South Korea  –  Drama/Mystery  –  Year: 2018  –  Running time: 148 mins
Languages: Korean, English

Audience response:

Rating: (3.58 from 12 responses)

• Excellent’: 2 votes
• ‘Very Good’: 6 votes
• ‘Good’: 2 votes
• ‘Satisfactory’: 1 vote
• ‘Poor’: 1 vote

Read the comments here or visit our “Burning” discussion page

Synopsis:

Jong-soo runs into Hae-mi, a girl who once lived in his neighbourhood. She asks him to watch her cat while she’s out of town. Returning, she introduces him to Ben, who tells Jong-so about his hobby.… A quiet, slowpaced , if lengthy, character study, this is a mysterious drama, offering much food for thought, which you may not be able to get out of your head.

The kind of movie whose takeaways you could spend hours debating and still feel miles away from being sure of anything at all.
Leah Greenblatt (Entertainment Weekly)

Director: Chang-dong Lee
Poetry (2010) / Secret Sunshine (2007) / Oasis (2002)

(for full cast and more information, see “Burning” in IMDB)

CFC Film Notes

Churchill once described Russia as a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma, but this description is equally fitting of this South Korean break-out hit for Chang-dong Lee. Even as the film reaches its final denouement, the viewer may still remain perplexed as to what they have just witnessed. However, despite the sense of unease and unknowing the film steeps itself in, it is a pacy, complex and exciting thriller which never fails to hold the attention. The fact that the film was the first time a South Korean picture had made it to the final nine features nominated for Best Foreign Language Film is a testament to its artistic credentials.

Jong-su meets Hae-mi, who used to live in his neighbourhood and a tentative romance begins. This is brought to an abrupt end when she leaves for Africa and asks him to care for her cat whilst she is away. On return, Hae-mi has a new friend in tow, the mysterious Ben (wonderfully played by Walking Dead’s Steven Yuen). Ben is rich, ostentatious and seems to have some dark secrets of his own, as he draws his new friends deeper into his world.

Based on a short story by Haruki Murakami, Burning is a character study that seeks to build up the tension, slowly hence the running time, to it’s emotional conclusion. The film deliberately attempts to keep the viewer at arm’s length whilst drawing us in. Yuen, in his first Korean film, is a revelation as Ben, a man a world away from the nice guy persona that this actor has developed in his US work.

The final product is an exquisite but chilling film which deals with weighty issues such as class, wealth, sex and male rage. If you are keen to see South Korea finally achieve an Oscar Nomination or even a win for Foreign/Best Film then come to see the highly lauded Parasite at the end of this year’s season, which is lauded as being the film that will finally put SK cinema on the Oscars map!

Selected UK reviews

Observer (Wendy Ide)
The Arts Desk (Graham Fuller)
One Room With A View (Jack Blackwell)