SEOUL • Japanese film-maker Hirokazu Koreeda will take on his first South Korean movie with top-tier actors Song Kang-ho (Parasite, 2019), Bae Doo-na (Kingdom, 2019) and Gang Dong-won (Train To Busan: Peninsula, 2020), according to the film's distributor CJ ENM.

Tentatively titled Broker, the film is a drama about people involved with "baby boxes" - temperature-controlled containers into which unwanted newborns are dropped.

The Japanese writer and director, who is famous for his nuanced portraits of families that reveal their complexities and realities, is one of the Cannes Film Festival's favourite Japanese film-makers. His films have been in competition five times at the festival, with Like Father, Like Son winning the jury prize in 2013 and Shoplifters nabbing the Palme D'or in 2018.

Koreeda previously worked with Bae in 2009's Air Doll, in which the Korean actress played the lead character, air doll Nozomi. Broker will be his first collaboration with Song and Gang, who previously starred together in Korean thriller flick Secret Union in 2010.

"Back in 2009, I promised Bae that 'we would collaborate again, next time, as a human character' and I have come to keep this promise after 10 years," Koreeda said in a statement released in Korean by the distributor.

"Including these three actors, I am able to make this film with the help of other Korean actors and film staff who I have revered."

According to the statement, the director has been working on the upcoming film's script with the Korean producers for about five years.

"I feel my heart fluttering the most right now, as I am writing the script, moving around the three veteran actors inside my mind. I hope to make a film through which I could share this feeling - doleful, yet thrilling and heartbreaking at times," Koreeda said.

CJ ENM, which also distributed Korea's Cannes-and Oscar-winning Parasite last year, said Broker is expected to kick off production next year.

THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK