Poverty or crime, not entirely personal responsibility, said Hirokazu Koreeda, director of Broker.

 "I don't know why I keep getting interested in children who are alienated and abandoned. However, what is certain is that filming a movie for children is very fun."

Actor Song Kang-ho was the first Korean actor to win the Best Actor award at the 75th Cannes Film Festival, and the movie "Broker," which introduced IU as a top Korean female singer, actress Lee Ji-eun, is considered a beautiful encounter between Japanese director Hirokazu Koreeda, Korea's top actors.

However, the beginning of the production of "Broker" goes back to the movie "Air Doll" (2009), directed by Hirokazu Koreeda, starring Bae Doo-na. Director Hirokazu Koreeda and Bae Doo-na would later share their resolutions whenever they met, saying, "I hope we can film together again." Since then, the director, who has visited the film festival every time as a regular guest at the Busan Film Festival, used to think of Song Kang-ho whenever he was asked which Korean actor he wanted to be with the most. Right after watching the movie "Milyang," I was in the elevator thinking, "I want to try it with actor Song Kang-ho," and the elevator door opened and Song Kang-ho was standing right in front of me. At that time, the coach thought, "This is fate."

In an interview with Korean reporters in Samcheong-dong, Seoul, just before the release of "Broker," Hirokazu Koreeda revealed the hidden stories of the entire movie production process one by one, like a serious and sometimes naughty young man.

"I had the opportunity to meet and talk with actor Song Kang-ho several times. Actor Kang Dong-won first met when he came to Japan in 2015 for "Executive Exhibition of Prosecutors." As these encounters continued, I wrote a plot featuring three actors and showed the plot to these three actors. At that stage, they had already built the framework of the story around the baby box."

In fact, it was Kang Dong-won's job to create a decisive situation so that "Broker" could be made into a movie. Director Hirokazu Koreeda said, "Actor Kang gave specific advice and support. He advised me that if I were to film in Korea, I would like to work with a system like this and a company like this, and he connected the production company of the movie company's At first, it was like a dream, but it gradually became concrete. It hasn't been that long since the filming time has been set," he said, telling the story of Korean-Japanese filmmakers united for one goal.

"Broker" is a movie about the unexpected and special journey of those who became involved with Baby Box. Song Kang-ho plays Sang-hyun, a broker who runs a laundry and tries to connect the baby in the baby box to the foster parents, and Kang Dong-won plays Dong-soo, an employee of the facility where the baby box is located and Sang-hyun's partner. Lee Ji-eun (IU) played So-young, who will participate in Sang-hyun and Dong-soo's journey to find the baby's new parents after abandoning the baby in front of the baby box, while Bae Doo-na and Lee Joo-young played detective Soo-jin, who persistently pursued their journey.

"The starting point of this story itself was the image of Song Kang-ho in his bridal suit, taking the baby out of the baby box and talking to him with a caring face, but eventually selling it. That image has never left my head. Song Kang-ho as a mixture of good and evil, that was the starting point of this movie. The starting point of this movie was actor Song Kang-ho."

Director Hirokazu Koreeda's interest in the baby box issue dates back to the time when he filmed "Becoming a Father Like That" in 2013. In various interviews, we investigated Japan's adoption system and foster care system and found out that there were baby mailbox facilities in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan. Since then, it has been investigated that there have been similar facilities in Korea, and nearly 10 times as many babies as in Japan are left in baby boxes in Korea. When asked what actor he would have cast if he had filmed with this material in Japan, he answered that he had never thought about the Japanese version.

"I didn't film this movie in Korea because it didn't come true after writing the Japanese story on the premise. There were names of Korean actors from the three-page plot of A4. I got the impression that Korea is widely recognized for adoption and that the adoption system is more established than in Japan. If I made a movie with this material, I thought Korea would fit better than Japan, so I made it into a movie."

From "Nobody Knows" (2004) to "Miracles May Really Happen" (2011), to "Becoming a Father" (2013) to "Family" (2018), his films seem to be similar to children abandoned by parents and children who suffer from divorceThey suffer from growing pains that have to pass through the tunnel of darkness, such as pregnancy or abuse. And it is hard to find a very hopeful breakthrough at the end of the growing pain.

Director Hirokazu Koreeda asks the audience a knife-like question while looking into various underprivileged families and neglected children in our society with cold eyes. It keeps making us aware that we ourselves, who are facing the movie, are also responsible for the unreasonable parenting behavior in society.

What is the source of director Hirokazu Koreeda's constant interest in abandoned and abused children, or children who are alienated from family and society? His autobiography tells the story of him getting lost on the subway when he was six to seven years old. I asked if such an original experience might have affected unconsciousness.

"I've been bad with directions since I was young and I get lost frequently. However, getting lost as a child was not a special experience like a trauma. I'm interested in children and I'm sure it's repeated in my movie. The first thing I prepared to film was "No One Knows." It was a story about children abandoned by their parents living on their own, but I was in my 20s when I wrote it. It's hard to answer why I became interested in children's issues at that time. There was a teacher's license and the first documentary I filmed was a home video of children in Nagano Prefecture raising cows. The children's homeroom teacher gave me a harsh advice, "Why do you film a documentary about natural scenery, and there are children you have to face in Tokyo, where you were born and raised." I realized that it's not the time to get healed by filming a warm documentary. Also, the incident that happened around that time was the basis of "no one knows." That's when I realized, "This is what I'm going to do." I don't know why I'm dealing with abandoned children. One thing for sure is that filming movies for children is very fun."

One of the reasons for giving harsh reviews or critical reviews to "Broker" since the Cannes International Film Festival was that unlike the warm and warm sentiments of the movie, most of the characters in the play were criminals and criminal acts to sell their children for money.

"What I've felt for the past 20 years or so is that in Japan, crime does not originate in society, but is only one's responsibility and one's responsibility. There is a tendency that poverty or crime is considered an individual's responsibility. I think this trend is wrong. There are some ideas that "people who are protected by life are naturally restricted by their rights." When dealing with the incident in this movie or other movies, my position is also in the process of finding out what causes other than individual causes. Was it only an individual's problem that they were dealing with crime? I have the idea and position that I need to put the influences of social factors into my view. This position is fundamental to this movie. I don't think crimes should be tolerated, but the crimes of people who commit those crimes are wrong, but 'Isn't their life worth living? I don't think I should deny the whole thing. At first, Sanghyun tries to sell her baby from a selfish point of view, but after hearing Soyoung say, "Thank you for being born," she takes action to protect Woosung. His choices protect Woosung's life."

Soyoung, a woman in her 20s who ran away from home at a young age and even engaged in prostitution for a living, ends up getting an unwanted pregnancy one day and dumping her baby in front of the church's baby box. Why did she cast Lee Ji-eun, who was Korea's best female singer but had little activity as a movie star, as she joined the journey of broker Sanghyun and Dong-soo to adopt her baby to a better family the next day after abandoning the baby?

"I became a big fan during the drama 'My Mister'." I fell in love with that drama. It was amazing that I could act endlessly understated throughout the entire drama. Also, when I heard Lee Ji-eun's voice at the reading scene with the actors, she was very expressive. The line of "Thank you for being born" was more echoing because it was Lee Ji-eun's voice. It's the best gift to hear the line "Thank you for being born" in your voice. After casting Lee Ji-eun, I added a scene that was not in the scenario and wrote it on the premise of her voice. Dong-soo might have heard the voice of a mother he had never met before, and Sang-hyun might have heard the voice of a daughter he would never see again. In the ferris wheel, Dongsu said to Soyoung, "I'll forgive you for my mom." So-young's "Thank you for being born" to Dong-soo is a response to the line. I saw that the two parts correspond to each other."

Director Hirokazu Koreeda announced that he plans to shoot the next movie in Japan. He said, "I'm planning to film the next movie in Japan. Elementary school is a stage story and a child comes out again. However, personal trauma is not the reason," he said and finished the interview with a smile.