lucky Star ★★★
DRAMA (2022)
Directed by: Hirokazu Kore-Eda
Cast: Song Kang Ho, Dong Won

“There were some kids who were like, ‘Is it good that I was born?’ and they could not give a clear answer to this so fundamental question about life.”

Japanese Hirokazu Kore-Edawhich wowed critics and audiences a few years ago with the wonderful Shoplifters, is back with a similarly structured film, but this time set in South Korea. There is a constant problem abandonment of babies on the street led to the fact that public organizations placed special protective nurseries outside their doors. An employee of such an institution, together with a debtor friend, steals a baby from there in order to sell it. Soon the young mother of the baby herself comes into play, and four of them – eventually there are five – go on a strange journey, with the police on their trail. Kore-Eda uses essentially the same central idea as his previous film: a group of fringe heroes united by a common interest, gradually forming a family bond. This time, in fact, he turns it even more, since his main characters are not just kleptrons, but baby dealers, however, without any particular organization or big bosses behind them. On the contrary, these are ordinary people, some of them also orphans, whose failures and the harshness of life have brought them to this very position.

“While preparing this film, I was able to hear their stories. They were brought up in orphanages; for various reasons, their parents could not support them. Among them were children who wondered, “After all, is it good that I was born?” and they could not give a clear answer to this most fundamental question about life,” the director notes. In his bittersweet film, he really represents reality without a critical look, on the contrary, he can even be accused of embellishing an absolutely tragic situation.

In general, Kore-Eda here seems to want to please the audience a little more than before. Of course, the sass and edgy black humor of The Thieves is largely absent from Asteri. On the other hand, his cinematography in this idiosyncratic road movie that cuts through cities and countryside is once again exemplary, while the humanity exuded by the script and its characters is almost palpable, rarely found in contemporary cinema.