Burning

Young South Korean filmmakers have a layered vitality one doesn't find anywhere else. Filmmaking is all about mapping what we have as cinematic conveyance to what we yearn for internally. That's the game, the expected contract between filmmaker and viewer. We negotiate that as we go, sometimes being outside the story as normal interpreters, sometimes inside the story filling in bits.

One way to go about this is for the filmmaker to trick the viewer when in internal mode to make assumptions that are later revealed to shock. A common technique is to tantalize with some erotic vision - easily cinematic - and later lead us into reviling misogynistic exploitive behaviour.

More nuanced is mixing realities between what we invent from what we are shown and what an on-screen sometime narrator does. This is rich territory for filmmakers willing to go there, and I think the more we experiment, the greater our vocabulary will be.

We are tuned to have an in-story interpreter. Our main character is a writer, and we are pointed to some books with metaphors that cross into reality.

We see him in the longish first act conjure narrative reality from sexual fantasy. Later, he literally writes what we presumably see, while sitting in the girl's apartment but outfitted for himself. The sexual tryst is still in the smell of the place.

We see his love interest go well out of our way to present the importance of (pantomime) living richly in a created reality. We have her describe the 'great hunger' for revelation, encountered in dance she describes and later demonstrates, in her own encounter in Africa - a trip likely never taken.

We have questionable memories. Is she genuinely the person who lived in the neighborhood when they were children? Is the father overcome by past roles he cannot escape? Is the newly recovered mother genuine? What role does plastic surgery play, once we see the 'makeup' scene at the narratively frugal end?

The referenced Gatsby story to those of us interested in these things, is rich with mixed fantasies from the writer and narrator. All the real action here is in the context of broadcast propaganda; the MacGuffins are neglected glass houses in a context where houses matter, and may even (dimly) reference quantum realities.

We never know who is conspiring with whom, who is imaginary and what motives are to be trusted.

So the art here is in transporting us into this folded space where we get destabilized, but not so much we lose our engagement. That's a major accomplishment in itself. Few can do it and most are Asian.

But we want the investment to matter. I want a part of my soul turned inside out to challenge me by the evoked inner me. Possibly, this failure is because I did not pretend to fall in love with the girl. The seduction did not overlap beyond the two young men, possibly because of culture, age and suspicion.

Burning is an excellent psychological thriller with the veil of mystery around it. The movie that intrigues you and leaves you with a lot of questions to ask yourself why and to give it a try to connect the small pieces of mosaic. The more you think about the story and dialogs more questions starts to go on surface. Many of them don't have definite answer. It leaves a lot of space for imagination and analysis. It is a great study of characters. Atmosphere in the movie is dark with a lot of suspense. Acting and direction was on the spot. But the story is the one that is really unique. I haven't read the short story of Murakami ,,Burning Barn'', but now I am more than interested. I think that the movie is worth watching more times in order to catch all the small details that you maybe missed when you watched first time.Recommended for the people with more time,patience and with the tendency to analyze.

An amazingly graceful Korean story, exciting the viewer's attention and not letting go until the end. The film isn't for a wide audience, lasts 2 and a half hours, it goes slowly and asks a lot of questions. But the plot is built correctly, so that the viewer can understand the characters and start thinking about the questions that have arisen. The independent film seems to be divided into 2 parts: the first tells the story of a love triangle, and the second goes to a fascinating detective thriller. Director Lee Chang-dong wonderfully plays with the viewers' imagination who are trying to understand the thoughts of the main characters and their intentions. I liked very much the juxtaposition of the main characters - the writer Lee Jong-soo, who cannot see the hidden meaning and thus awakens a strong hunger inside himself, which doesn't allow him to sleep and to enjoy a life, to create; his opponent, Ben, a kind of rich Gatsby, quite the opposite one, he is filled with inspiration and understands the true beauty of all things, thus filling himself and everyone around him with a mysterious special flame. The narration is slow, during this time you can fully enjoy the visual component, excellent camera work. Scene setting, editing, actors' play - everything works for the picture and its success. No wonder that the film won a prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

Jeon Jong-seo (who plays Hae-Mi) has some really beautiful moments in this film, including her pantomime routine, her mimicking the "great hunger" dance from the bushmen of the Kalahari, and the way she uses her hands to mimic a bird in flight at dusk, backlit by sunset. The "great hunger," this hunger to understand the meaning of life, is such a poetic concept, and I just loved it. It fits in so well with these two disaffected young people, who both have such difficult relationships with their parents and face a harsh world.

She tearfully says that a sunset in Africa made her want to disappear like the sunset, and her mother has disowned her until she pays off her credit card debt. Her friend Jong-su (Yoo Ah-in) has an angry father who is on his way to jail, and a mother who abandoned him long ago. When she sees her son again out of her own need, she can't stop herself from looking at her phone, which is a heartbreaking moment. He's an aspiring author who likes Faulkner, but is not sure what to write about. Is there any wonder he's so isolated and quiet? "To me, the world is an enigma," he says.

I absolutely love that little moment in her apartment, when we see an ephemeral reflection of light off the nearby tower glint and then fade, with is such a beautiful analogy to the beautiful little moments in an otherwise harsh world.

There is certainly more than meets the eye here (from both a plot and allegorical perspective), as the two poorer young people are alongside this smooth rich guy (Steven Yeun) who drives a Porsche, knows the right things to say, and is always self-assured. Yeun is fantastic by the way, and his role is one of cinema's great villains. You can read larger things into these characters as life for young people these days, with the class divide and in existential moments, having a great hunger, the desire for an answer to the enigma of life.

However the film certainly works on a literal level, and has wonderful ambiguity in it as well. It's a little lethargic in its first hour, but marvelous as it picks up. The buildup of tension by director Lee Chang-dong is masterful; the film gets eerie and scary without ever resorting to cheap shock moments. Great soundtrack and cinematography too. Highly recommended, but be patient with it.

Wow. Didn't do it for me. Characters were bland. Story was bland. Pacing was plodding and slow. I know I'm going against the grain here, but something definitely went over my head.