IU Joins Cast Of Hirokazu Kore-Eda Film ‘Baby, Box, Broker’

Expectations for the first Korean film by award-winning Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda rose yet again after actress-singer IU agreed to join a star-studded cast that already includes Song Kang-ho, Kang Dong-won and Bae Doo-na.

Lee Ji-eun, better known as IU, is not only a successful singer-songwriter and host of TV and radio shows. She has more than proven her acting talent in the TV dramas My Mister, Scarlet Heart Ryeo and Hotel Del Luna. Her role as a desperate office worker in the drama My Mister earned her a Best Actress nomination at the 55th Baeksang Awards and Top Excellence Award, Actress in a Miniseries at the 6th APAN Star Awards. In 2019 she made her film debut in the Netflix
NFLX
anthology series Persona. IU can also soon be seen in the 2021 sports comedy film Dream, alongside Park Seo-joon. The singer-actress is such an influential celebrity in South Korea that she has been named to the Forbes Korea Power Celebrity list at least six times. 

The prestigious cast includes Song Kang-ho, who starred in dozens of notable films, including Parasite, A Taxi Driver and Memories of Murder. Kang Dong-won was last seen in the Train to Busan sequel Peninsula and the film Tsunami LA, while Bae Doo-na, appeared in the dramas Stranger and Kingdom and the film Cloud Atlas. Bae previously worked with Kore-eda in the film Air Doll, playing an inflatable doll who develops consciousness and falls in love. It is not yet known which characters any of these actors will play.

The “baby box” in the film title refers to the heated box in which people can anonymously abandon babies. The heated boxes are controversial because some allege that they can make it easier for parents to abandon babies. Despite the controversy, they have saved hundreds of abandoned babies from hypothermia. The babies are often left with heartbreaking letters explaining the reason for the child’s abandonment. The film will explore the lives of those who are involved with baby boxes.

Kore-eda is a Japanese film director, producer and screenwriter. He began his career in television and has directed more than a dozen feature films. He won the Jury Prize at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival for his film Like Father Like Son and won the Palme D’Or for his 2018 film Shoplifters. He has been working on the script for Baby, Box, Broker for the past five years.

Although Baby, Box, Broker is Kore-eda’s first Korean film, it will be his second film shot outside Japan. He previously filmed The Truth, starring Juliette Binoche, Catherine Deneuve and Ethan Hawke, which was shot in English and French. Baby, Box, Broker will be shot entirely in Korean with Korean actors and staff and on location in Korea.

The film is being produced by Zip Cinema.