Burning (2018)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆½

Burning (2018) – C.-D. Lee

I hadn’t heard of director Chang-dong Lee but this film received rave reviews and a quick look at his past films suggests he is touted as a masterful auteur.  My reaction to Burning confirms that this assessment is spot-on (I’ll have to peruse his back catalogue).  The film begins with the first meeting in Seoul between our central protagonist, Jong-su Lee (Ah-In Yoo), and a girl he used to know from junior high, Hae-mi Shin (Jong-seo Jun), back in their rural town, Paju.  Jong-su is clearly interested in the attractive Hae-mi (who admits to having had plastic surgery) but he is awkward and shy.  Nevertheless, she shows interest and he ends up watching her cat while she takes a trip to Africa.  When she returns, she apparently has a boyfriend, Ben (Steven Yeun), a rich playboy type with a Porsche.  Jong-su is jealous but has other problems to deal with – his father has been arrested for striking a government official and Jong-su has to return to look after the cows on the family farm.  When Ben and Hae-mi visit him there, the evening turns weird and Jong-su starts to have suspicions about Ben (which are exacerbated later when he finds he can’t get into contact with Hae-mi).  The film slowly begins to morph into a thriller – Jong-su tails Ben to find out his actions and becomes rather obsessive.  Is he right? Is he wrong? There is a lot of ambiguity here.  As has his countrymate Bong Joon-ho (e.g., Parasite, 2019), Lee focuses on class differences here, with a stark contrast between Jong-su and Ben (and Hae-mi).  The pressures on the poor, especially poor women, to maintain a certain image (with make-up, plastic surgery, credit card debt) are alluded to and there is no disguising the way that Jong-su has trouble fitting in with the jet set.  Fantasy, jealousy, and frustration are all intertwined here (but never verbalised by our stunted protagonist who surprisingly seeks to become a writer, citing Faulkner as his favourite author).  Methinks that these problems of economic inequality are not limited to Korea alone.   Beyond these meaty themes, the film contains a number of ecstatic moments brought about by the combination of transcendent imagery, jazzy music, and a sure hand on the throttle (editing, direction).  Highly recommended.