Song Kang-ho, known for his role in Oscar-winning black comedy "Parasite", plays one of a duo of crooks who steal an abandoned infant from a church's 'baby box', intending to sell it on the black market.
    But the plan meets a hitch when the baby's mother goes to reclaim the child and winds up joining the pair on a road trip to find suitable parents, hoping to take her share of the money.
    Kore-eda said the project originated in 2016 when a group of Korean actors he admired, including Song, said they wanted to make a movie together.
    "The difference between Kore-eda and Korean directors is that he loves food. He enjoys good food and eating well. And he loves Korean cooking," Song joked in a news conference on Friday (May 27).
    Kore-eda cast Korean pop star Lee Ji-eun, known as IU, to play the baby's mother So-Young, a fugitive prostitute who resists her maternal instinct.
    The unlikely trio ultimately find a family in each other - a running theme in the work of Kore-eda, who won the Cannes Palme d'Or in 2018 with "Shoplifters" and the jury prize in 2013 with "Like Father, Like Son".
    "The road trip was about the different characters searching for what they had lost and what they were missing... As they surround this baby, Woo-sung, through their journey they all start thinking about would be best for the baby's happiness," Kore-eda said in an interview with Reuters.
    Casting the baby proved challenging because the pandemic forced him to rely on screenshots, Kore-eda said. But the infant actor provided spontaneous moments, such as by crying just as Song's character Sang-hyun was about to sell him to a couple.
    It seemed that the language barrier was broken not only between Japanese and Korean, but also with baby talk.
    "I think it was the last scene, when the baby is looking at me, I had the impression he was saying, 'Well, listen let's stop shooting. We've done enough takes, let's stop.'", Song said.
    (Production: Christian Levaux, Michaela Cabrera)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2022. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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