Burning - 2018
No other film in 2018 captured the critical importance and concrete ability of the elements of mood and tone to set the trajectory for a picture like Burning. If there is ONE picture from that year which I could impress upon you to watch which is perhaps lesser known state-side, it is this one. Get over the subtitles and moderate pacing. This story will drill itself into your brain and stay there loooong after the credits roll. It will patiently entrap you in its psychological puzzle and leave you no choice but to ride its simmering suspense until the very end. Afterwards, you’ll think you have it, but you’ll still spend hours (ok, maybe minutes) debating the flip sides of the ending revelation, until you eventually conclude that your leagues away from being sure of it at all.
For a film so bedazzling, from a plot perspective Burning is really quite simple. A young millennial in South Korea bumps into an old childhood friend (Hae-mi) while out making deliveries. After a rather uninspiring night of “catching up,” she tells him that she’s going on a trip to Africa and asks if he’ll watch her cat while she’s away. Jong-soo, believing that he’s beginning to develop feelings for Hae-mi, somewhat reluctantly agrees. The only trouble is he never seems to meet the cat.
Soon, Hae-mi returns with a new friend she met on her trip – Ben. As they hang out together one evening, Ben reveals a certain secretive pyrotechnic hobby. This all seems harmless enough…until Hae-mi goes missing.
Burning is really a slow-burning character study locked inside a mystery thriller. It is littered with clues which pass our eye unceremoniously and then come rushing back in the wake of the film’s conclusion (see: mysterious cat above). It is ultimately a story which presents us with three characters, and then fills in their portraits with little brushstrokes here, a couple of revealing lines of dialogue there, etc. We think we get to know them, but there are other matters at play in the background.
Like the contrasts between Jong-soo’s working class background with absent family members and Ben’s posh urban lifestyle and close relations (at last at face value). Or, Jong-soo’s unsure demeanor and meek vocal delivery vs. Ben’s aplomb and almost eerie ability to be on top of everything. Soon, these differences will cause Jong-soo to begins checking up on Ben’s proclaimed hobby to see if it’s real or a front for something more devious. This eventually leads the two men into a showdown of sorts which will leave you breathless.
Thinking about those two characters, I’d like to finally say a word about the acting in this picture. If you’re like me, Steven Yeun is the lovable Glenn from The Walking Dead. Maggie’s magnanimous beau. After this baby, that image of him is blown to smithereens. This dude has flat out CHOPS for days, and in his native tongue, he is a force to be reckoned with. Similarly, in an entirely different role, Yoo Ah-in, imbues Jong-soo with just the right touches to create a man who appears weak and lacks confidence in his abilities but still has much brewing under the surface.
I’ll end this review like I started. Mood is just SO important in Burning and Lee Chang-dong uses an almost spooky, minimalist score alongside the aforementioned performances (not to mention Jong-seo Jun’s terrific turn as Hae-mi) and breathtaking cinematography to create a slow-burning (pun intended) masterpiece. Be patient, viewer. By the finale, your expectations will be subverted, your investment richly rewarded.
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