Although it turned out to be David Lynch-less, this year’s Cannes line-up is in no shortage of big names (complete list here). Claire Denis returns to the competition section for the first time in 34 years with her Nicaraguan ‘80s romance “Stars At Noon”; James Gray premieres his childhood-inspired “Armageddon Time”; and, as the headliner, “Crash” and “Videodrome” director David Cronenberg looks set to return to his body-horror roots with the Viggo-in-chrysalis “Crimes of the Future.” And if that competition doesn’t sound fierce enough already, there’s also a new movie from Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda, titled “Broker,” which now has its first trailer.
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Still somewhat of a mystery, the plot of “Broker” centers around a group of people brought together by baby-boxes—public hatches (or, as they’re known in Japanese, “Baby post boxes”) in which newborn babies can be anonymously abandoned, to be picked up by special caregivers who are sent an alert when a baby is deposited; popular in the 18th and 19th centuries, they can still be found—and used—in Germany, Poland, and Pakistan.
“Broker” will be Kore-eda’s first Korean-language film, having previously directed 13 in Japanese and one in English (“The Truth,” starring Juliette Binoche, Catherine Deneuve, and Ethan Hawke). The cast includes Song Kang-ho (knife-wielding Mr. Kim in “Parasite”) and Bae Doo-na (star of “The Host” and Kore-eda’s “Air Doll” in 2009), with Gang Dong-won and South Korean singer-songwriter IU/Lee Ji-eun in supporting roles.
A quick look at his track record and you’ll see that Kore-eda is a favorite among Cannesgoers: “Like Father, Like Son” won the Jury Prize in 2013; “Our Little Sister” was part of the competition line-up in 2015; “After the Storm” opened to much acclaim in the Un Certain Regard section in 2016; and the eventually Oscar-nominated “Shoplifters” won the coveted Palme d’Or in 2018. We will just have to wait and see whether he can take home the top prize once again; if he does, he will join the likes of Francis Ford Coppola, Michael Haneke, and Ken Loach as the ninth double Palme d’Or-winning director.
“Broker” will be released in theaters sometime in June. Watch the new trailer below.