"I am aware that having such a prestigious cast and having worked with a technical team that brings together the best technicians in the country can make Korean directors probably a little jealous," Kore-eda said in an interview. Thursday at AFP.

“It puts a little pressure!”.

"It's hard to find a recent film with such a long list of important names," Jason Bechervaise, a professor at Korea Soongsil Cyber ​​University, told AFP.

The film brings together several South Korean stars on screen: Song Kang-ho, Bae Doo-na, Gang Dong-won and K-Pop megastar Lee Ji-eun.

Produced in Korea, “The Good Stars” (“Broker”, in English) evokes the fate of a baby abandoned in a box where mothers can leave their newborn anonymously, so as not to carry the burden of being a mother. single in a conservative and patriarchal society.

The actors of the South Korean film "The Good Stars".

From left: actor Song Kang-ho (L), actresses Lee Joo-Young, actress and singer Lee Ji-eun, and actor Gang Dong-won, during a promotion for the movie the May 10, 2022 in Seoul Yelim LEE AFP/Archives

An existing device in Korea and Japan that the director discovered about ten years ago while preparing his film "Like father, like son" (2013).

“But the phenomenon is more important there,” he says.

As part of his research, Kore-eda, who has made family relationships the theme of his work, met children in orphanages.

According to Kore-eda, these children wondered if, as unwanted babies, it would have been better for them not to be born, he said in early May in Seoul.

"Expressive"

In "The Lucky Stars", Song Kang-ho plays a debt-ridden man who discovers an abandoned baby and volunteers to find him a new family, in exchange for money.

"Song Kang-ho is such an expressive actor, whether it's expressing tension, comedy or confusion," Brian Hu, a film professor at San Diego State University, told AFP.

"On the other hand, Kore-eda's work is so much more naturalistic, often treating professional actors as he would non-professionals," he adds.

"It is therefore not only a clash of cultures, but also between cinematographic styles".

Kore-eda has defied geopolitical tensions to build strong relationships with top South Korean talent, including heading to the 2019 Busan International Film Festival amid the trade war.

At the time, he said the two countries, which have a long and complex history, could "solve and overcome political problems" through solidarity.

Song Kang-ho expected "meticulous and calculated" acting direction from Kore-eda.

"But he really respected us and brought out our emotions in a way that was really free, caring and inexhaustible."

Lee Ji-eun, one of the most popular K-Pop artists of her generation, known as IU, plays the young mother who abandons her newborn baby.

The 29-year-old artist had received rave reviews for her role in the television series "My Mister" (2018), where she played a young woman heavily in debt.

His playing had moved to tears... a certain Kore-eda.

© 2022 AFP