Burning [Beoning] **** (2018, Ah-In Yoo, Steven Yeun, Jong-seo Jeon) – Movie Review

Ah-In Yoo stars as Jong-su, a young South Korean graduate in creative writing, would-be novelist and part-time worker. One day, while out delivering, he meets and reconnects with Hae-mi (Jong-seo Jeon), who grew up in his part of town. They reconnect in a big way, making love, and Jong-su falls in love with Hae-mi.

But Hae-mi suddenly announces that she is going on a trip to Africa and asks Jong-su to look after her cat while she is away. He can’t actually find the cat, though there are signs that it seems to eat, drink and poo.

Jong-su meets Hae-mi at the airport on her return, but she is in the company of the older, richer, enigmatic Ben (Steven Yeun [Yeun Sang-yeop]), whom she met and befriended at Nairobi airport. To Jong-su’s horror, Hae-mi and Ben are obviously getting very close. The three of them hang out together. When Ben visits Jong-su’s house with Hae-mi, he reveals his secret hobby of burning barns. But there are no signs of burning barns anywhere.

Co-writer/ director Chang-dong Lee’s Burning is enigmatic in the extreme. It comes complete with an ambiguous ending, an idea that the story is a metaphor for something (but what?) and a hint that maybe the cat, the girl, the other man, or even the whole story never existed, except in the hero’s mind. After all he is a graduate in creative writing and would-be novelist. Maybe it is a clue that he does a lot of masturbating. As a film, Burning unfolds in very Antonioni kind of way, with mysterious characters, people vanishing, the hero wandering around or driving around in a existential way.

Burning is a slow burn, and a long film at 148 minutes, but it is quite mesmerising, showing a great command of the medium. Just please don’t ask me what it is about or what has happened. You sit there riveted, waiting for the answer to the puzzle to be revealed, but it isn’t! If it is a mystery drama, the mystery remains pretty much unsolved. There are not enough clues, though there are hints. As usual, it is best just to sit back and enjoy. Tomorrow, in reflection, might bring explanation and enlightenment. Okay, yes, it is definitely about the stories that we tell.

The screenplay by Chang-dong Lee and Jung-mi Oh is based on the short story Barn Burning by Haruki Murakami, Jong-su’s favourite author is William Faulkner and Burning (2018) is inspired by Faulkner’s 1939 story Barn Burning.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Movie Review

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