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Two childhood friends, who grew up in a farming village outside of Seoul, meet as adults, at random. They haven't seen one another in years. They go out for drinks and reminisce. The young woman has been studying pantomime, and she shows off some of what she has learned. She pantomimes eating a tangerine and her gestures are so specific you could swear the tangerine was really there. He is amazed at the illusion. She tells him that if he ever is hungry for anything, he can create it on his own like this.

Everyone is hungry for something in "Burning," the new film from South Korean master Lee Chang-dong . How that hunger manifests, and what hunger even signifies, is up for debate. The debate itself is too dangerous to even be spoken out loud, since it threatens the class status quo. Based loosely on Haruki Murakami's short story Barn Burning , "Burning" is Lee's first film in eight years , and it is a bleak and almost Darwinian vision of the world, survival of the fittest laid bare in sometimes shocking brutality. The three main characters circle warily, looking at each other with desire, mistrust, need, never certain of the accuracy of their perceptions. Lee's explorations require depth and space. It's a great film, engrossing, suspenseful, and strange.

Jongsu (Ah-in Yoo), the young man enraptured by the pantomime, dreams of being a writer. His favorite author is Faulkner, because—he says—every time he reads a Faulkner story, it feels like his own. This makes sense since it takes a while for us to understand the layout of Jongsu's life, so hazy is it with strange relationships, missing figures, blank spaces. His father is in trouble with the law for assaulting another farmer, although the details remain vague. His mother took off when he was little. When he runs into Haemi, (Jong-seo Jun), a girl he grew up with, dancing outside a store giving off raffle tickets, he almost doesn't recognize her. "Plastic surgery," she grins. Almost before he knows what has happened, he and Haemi have sex, and he agrees to feed her cat while she takes a trip to Africa. Rattling back and forth between Seoul and the family farm in his battered pickup truck, he is caught in an in-between state, dreaming of Haemi, waiting for her return, shoveling food for the cows, or putting out food for her cat—a cat who is never seen or heard. It's impossible to avoid the speculation that there is no cat, that Haemi made it up. But for what reason?

When Jongsu picks up Haemi at the airport on her return from Africa, he is chagrined to discover Haemi has a man in tow, a man named Ben ( Steven Yeun ), whom she met on her travels. The two are clearly now an item. Jongsu has a weird feeling that Ben is no good, that something is really "off" about the guy. Ben drives a Porsche, his apartment is huge and filled with beautiful artwork, he doesn't seem to have a profession. Jongsu says to Haemi, "There are so many Gatsby's in Korea." If Ben is Gatsby, then that would make Jongsu Nick Carraway and Haemi Daisy. The closer Jongsu gets to the heart of Ben, the more he sees that there's no "there there." Ben is dangerously void, maybe even a sociopath. (Yeun gives a truly chilling performance.) The class critique in "Burning" is as unsubtle as F. Scott Fitzgerald's was, and it creates unbearable tension, rage crackling off the screen. When Haemi demonstrates the Kalahari Bushmen's "hunger dance" for Ben and his friends, Jongsu notices how uncomfortable everyone is, hiding their mocking smiles. He catches Ben yawning during Haemi's dance. Haemi, so alluring to the appreciative Jongsu, is a creature of fun for these empty city slickers. Jongsu starts to feel like Haemi may be in some kind of danger.

"Burning" takes place in a world of fluctuating and amorphous borders, invisible yet pressing in on the characters. Jongsu's village is on the border of North Korea, where the air is pierced with shrieking propaganda from a loudspeaker across the hills, creating a sense of emergency among the gentle pastoral landscape, like some attack is imminent, like something dreadful lurks beyond the horizon. Haemi's cat is literally Schrodinger's cat, caught in a borderland between being and non-being. The food vanishes, the litter box is full, but the cat never manifests. The phone rings repeatedly at Jongsu's farm, but no one's on the other end. Just empty space and dead air. Images and motifs repeat, creating a fractal effect. Closets are important: each character has a closet containing secrets, mysteries (a shaft of reflected light, a gleaming knife, a pink plastic watch). Fire is important: For Haemi, it's the fire that the Kalahari Bushmen dance around. For Jongsu, it is the bonfire of his mother's clothes in the backyard, one of his only clear memories from childhood. And for Ben, as he casually admits to Jongsu, almost daring Jongsu to be shocked, it's the greenhouses he burns down in his spare time. "You burn down other people's greenhouses?" Jongsu asks. Ben, smiling smoothly, his face telling no tales, nods.

In one extraordinary sequence, Haemi and Ben drive out to visit Jongsu on his farm. The three sit out on the patio, get stoned and watch the sun set, the tree leaves rustling overhead, the light growing dimmer and dimmer. Haemi takes off her shirt and dances on the patio, staring off at the hills of North Korea, her silhouette undulating against the pink and purple glowing sky. Both Jongsu and Ben are frozen in their seats, as they watch her fluid gestures, her primal openness to the beauty of her own experiences. Jongsu had seen this in her when she pantomimed the tangerine. He fell in love with this part of her. Ben yawns again. By the end of the dance, she is in tears. Jongsu now knows that Ben is, apparently, an enthusiastic amoral arsonist. There's a serious and alarming sense of danger, only you can't really point to its source. The whole of "Burning" feels like this.

There's so much disorienting background noise in “Burning," the traffic, the ringing of the phone, the street music, the loudspeaker blaring North Korean propaganda, Trump on the television in the corner of the room. It's hard for anyone to keep their thoughts straight; it's hard to believe what might be staring you right in the face. The tension between "what is" and "what isn't," started with Haemi's beautiful tangerine pantomime, is in urgent operation throughout. Things are never what they seem. Or, perhaps, they are, and that's even worse to contemplate. The tangerine is delicious but it's invisible. It won't provide sustenance for long. The cat was never there. Haemi made it all up. Greenhouses don't provide space for things to grow, they just stand there in the fields waiting for the arsonist's match.

Sheila O'Malley

Sheila O'Malley received a BFA in Theatre from the University of Rhode Island and a Master's in Acting from the Actors Studio MFA Program. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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Film credits.

Burning (2018)

148 minutes

Yoo Ah-in as Lee Jong-su

Steven Yeun as Ben

Jun Jong-seo as Shin Hae-mi

Kim Soo-kyung as Yeon-ju

Choi Seung-ho as Lee Yong-seok

Lee Chang-dong

Original Story

Haruki Murakami

Director of Photography

Hong Kyung-pyo

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Burning patiently lures audiences into a slow-burning character study that ultimately rewards the viewer's patience -- and subverts many of their expectations. Read critic reviews

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Burning videos, burning photos.

Jong-soo runs into Hae-mi, a girl who once lived in his neighborhood, and she asks him to watch her cat while she's out of town. When she returns, she introduces him to Ben, a man she met on the trip. Ben proceeds to tell Jong-soo about his hobby.

Genre: Mystery & thriller, Drama

Original Language: Korean

Director: Lee Chang-dong

Producer: Lee Chang-dong , Lee Joon-dong , Ok Gwang-hui

Writer: Oh Jungmi , Lee Chang-dong

Release Date (Theaters): Oct 26, 2018 limited

Release Date (Streaming): Jan 29, 2019

Box Office (Gross USA): $715.0K

Runtime: 2h 28m

Distributor: Well Go USA

Production Co: Pine House Film

Aspect Ratio: Scope (2.35:1)

Cast & Crew

Steven Yeun

Jeon Jong-seo

Kim Soo-kyung

Choi Seung-Ho

Moon Seong-geun

Lee Soo-jeong

The prosecutor

Lee Chang-dong

Screenwriter

Lee Joon-dong

Ok Gwang-hui

Hong Kyung-pyo

Cinematographer

Film Editor

Original Music

News & Interviews for Burning

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Critic Reviews for Burning

Audience reviews for burning.

Ostensibly this is three kinds of movies in one (a character study, a mystery, and a revenge thriller) and yet each of these classifications fail to adequately describe all or even part of "Burning" as Chang-dong Lee continually undermines or subverts your expectations. It's a haunting enigma

KOREAN BBQ - My Review of BURNING (4 Stars) It may sound corny as hell to call South Korean filmmaker Chang-dong Leeï¿ 1/2(TM)s BURNING a slow burn, but thereï¿ 1/2(TM)s no escaping the truth. To also call it a worth-the-wait psychological thriller about obsession in the vein of VERTIGO, THE CONVERSATION, DONï¿ 1/2(TM)T LOOK NOW and, improbably, MIKEï¿ 1/2(TM)S MURDER, also fits the bill. Be forewarned, however, that at 148 minutes, itï¿ 1/2(TM)s l-o-o-o-o-o-n-g but also exceptionally rewarding. Depending on how you look at it, itï¿ 1/2(TM)s either the story of a young woman who asks an old friend to take care of her cat while sheï¿ 1/2(TM)s away, or itï¿ 1/2(TM)s about said old friendï¿ 1/2(TM)s obsession with a woman he barely knows and the potentially dangerous new boyfriend she meets while away. Either way, thereï¿ 1/2(TM)s that damned cat and pay attention to it, as itï¿ 1/2(TM)s a very important piece of the puzzle. Ah-in Yoo plays Lee Jong-su, the young man, who when we first meet him is making a delivery to an electronics store where his old acquaintance Shin Hae-mi (Jong-seo Jun) dances out front to lure customers inside. Although he called her ugly when they were young, sheï¿ 1/2(TM)s drawn to this quiet, vulnerable man and aggressively hits on him and eventually gets him to agree to watch her cat in her tiny apartment while she jets off to Africa for a vacation. Hae-mi isnï¿ 1/2(TM)t your classic noir femme fatale like Kathleen Turner in BODY HEAT. Sheï¿ 1/2(TM)s a lot more idiosyncratic and rough around the edges, but her somewhat goofy, oddball character stands out and it seems clear that no good will come from this dalliance. Sure enough, they have sex and he sets about taking care of a cat he (and we) have yet to see. Itï¿ 1/2(TM)s the first of many instances where we as viewers begin to question whatï¿ 1/2(TM)s real and whatï¿ 1/2(TM)s not. Hae-mi has a wonderful and revealing moment in which she shows off her miming skills. It feels off-the-cuff, but what she has to say about perception is a key to viewing this film. Hae-mi returns from her trip with a new boyfriend of sorts, Ben (played by Steven Yeun of THE WALKING DEAD fame). Unlike Jong-su, Ben has money, a fancy car, a to-die-for apartment, and the kind of swagger we all wish we had but are too afraid to actually pull off. Eventually they form a throuple of sorts, culminating in a strange evening in which Hae-mi strips down and dances in the sunset and where Ben confesses to Jon-su that he sometimes likes to burn down greenhouses and that one near Jong-suï¿ 1/2(TM)s family home is his next target. Huh? What? Did we just hear that correctly? Who knows, but by this time, the film has slowly managed to seduce us with its low key, hangout charms. Of course, all is not what it seems, and when Hae-mi disappears, Jong-su canï¿ 1/2(TM)t help himself but to obsessively search for her, with Benï¿ 1/2(TM)s behavior becoming increasingly more suspicious. Although the aforementioned films resonate here, MIKEï¿ 1/2(TM)S MURDER, the 1984 Debra Winger starrer from James Bridges, feels like a kissing cousin to BURNING more than the others. Both feature a troubled protagonist who oh-so-slowly obsess over and search for someone they barely knew and both manage to explain everything while still retaining their ambiguity. BURNING excels as an of-the-moment dissection of millennial impotence and a yearning desire to connect while possessing none of the tools for how to accomplish such a thing. All three of its leads give wonderful performances with Yeun putting a fresh spin on his Talented Mr. Ripley-esque character. Is he a sociopath or just your garden variety narcissist? The film forces you to read into his every yawn and blank but seductive charms. Meanwhile, Ah-in Yoo performs the hell out of his naive street kid who has his own hidden demons and unexpected sexual desires. Jong-seo creates such a specific character that even when sheï¿ 1/2(TM)s not onscreen, you feel her pull. Chang-dong Lee gets incredible help from his talented cinematographer, Kyung-pyo Hong, who creates one dreamy image after another, especially that astounding final shot. That this film slyly goes from a quirky drama to a full-blown thriller without any odd tonal shifts speaks to the talents of all involved. It feels like a muffled scream at disaffected youth and how their obsessions lead them to poorly solving their problems. Donï¿ 1/2(TM)t read too much into this. Itï¿ 1/2(TM)s also just a creepy, sad, weird, dreamy experience.

The best film of 2018, Burning is an undeniable masterpiece. Yoo Ah-In and Steven Yeun deliver bravura performances, and the haunting film stays true to its Murakami roots while also forming its own identity as an engaging, modern thriller. It is a film that captivates, not only with the story itself, but with the visuals, the sounds, and the camerawork. It is one of the greatest films I have ever had the pleasure of watching in a movie theater.

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Review: In ‘Burning,’ Love Ignites a Divided World

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By Manohla Dargis

Oct. 25, 2018

One of the most beautiful scenes in a movie this year — in many years — comes midway through “Burning.” Two men and a woman are lazing around outside a home. They’re in the South Korean countryside, near the border with North Korea, where the squawk of propaganda drifts in and out from loudspeakers. Now, though, in the velvety dusk light, the sound of Miles Davis’s ethereal trumpet fills the air, and the woman begins swaying, taking off her shirt. She is dancing for the men, but mostly she’s dancing in what feels like ecstatic communion between her and the world.

Desire, ravenous and ineffable, shudders through “Burning,” the latest from the great South Korean director Lee Chang-dong. Set in the present, the movie involves the complicated, increasingly fraught relationships among three characters whose lives are tragically engulfed as desire gives way to rage. The story has the quality of a mystery thriller — somebody goes missing, somebody else tries to figure out why — one accompanied by the drumbeat of politics. The larger, more agonizing question here, though, involves what it means to live in a divided, profoundly isolating world that relentlessly drives a wedge between the self and others.

The story opens the day that a young delivery man, Jongsu (Ah-in Yoo), meets a young woman, Haemi (Jong-seo Jun), in a chaotic, anonymous city. She works as store barker, dancing in scanty clothing while tempting shoppers with raffle prizes. Haemi hails Jongsu and reveals that they know each other from their hometown — he has no memory of her — then blurts out that she’s had plastic surgery. Later, she reminds him that when they were young he once crossed a street to tell her she was ugly, news she casually delivers while searching for a reaction that never comes.

Jun gives a physically open, natural performance that works as a lovely counterpoint to Haemi’s cryptic actions — she has an unseen cat, peels an invisible tangerine — while Yoo invests Jongsu with a reserve that suggests social awkwardness that can seem self-interested. (Slack-jawed, Jongsu hunches like a man in retreat or a teenager who hasn’t settled into his adult body.) Despite his seeming indifference to Haemi, he responds to her friendliness, and before long they’re in bed. This nascent intimacy abruptly ends when she leaves on a trip. When she returns with a wealthy enigma, Ben (Steven Yeun), the three form an awkward triangle, a configuration that derails Jongsu.

The movie is based on “Barn Burning,” a 1992 short story by Haruki Murakami that throbs with unspoken menace and shares its title with a far more blatantly violent 1939 story by William Faulkner . Lee nods at Faulkner (a favorite author of Jongsu whom Ben begins reading), but takes most of his cues from Murakami’s story. Lee retains its central triangle and some details, while making it his own by, for instance, changing the Miles Davis music . Mostly, Lee slowly foregrounds the uneasy violence that flickers through the Murakami to stunning, devastating effect.

Written by Lee and Oh Jung-mi, “Burning” unfolds in realistic scenes that don’t necessarily seem to be advancing a strong theme. Things happen, casually. For the most part, the story follows Jongsu, who’s as closed-down as the door in the movie’s opening image. Seemingly friendless, he says he wants to write. But his father’s legal troubles have forced Jongsu to take over the family’s run-down farm alone. “What kind of ‘writing’ are you going to ‘create,’” his father’s lawyer mockingly asks Jongsu, as if to remind him of his place in life. The lawyer also compares Jongsu’s father to a protagonist in a story, a remark that suggests our stories are written for us.

For the lawyer, fiction writing is clearly useless, and it certainly has no instrumental value for Jongsu’s father. That the movie is based on a story by a celebrated writer invests this seemingly uneventful scene with dark comedy, even if the larger point is the question of free will. (Is Jongsu writing his own story, or has it been determined by his father, whose rage landed him in jail?) The movie engages this question more directly once Ben — with his silky smiles and laid-back imperiousness — begins disrupting the equilibrium. “There is no right or wrong,” Ben tells Jongsu, after confessing that he torches derelict greenhouses. “Just the morals of nature.”

An understated visual stylist, Lee shoots and edits this scene simply but elegantly, initially cutting between the two men, who are each isolated in the frame. They’re sitting fairly close yet seem worlds apart. It’s the same night as Haemi’s ravishing dance. But now she’s asleep inside, the sun has set, and the men are alone in an exchange that grows darker, figuratively and literally, as Jongsu talks about his unhappy childhood and Ben shares his worldview. As the scene progresses, Lee joins the men visually in two-shots that leave one or the other blurred, only to punctuate this back and forth with an image of them seated side by side like mirrored images.

Here and throughout, Lee allows the actors to fill in their characters, letting them add pointillist detail to their portraits rather than smothering them in close-ups or self-regarding directorial virtuosity. All three leads are sensational (Yeun turns yawns and soft laughter into nightmares), giving performances that retain a sense of mystery that dovetails with the movie’s ambiguity. Again, things happen, often casually. Yet while each event expands the narrative — filling in the larger picture with nods at sexual relations, class divisions and a riven people — they don’t necessarily explain what happens or answer the fundamental question that burns through this brilliant movie.

Burning Not rated. In Korean, with English subtitles. Running time: 2 hours 28 minutes.

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Burning Is the New Thriller About Toxic Masculinity That You Didn’t Know You Needed

By John Powers

Image may contain Steven Yeun Human Person Sitting Clothing Apparel Yoo Ahin and Pants

If you had to choose the most interesting filmmaker in the world right now, you wouldn’t be wrong if you named Lee Chang-dong. Back at the Vancouver International Film Festival in 1997, I was on a jury that gave this South Korean auteur top prize for his first film, Green Fish , a funny, unsettling crime picture that was like an X-ray of Korean culture. “This guy,” I remember thinking, “has some talent.”

In fact, Lee had far more of it than I realized. Over the last 20 years, nobody has made more good movies than he has. Bursting with a novelistic richness spiked with political awareness, Lee specializes in empathetic stories about ordinary people caught up in emotional extremes, be it the doomed hero of the wrenching Peppermint Candy , which begins with his suicide and traces his life backwards, to the aging heroine of his exquisite last film, Poetry , who finds refuge from the onset of Alzheimer’s and a family crime by enrolling in a poetry class. Lee never does the same thing twice, and in his latest movie, Burning (the best thing at Cannes this year ), he has created a hauntingly ambiguous metaphysical thriller about isolation, soul-warping social divisions, and the darker corners of the male psyche.

Based on an elliptical short story, “Barn Burning,” by Haruki Murakami (itself a riff on a Faulkner story of the same name), Burning centers on Jong-su (Yoo Ah-in), an alienated wannabe-writer who works as a part-time Seoul deliveryman. One day, he bumps into Hae-mi (Jeon Jong-seo), a delightfully vague young woman who claims to have known him when they were kids. Before he quite knows what’s happening, he finds himself in bed with her. Reading more into this erotic encounter than she does (you know men), he agrees to look after her cat while she takes a trip to Africa.

So far, so good. But when Hae-mi returns, Jong-su is shocked to discover that, along the way, she acquired a boyfriend, Ben, played by the terrific Korean-American actor Steven Yeun (best known for The Walking Dead ). Rich, handsome, and internationalized, the Gatsby-esque Ben quickly gets under his skin. It’s not simply that this newcomer has stolen what Jong-su thinks of as “his” girl, but that he fairly gleams with entitlement. Where Jong-su drives a truck, Ben tools around in a Porsche; where Jong-su lives on his family’s farm blasted by propaganda from North Korean loudspeakers, Ben has a sleek apartment in the posh Gangnam neighborhood immortalized by Psy . Although amiable, Ben exudes a yawning air of superiority that is at best annoying— you want to smack him—and at worst feels a bit, um, sociopathic. The conflict between these young men leaves us wondering what will happen to Hae-mi, an elusively alluring figure caught between the smug Ben, who may be using her, and the bottled-up Ben, who may care about her more than she wants. We sense something bad could happen. But exactly what ? That’s the mystery.

Now, Burning is something of a (forgive me) slow burn—it takes two and a half hours to reach its devastating climax. This is a movie in which every detail—from Hae-mi’s cat to Jong-su’s imprisoned father—shapes our sense of what’s going on. Not one for flashy style, Lee likes to let scenes play out so that his actors have time to slowly suggest the essence of their characters. Here, he wins three performances that, in a fairer world, would all be up for big awards. As the unreadably cool Ben, Yeun could hardly be better or more charismatic—he’s a movie star, folks. He’s matched by Yoo, who is famous in Korea for both his acting and his online political pronouncements, including terming the #MeToo movement a “witch hunt.” While this makes him someone you might not want to date, it doesn’t keep him from shining as Jong-su, a seemingly nice guy whose loneliness, desire, and fury keeps peering around the edges of his often silent passivity.

At first, Jeon may appear to be stuck in a classic women’s role as Hae-mi—the wishbone being pulled on by two men. Yet she’s far more than that. Indeed, in a marvelous screen debut, she gives a radiant turn, blooming so brightly—especially in a stoned twilight dance to Miles Davis—that she often outshines her male costars. Whenever she’s not on-screen, the film instantly grows darker, unhappier. This, I think, is deliberate. Lee wants us to grasp that Hae-mi is a woman threatened by the desires and demands of two men who don’t see her for who she actually is. Filled with free-floating spirit, she becomes the occasion for Jong-su and Ben to reveal a masculinity that is as toxic as she is life-affirming.

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Burning review – mesmerising thriller of murky motives

Lee Chang-dong’s elegant mystery is full of pleasingly unsettling moments

“I want to just vanish, like I never existed.” It’s a seemingly flippant, throwaway comment from Hae-mi (Jeon Jong-seo). Lee Chang-dong’s elegant thriller is seeded with such moments – images of impermanence, of inexplicable disappearance. You notice them more overtly on a second viewing, but even before this mesmerising mystery reveals itself, there’s a subliminal sense that nothing – or nobody – is as concrete as they seem.

Hae-mi is an acquaintance of Jong-su (Yoo Ah-in) from school; after they reconnect by chance in Seoul, he is beguiled by this mercurial free spirit who draws him into her life. Hae-mi is as much an enigma to the audience as she is to Jong-su. It’s never entirely clear to what extent her actions are calculated or driven by impulsive whims.

But if Jong-su is already unsettled by Hae-mi, he is completely out of his depth when she introduces him to her urbane and wealthy playboy friend, Ben. Steven Yeun ’s smiling snake performance in the role is one of the film’s more perturbing pleasures. Wrapped in immaculately tailored irony and privilege, Yeun makes everything that his character says, even as benign a phrase as “What fun!”, seem inherently untrustworthy. There’s something disquieting in his presence, as there is in the restrained ambiguity of the storytelling – we are encouraged to both construct our own conclusions and to dismantle them at the same time. It’s chilling and brilliant.

The Observer

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‘Burning’ Review: Love Triangles, Class Envy Fuel Three-Alarm Thriller

By Peter Travers

Peter Travers

This stunning, slow-build thriller from South Korean director Lee Chang-dong sizzles with a cumulative power that will knock the wind out of you. Burning starts like a romance in the manner of The Talented Mr. Ripley as poor boy Jongsu, an aspiring writer played by Yoo Ah-in, falls under the spell of Haemi (Jun Jong-seo), a free spirit in skimpy attire who hawks products on the streets. He doesn’t recall that they were once school chums; she remembers that he called her “ugly” back then. Jongsu is stuck in the country taking care of the ramshackle farm near the North Korean border owned by his quick-tempered father, who’s been arrested on an assault charge against a neighbor. But after the couple have sex in her small apartment, he is so taken with the young woman that he agrees to take care of her cat, Boil (she found him in a boiler room), while she vacations in Africa to feed her “great hunger” for life experience. Visiting Haemi’s apartment every day, Jongsu masturbates while staring out her window at a wider world that seems beyond his means.

It seems like a small-scale story of two young dreamers — until makes an abrupt gear shift when he arrives at the airport to pick up Haemi only to find her in close company with Ben (Steven Yeun), a rich, handsome playboy she met abroad. The hotshot drives a Porsche and casually mentions his occupation isn’t work but “play.” Intoxicated by the perfume of Ben’s lifestyle, Jongsu finds himself in a competition in which this unfailingly polite and generous new friend seems to hold all the cards. So what if Haemi says he’s the only she can trust — Ben can feed her great hunger. They pay a surprise visit to his dad’s farm, where they smoke weed and the young woman dances naked outdoors. “Only whores do that,” snaps the jealous Jongsu. Later, while she’s asleep, Ben confesses that he does have a vice. He likes to torch greenhouses for the sheer pleasure of watching them burn.

What happens next is something audiences should discover on their own, except to say that suspicions are aroused, someone goes missing and Jongsu goes looking to for answers. Lee and co-writer Oh Jung-mi have adapted their script from Haruki Murakami’s short story Barn Burning, which not coincidentally is the title of a 1939 story by William Faulkner, the protagonist’s professed favorite writer. The ensuing game of cat-and-mouse creates shivers of suspense. But Lee is not asking audiences to sit for two and a half hours to watch a whodunit. Burning ignites themes of family, class, envy, crime, rough justice and what Faulkner called “the human heart in conflict with itself.” With invaluable help from cinematographer Hong Kyung-pyo, editors Kim Hyun and Kim Da-won, composer Mowg and trio of stellar performances, Lee has crafted a hypnotic and haunting film that transcends genre to dig deep into the human condition. You won’t be able to get it out of your head.

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Film Review: ‘Burning’

In this loose riff on Haruki Murakami's short story 'Barn Burning,' Korean director Lee Chang-dong tries to make sense of life's mysteries.

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

Chief Film Critic

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The word “ Burning ” may just as well describe the smoldering resentment felt by the characters in the beguiling new drama from South Korean master Lee Chang-dong (“Secret Sunshine”) as it does the pyromaniacal acts they perpetrate, taking out their aggression on abandoned greenhouses for lack of a proper outlet for their rage. In contemporary Korea, as in many other first-world countries today, members of the current generation stand to be worse off than their parents at the same time the gap between those of privilege and the working poor seems more acute than ever.

A departure from Lee’s more conventionally plotted earlier work, “Burning” attempts to make sense of that frustration within a strikingly unconventional thriller format (the film premiered immediately after “Under the Silver Lake” in competition at the Cannes Film Festival , which can be no coincidence, as it offers a vastly different take on an obsessive young man’s search for a missing girl for whom he inexplicably feels responsible). The degree to which “Burning” succeeds will depend largely on one’s capacity to identify with the unspoken but strongly conveyed sense of jealousy and frustration its lower-class protagonist feels, coupled with a need to impose some sense of order on events beyond our control.

According to the opening credits, Lee and co-writer Oh Jung-mi “based” their screenplay on “Barn Burning” by Haruki Murakami, but “inspired by” would probably be more accurate. “Burning” isn’t an adaptation so much as a jumping-off from the prolific author’s haiku-like short story. They share in common little more than a couple of characters and a premise: a pantomime student who demonstrates her talent by peeling phantom tangerines over dinner one evening, and the boyfriend she brings back from Africa, a rich guy with a curious hobby for barn burning (which Lee switches to setting greenhouses on fire, since the transparent structures are more common in Korea — and more cinematic in general).

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Here, the narrator has been aged down to an unexceptional delivery boy named Jongsu (Ah-in Yoo), who dreams of being a writer, though the most he ever manages to compose over the course of the film is a petition on behalf of his father, who stands trial for assaulting a police officer (his mother walked out on the family years earlier). While out on his rounds, Jongsu is spotted by a sexy young dancer named Haemi, (Jong-seo Jun), who claims that they grew up together, although he doesn’t recognize her.

She could be lying, for all we know. Truth and meaning are virtual impossibilities in Lee’s oeuvre, and this entire film is meticulously calibrated in its ambiguity, encouraging certain assumptions that neither the characters nor the audience can ever fully verify, so it’s best to be on one’s toes. In any case, Haemi claims she has gotten plastic surgery since. Openly flirtatious from the get-go, she invites Jongsu back to her place, where she describes an incident back in junior high when he went out of his way to tell her she was ugly. As if to demonstrate that the contrary is now true, she seduces him, asking him to watch her cat while she flies off on a two-week mission to Africa.

A word about the cat, which didn’t exist in the story — and may not even exist here — but is the animal that recurs most throughout Murakami’s fiction (even going so far as to speak in “Kafka on the Shore”): During the two weeks that Haemi is away, Jongsu doesn’t once see her beloved pet, although its food disappears and litter materializes between visits. Later, the cat will become an important detail — and also the purest example of why the film is sure to frustrate audiences who expect something more concrete from their movies.

As a writer, Jongsu looks for sense in a world filled with mystery — a recurring theme in Lee’s work, and especially his two masterpieces, “Secret Sunshine” and “Poetry.” And yet, Jongsu may as well be cinema’s most apathetic detective, unable even to locate Haemi’s cat, much less prove anything conclusive about the later disappearance of its owner.

So cool and aloof in the opening scenes, Jongsu grows rapidly weaker in our eyes as the film progresses. When he first sees Haemi’s apartment (a tiny one-room hovel), he describes living in an even more cramped space, where the toilet was squeezed next to the kitchen sink. That’s a clue to his class, though his low social standing becomes even more evident when we see the dump where he grew up in the country.

After just one sexual encounter with Haemi (made special by a beam of sunlight he sees reflected on her closet wall), he’s hooked. When she calls to ask whether he’ll pick her up from the airport, he’s quick to agree, completely blindsided — and transparently hurt — that she failed to mention she’d be traveling with a rich Korean guy she met in Kenya. Almost literally the third wheel, Jongsu drives them to dinner and studies this new guy, Ben (Korean-American actor Steven Yeun, whose relative star status underlines the notion that his character is superior to Jongsu), with a mix of envy and admiration. Turns out Ben never needed the ride: A friend drops off his Porsche outside the restaurant, and without missing a beat, he offers to drive Haemi home from there, as if she belongs to him — the look she gives Jongsu in that moment, as Jongsu lets the richer man escort her away, is perhaps the last chance he has with her.

The next time Jongsu sees the couple, after Ben invites him over for dinner at his place — an elegant bachelor pad in a nice part of Seoul — Jongsu pulls Haemi aside and asks, “How does he live like this at his age?” If you have ever felt that burning sense of inferiority with which Jongsu seems to be wrestling, then the rest of the character’s arc ought to prove easily relatable — although I must confess feeling stuck outside Jongsu’s mind for most of the film, which keeps the character at arm’s length in DP Hong Kyung-pyo’s handheld widescreen frames. While not as challenging a protagonist to embrace as the mentally disabled ex-criminal Lee gave us in “Oasis,” Jongsu is hardly your conventional hero, nor the most likable character on screen.

That would be Ben, or else Haemi, who entices us as she does Jongsu one evening when she strips out of her shirt and dances topless in front of them (this is Jun’s first screen role, and the unpredictability of discovering a fresh starlet subliminally reinforces her appeal). Jongsu lashes out at her, calling her a whore, but Lee is sharp enough to acknowledge the gender double-standard, including dialogue that acknowledges the no-win situation facing women who dress or act provocatively (it’s the surest way to attract men, but also a recipe for being labeled promiscuous) even as he forces us to identify with this petty and small-minded character.

During this same scene, Ben confides in Jongsu his odd compulsion to burn greenhouses, promising to torch one “very near” to where Jongsu grew up. Jongsu becomes obsessed with this idea, so illicit and compelling that he very nearly burns one down himself. And yet, there’s no evidence that Ben follows through on his boast, or that he’s ever actually burned a greenhouse. It’s just one more facet of this rich guy’s enigmatic persona to fascinate and begrudge Jongsu.

And then Haemi goes missing, sending Jongsu into a deep spiral of confusion. He is clearly convinced that Ben is responsible — though the movie offers zero conclusive evidence to that effect (and a fair amount to the contrary) — which in turn inspires him to shadow Ben around the area. But even if Ben hasn’t murdered Haemi, he has done the equivalent, treating her as some kind of disposable plaything while killing off any chance that Jongsu might have at dating her again, and that’s enough to fuel the anger that ignites in the final act.

It’s an upsetting ending — a catharsis for one character that offers audiences no such release. Like Jongsu, we crave to understand why things happen the way they do, and Lee denies us this satisfaction. Consider the cat again for a moment: When Jongsu later calls a runaway by the name Haemi gave her own “invisible” cat, Lee invites us to assume that they are one and the same animal. But can we ever be sure?

Reviewed at Cannes Film Festival (competing), May 16, 2018. Running time: 148 MIN. (Original title: “Beoning”)

Production: (S. Korea) A Pinehouse Film presentation, in association with CGV Arthouse, KTH, Kiwi Media Group Co., B.A. Entertainment, of a Pinehouse Film, Nowfilm production, in association with NHK. (International sales: Finecut, Seoul.) Producers: Lee Joon-dong, Lee Chang-dong. Executive producer: Lee Joon-dong. Co-executive producers: Kang Kyung-ho, Matsui Kei, Kim Tae-hwan, Chung Chul-woong, Billy Acumen.
Crew: Director: Lee Chang-dong. Screenplay: Oh Jung-Mi, Lee. Camera (color): Hong Kyung-pyo. Editor: Kim Hyun, Kim Da-won. Music: Mowg.
With: Ah-in Yoo, Steven Yeun, Jong-seo Yun.

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Story: Jong-soo (Yoo Ah-in) keeps his head above water with the occasional job here and there hoping to write a novel one day. But then he suddenly has to take care of the farm of his father, who got in trouble with the law because he isn't able to control his temper. Coincidently, he runs into Hae-mi (Jun Jong-seo) with whom he went to school. They go out for a drink and spend the night together. Hae-mi wants to travel to Africa soon in order to find herself. Therefore, she asks Jong-soo if he would feed her cat during that time. The farmer boy agrees and looks forward to the day she returns. But as he picks her up from the airport, she is accompanied by rich guy Ben (Steven Yeun). The three meet a few times and Jong-soo is not sure what kind of relationship Ben has with Hae-mi. However, he is jealous because Ben seems to have everything and he thinks that Hae-mi, who is in a lot of debt, sells herself. In addition, he also finds various pieces of jewelry at Ben's place, which makes him think he likes to see women as conquests. One day, Hae-mi disappears without a trace. Jong-soo doesn't believe that she would simply go away without saying anything to him. He checks with her relatives, with whom she didn't have any contact anymore because of her debt, and with her landlord, but nobody seems to know anything. Even Ben can't help him. Nevertheless, Jong-soo does not believe that Ben doesn't know anything. He starts following him every day because he has a dreadful suspicion. His search for Hae-mi turns into an obsession and bit by bit he takes a step deeper into an unknown abyss.

Review: Critics tried to outdo one another with praise for "Burning". An unparalleled masterpiece and clearly one of the best, if not even THE best Korean movie of 2018, they say. Considering the fact that Lee Chang-dong was directing, it shouldn't come as a surprise that critics might already be praising the movie before they have actually even seen it. Lee is beyond any doubt. Having said that, this review will be much less indulgent. Lee's work is not always to my liking, but there are enough movies of his, like "Poetry" , which I showered with compliments as well. Nevertheless, "Burning" is a movie which is narrated extremely slowly and which celebrates itself too much. Moreover, the much-heralded and supposed great ending which leaves you devastated, is actually pretty ridiculous as it is precisely what you had expected all along. So where exactly is the movie's depth everybody was talking about?

This emptiness is the basis for some dialogues and certain scenes, for instance, when Ben starts yawning during his friends' chitchat and then smiles encouragingly at Jong-soo, which makes the Gatsby-like man seem like a sociopath. Without a doubt, Steven Yeun, who is not only known for his role in "The Walking Dead" but who could also be seen in the Netflix movie "Okja" , gives a brilliant performance here and adds both, a charming as well as frightening aspect to his character. And since we are talking about acting skills, there is also nothing to criticize about Yoo Ah-in ( "The Throne" ). Jong-soo's inner strife between what he wants to be and what his roots allow him to be - his broken family has left him with some emotional scars - is the engine which keeps him going when he tries to avoid losing Hae-mi, as well. When Hae-mi goes missing, though, his imagination almost seems to make him go crazy. Does Ben actually collect trophies of his conquests or should you rather say victims?

Most of the time, the movie manages to keep up a basic level of suspense, though. After all, there are some riddles to be solved. The protagonists are not easy to figure out and with its undoubtedly well captured images - occasionally, there are pretty long shots done by static camera work, only to then have moving scenes captured by a far too shaky camera - and a trance-like atmosphere, which is accentuated by Mowg's score establishing the feeling of being trapped in between two worlds even more, "Burning" hits the mark. And not by chance do we hear propaganda through speakers in Jong-soo's village near North Korea's border. But despite my research, since I feared I missed something important, I simply cannot help but come to the conclusion: "Burning" isn't a masterpiece. The movie is too tedious for that and the ending too predictable, whereas other questions are left completely unanswered. In fact, the story itself is not even that original. Hence, it is only the narrative style, which may be interesting, but then again, only for Lee Chan-dong fans. As a closing statement, I have to point out once more that this might be the most negative review you'll find on "Burning". Everybody else seems thrilled.

Burning (2018)

User Reviews
She has left her childhood place, her whole family, she's in debt, has no friends. She's clearly escaping something, a part of herself like her past.
Another important thing about Haemi is the stories she tell about her childhood that are not clear whether they are real or lie since Jong Su doesn't remember them.
She has a cat which very much has the same quality that she has, stray.
The little light she gets on her wall means a lot to her.
Her room is really messy which signifies her messed up life.
"He's my one and only friend." and "He's the only person I trust.", referring to Jong Su.
Little Hunger (her past) - Big Hunger (Salvation)
Everyone seems to be leaving him: mother, father, sister, Haemi, and even his calf.
Just like Haemi, he has problems that root in his past.
He's also looking for salvation (waiting in Haemi's room for light to get on the wall).
His care for greenhouses is perhaps because they represent his identity, the place and culture he grew up in.
Helping Boeling (not sure if I got the cat's name correctly) means helping Haemi to him since they basically represent the same idea.
Her concerns for Haemi are probably because she is the last thing remaining from his past and he's actually fighting his past trying to prove himself that he's not forsaken: he's not destined to be left by everyone.
His hanging jaw signifies his uncertainty and lack of confidence.
Confident, apparently satisfied, and most importantly a player (as he admits that).
The cosmetics box and the accessory drawer strengthen his claim of being a player.
Seeing a new girl right after Haemi goes missing, putting makeup on her face, keeping Boeling and the accessories (from his previous victims), smiling at Jong Su every time he goes to one of his gatherings, they all show that he is confident about what he does even when Jong Su becomes suspicious.
When he tells Jong Su that he has this habit of burning greenhouses every two months, he's not really talking about greenhouses. By greenhouse he means Haemi who is that "greenhouse really close to Jong Su."

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‘Burning’: One of 2018’s Best Overlooked Films is Now on Netflix

Where to Stream:

Burning (2018)
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One of the best films of 2018—and one that you probably didn’t see—is now on Netflix: Burning . The psychological drama, originally titled Beoning , comes from celebrated South Korean director Lee Chang-dong and was shortlisted for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. It was the first Korean film to do so, but in the end, did not nab the nomination. Despite star power with Walking Dead ‘s Steven Yeun —who co-starred alongside Yoo Ah-in and Jeon Jong-seo—and rave reviews from critics, Burning didn’t make a splash in American or Korean theaters.

“Director Lee has always held a mirror up to society, and that’s sometimes hard to ask people to come out and watch,” noted Yeun in a recent interview with Decider . “But what’s really great about his films is they have lasting impressions on society as a whole.”

Yeun has a point: Burning is not exactly a joyous escape from reality á la the epic superhero battles of Avengers: Endgame, which made a record-breaking $1.2 billion in the global box office this weekend. Instead, Burning, which is based on Haruki Murakami’s short story Barn Burning, examines the lives of three young people living in a time of uncertainty in South Korea. The main character is Jongsu (Yoo), a poor aspiring writer who reconnects with his childhood friend, Haemi (Jeon), a free-spirited young woman. After they sleep together in Haemi’s tiny studio, she asks Jongsu to feed her cat while she goes on a trip. Jongsu does, though he never actually sees the cat and spends much of his time alone in Haemi’s apartment masturbating.

When Haemi returns, she brings with her a new love interest, Ben (Yeun). Ben is rich, suave, cool and unfailingly polite which infuriates Jongsu to no end. At one point the three chill at Jongsu’s childhood home, smoking marijuana on deck chairs while a loudspeaker blasts propaganda from the North Korean border, just a few miles away. (A note from Yeun: Marijuana is extremely illegal in Korea, and therefore not treated lightly the way it is in America.) It’s here that Jongsu learns Ben has an unusual hobby: burning abandoned greenhouses in rural areas like Jongsu’s neighborhood.

A mystery unfolds, and Jongsu starts to suspect Ben is capable of much worse than arson. But Jongsu has hardly made himself a likable or reliable narrator: He wears his bitterness and resentment on his sleeve, and compared to the calm, collected Ben—played by Yeun with eerie preciseness—it’s hard to know who to trust. If you’re looking for an answer to that question, much like life, Burning won’t provide it. (Nor will Yeun, who told Decider he will take the secret to his grave.) It will, however, provide a fascinating insight into a with which you may not be familiar, and mesmerizing images that will stick with you for years to come.

Burning (2018) is now streaming on Netflix.

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Burning (2018) – korean movie review.

Directed by: Lee Chang-dong (이창동)

Starring: Yoo Ah-in (유아인), Steven Yeun, Jeon Jong-seo (전종소)

The Film: Now tell me the truth. A part time delivery truck worker named Jong-su (Yoo Ah-in) meets a girl, Hae-mi (Jeon Jong-seo), who used to live in the same neighborhood as him when he was young, who asks him to take care of her cat while she goes on a trip to Africa. When Hae-mi returns, she introduces a mysterious man whom she met in Africa named Ben (Steven Yeun) to Jong-su. One day, Ben comes to Jong-su’s house with Hae-mi and confesses his secret hobby. From then on, Jong-su becomes obsessed with a frightening premonition…

After eight years, writer director Lee Chang-dong is back with his 6th film. Considered to be one of Korea’s greatest filmmakers, his films such as Peppermint Candy (2000) and Secret Sunshine (2007) are considered landmarks in the modern history of Korean cinema. Burning made its world premiere at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival and is set to open in Korea just one day after.

Interest: Highest Expecations: Highest

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K-Drama Review

K-Movie Spotlight: “Burning” Eloquently Challenges Existing Social Constructs Through Unconventional Thrilling Plot

Burning’s peculiar yet articulate depiction of societal issues made it a favorite among film critics that it notched some of the highly coveted film recognitions from various award-giving bodies around the globe..

An absolutely engrossing, out-of-the-box narrative awaits those who would watch the film Burning . This 2018 masterpiece by acclaimed movie director Lee Chang-dong deviates from the mainstream formula of psychological mystery thrillers.

Loosely based from the short story Barn Burning by the celebrated Japanese literary figure, Haruki Murakami, Burning is Lee’s homage to the author’s avant-garde style of storytelling by means of metaphorical devices to explore the depth of human emotions.

TITLE: BURNING PRODUCTION COMPANY: NHK, PINEHOUSE FILMS, NOW FILMS THEME: MYSTERY, PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER LENGTH: 148 MINUTES RELEASE DATE: MAY 17, 2018 (SOUTH KOREA) MAIN LEADS: YOO AH IN | STEVEN YEUN | JEON JONG SEO HIGHLIGHTS: PRESENTED RELEVANT SOCIAL ISSUES DRAWBACKS: SLOW-PACED

Plot sketch.

Warning: Spoiler Ahead

Burning traverses the journey of Lee Jong-su ( Yoo Ah-in ), an aspiring writer who works as a delivery person in Paju, a town located at the Korean border. A chance encounter leads him to reconnect with a childhood acquaintance, Shim Hae-mi ( Jeon Jong-seo ), whom he failed to recognize at first instance as she admittedly underwent a plastic surgery.

The two immediately overcome indifferences which eventually leads to physical intimacy. Hae-mi enthusiastically shares with Jong-su her plan to travel to Africa, her artistic affinity for pantomime and a request for him to feed her cat, Boil, in her absence.

After several days on tour, Hae-mi returns with a mysterious wealthy man who appears to be her new lover named Ben ( Steven Yeun ). She takes Ben with her to visit her childhood town, Paju. There they meet Jong-su and the three of them smoke weeds at his house. Having developed a special affection for Hae-mi, Jong-su exhibits awkwardness and discomfort seeing her acting cozy with Ben.

While Hae-mi falls asleep after half-nakedly losing herself on a trippy dance, the two men engage in a casual yet personal conversation. Jong-su starts off by sharing how his abusive father made him burn his mother’s belongings after she abandoned them when he was a child. Ben also shares his strange arsonistic penchant for burning greenhouses describing them as “ugly” and “useless” and therefore have to be devoured by fire into ashes.

Devoid of any signs of remorse, he haughtily says he gives in to this urge in an interval of two months hinting Jong-su his excitement to burn another one in a day or two, somewhere that is close to him. Bemused by this extreme oddity, Jong-su curiously prods Ben with how he discerns a greenhouse to be “useless” to which the latter responds through philosophically-layered assertions.

A couple of days later, Jong-su receives a call from Hae-mi in what would be their last contact. What he hears, however, are strange almost inaudible sounds from the other line evoking an ominous feeling.

Hae-mi is nowhere to be found. Jong-su reaches out to her family and friends, but their unfazed stance on her disappearance leaves him disappointed. They rather deduce it as a mere act of running away, assuming that Hae-mi is crippled with debt.

Jong-su’s hunches are directed at Ben – who may have had a hand on Hae-mi’s vanishing. He stealthily follows him everyday until his relentless efforts turn into an obsessive stalking. Ben, one day, catches Jong-su following him to which the latter explained that he was just after Hae-mi’s possible whereabouts.

Blatantly unconcerned, Ben instead invites him to his place. As he obliges with the invitation, Jong-su finds something inside Ben’s house that can shed light on Hae-mi’s disappearance.

Character Analysis

Burning introduces an ensemble of layered characters who need further deconstruction to fully appreciate their essence in the story. Strange as they appear to be, these characters have so much stories to tell.

He drifts in various travails hampering him to focus on his dream of becoming a writer. His father is involved in a messy legal battle for assaulting a public official. His mother abandoned him when he was young. He is left to take care of their farm while juggling it with his job as a delivery boy.

When he was asked about what he would like to write about, he’s quick to mention classic writer, William Faulkner, as someone whom he would like to pattern his writing style from. Such reference pictures Jong-su as someone whose intellectual capacity goes beyond the mediocre range for people in the working class.

Faulkner’s writing theme, which mainly focuses on dark, gothic storylines with psychologically complex narrative voice, somehow mirrors Jong-su’s thought process and emotional state as conflicted and unstable.

This is especially evident in instances when he expressed his angst about growing up with an abusive father, how he became so consumed by mere contemplation of Ben’s bizarre arsonistic addiction, and how his heartache towards Hae-mi’s vanishing turned into a dark obsession.

He is a mysterious and eccentric well-off man with an extremely discreet source of wealth. He owns a high-end abode in Gangnam, drives a luxurious Porsche car, dresses elegantly and fancies classy restaurant among the things that symbolizes his place in high society.

He is essentially everything Jong-su is not. He exudes confidence and nonchalance which manifest with the way he speaks about his points of view on things with socially imposing air. He appears to be nice and friendly yet with a contradicting emotional reticent side. His moral compass seems to frame an unsettling perspective about the world as it hinges on his idiosyncratic fixation and stoic tendency.

She is another conflicted character in the story. She is a free-spirited young woman who wants to experience the world by breaking the stereotypes attached to working class people like her. Saving up her meager earnings to bravely set off alone in Africa, having an ardent desire to learn the art of pantomime – these are some of the things not afforded to people who struggle to make both ends meet.

However, as deep as her yearnings to liberate herself from these forbearance are the heavy chains of social and personal limitations making her submit to society’s standards. Such is her choice to undergo plastic surgery to look acceptably beautiful by society’s standards.

To some extent, she becomes subservient to her own materialistic tendencies as evident when she chose Ben’s company over Jong-su’s.

Film Highlights

At face value, the film’s plot centers on a mysterious disappearance of Hae-mi which could be presumed as a possible murder case. But its real message is hidden underneath some imageries. Burning covertly presents significant points of discussion about social and moral divides. It specifically tackles issues on class struggles and gender inequality which have been ever-present in the history of humanity and are worthy to be given keen attention to properly address such long-standing issues.

Class Struggles

The film speaks well about class hierarchy and how society, as manifested through simple interactions in the film, puts premium on such concept with an emphasis on how one’s social status is treated as a yardstick for the amount of respect one gets.

As discreetly visualized in the film, an implicit tension between the working class, Jong-su, and the financially elite, Ben, was subtly portrayed in a series of interactions. Jong-su, hounded by socio-economic limitations, is unable to take full advantage of his intellectual skills because there appears to be an invisible social demarcation line as to how far he could get. People seem to mock his aspiration to become a writer as something too ambitious for someone who rather fits a blue-collar job. Ben is on the other side of the fence. He gets free passes to express his views with emphatic persuasion, a convenience that comes with being on top of the social class. The manner in which he engaged in a casual conversation with Jong-su stating his principles with firm conviction gives an impression of a deity dispensing an infallible judgment. Albeit possessing good senses, Jong-su, on the other hand, unconsciously positions himself as an awkward receiving end of Ben’s imposing confidence.

Gender Inequality

Hae-mi’s role is very symbolic and crucial to the film’s essence. Her character presents important metaphors about how women are treated unjustly by relegating them into a second-rate gender. Such was her choice to undergo plastic surgery which suggests how women are objectified through their physical appearance. It implies how their value is boxed in a specific set of parameters. As stated by one of Hae-mi’s friends, “There is no country for women.” Such haunting line was delivered with strong resonance for viewers to contemplate about.

In addition, Hae-mi’s sudden vanishing is a powerful and profound symbol regarding how women have a dispensable position in society. Their absence would not amount to anything more than a replaceable role.

Film Afterthoughts

Running through a 32-minute short of a three-hour moving frames, the film is a slow-burn kind that demands patience and attention to details from its viewers as it mounts together every little piece of the puzzle through the course of the story until the summation of the protagonist’s reserved obsession explodes in the last few minutes of the film.

Burning is a kind of movie that leaves you with more questions than answers. The arc trajectory leads to a puzzling climactic finale as if in celebration of an absurd escapism.

As a Murakami reader myself, I can say that the essential elements of his story parallels with Lee’s film framework. The narrative movement follows a free-flowing track, slow but textured with significant details. Murakami’s signature style of rootlessness in which the conflict seems to spring out of nowhere brings a mixture of ambiguity and odd beauty to the movie. Director Lee successfully captured such elements but still making the film uniquely his own.

As layered as its characters is the narrative itself. I appreciate how its message is subdued beneath the complexities of its metaphors which allows for a deeper contemplation for the viewers. The story overflows with allegorical sketches as its most convenient method of delivering its message.

In such manner, the social and moral dilemmas presented were portrayed in the guise of a fictionally gripping and ominous mystery case. It is also worth mentioning that the most critical point of the narrative which is the “greenhouse burning” is itself a trope that requires further delving in order to be on the same page with the brilliant minds behind the film.

This figurative way of storytelling leaves the audience to decipher the whole sense of the story. As soon as one decodes the movie’s conveyed meaning, one cannot help but marvel at both the writer’s and the director’s remarkable artistry.

Overall, Burning’s authenticity in its uniquely woven bizarre narrative with a social commentary value makes it a great watch.

5 Takeaways From Korean Film #ALIVE Starring Yoo Ah In & Park Shin Hye

Image Sources: CGV Arthouse

Trailer Video: Well Go USA Entertainment

Streaming Site: Netflix

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This simple boy-meets-girl movie builds to a thriller with an astonishing, unforgettable climax

Lee Chang-dong’s “Burning” initially presents itself as a simple boy-meets-girl tale, set in South Korea. Protagonist Jongsu (Ah-in Yoo), a young deliveryman who passively dreams of putting his degree in creative writing to use, bumps into his childhood friend Haemi (Jong-seo Jun) while she dances outside a discount store to attract customers. They catch up over dinner and sleep together that night, with Jongsu becoming so enamored of the spirited Haemi that he agrees to feed her cat while she travels to Kenya to satiate what she calls her “great hunger” for life experience.

Although Jongsu fills the cat’s bowl with food each day, he never actually sees the animal, a manifestation of the uncertainty that lurks throughout the film. Gradually, “Burning” begins its descent into thriller territory when Haemi returns from Kenya with Ben (Steven Yeun), a charming, slightly older man who lives in Gangnam and has everything Jongsu doesn’t: money, friends and some sort of romantic relationship with Haemi. Yet despite this, Ben still seems dissatisfied with his life, telling Jongsu that he sets greenhouses on fire every two months for fun: In just 10 minutes, Ben says, he can “burn it all down, as if it never existed.”

Based on Haruki Murakami’s 1992 short story “ Barn Burning ,” the film is a captivating character study that takes its most poignant scene directly from Murakami’s story. Shortly before a central character goes missing, Ben and Haemi visit Jongsu at his home in the countryside, situated so close to the North Korean border that they can hear the propaganda broadcasts. As Ben and Jongsu relax outside, basking in the dusk light, Haemi begins to dance, swaying to jazz music and removing her top. But her performance is as much for herself as for the two men; she is free of all constraints and, for once, doesn’t feel trapped.

As the film’s object of desire, the character of Haemi comes close to being a Manic Pixie Dream Girl , but Jun’s performance has enough depth to steer clear of that cliche. Making her screen debut, the actress manages to capture both Haemi’s wide-eyed innocence and her troubled spirit. In one dinner scene, she playfully pantomimes peeling tangerines with as much energy as she brings to a scene in which she bemoans her existence.

Jongsu complements her erratic nature, with Yoo’s expressionless baby face deliberately revealing little about what he thinks or feels. He remains hard to read, even when Haemi reminds him that he once crossed the street to tell her she was ugly, before she got plastic surgery. Rage is the only emotion he expresses, as tension builds between the two men. (Tellingly, this theme is shared with the 1939 story “ Barn Burning ” by William Faulkner, Jongsu’s favorite author.)

But the standout performance belongs to Yeun, an America-based actor whose presence is commanding enough to shift the entire tone of the film. “Burning” marks his first foray into Korean cinema, and the actor’s quintessentially Western mannerisms add an unsettling dimension to the character of Ben. Yeun can even make a yawn seem menacing.

Lee plays the actors off one another to create a compelling exploration of human nature. South Korea’s official Oscar submission, “Burning” culminates in a finale so astonishing that it will sear itself into viewers’ memories for years to come.

Unrated. At Landmark’s Bethesda Row Cinema and the Angelika Film Center Mosaic. Contains graphic violence, drugs, sex, nudity and some strong language. In Korean with subtitles. 148 minutes.

Burning Movie Explained: Director’s Views (Korean Film)

Burning, or Beoning, is a 2018 Korean Crime Drama directed by Lee Chang-dong. The film is centered on Jong-su, who wants to become an author. He runs into a girl who used to be a neighbour when they were kids. Just when you think this is going to be a love story, enters Ben, a wealthy guy who confesses his strange hobby. The Burning movie’s cast has Ah-In Yoo, Jong-seo Jun , and Steven Yeun ( Nope ) in the leading roles. If you like Bong Joon-ho’s films like Parasite and Snowpiercer , you’ll like this one. It’s a long film and has both literal and metaphorical components. Here’s the detailed plot explanation and ending of the movie Burning explained, spoilers ahead.

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Where To Watch?

To find where to stream any movie or series based on your country, use This Is Barry’s Where To Watch .

Oh, and if this article doesn’t answer all of your questions, drop me a comment or an FB chat message, and I’ll get you the answer . You can find other film explanations using the search option on top of the site.

Here are links to the key aspects of the movie:

– Burning Ending Explained By The Director
– Burning Movie Plot Explained: Ben is a serial killer
– Clues that point towards Ben being a serial killer
– What is the relevance of the well?
– What does Ben mean by Burning Greenhouses?
– How did Ben kill Hae-mi?
– Why does Jong-su not go to the police?
– Why did Ben show up to the rendezvous if he had killed Hae-mi?
– Burning Movie Plot Explained: The End was Jong-su’s novel
– Ben in Jong-su’s novel
– Great Hunger Dance
– What happened to Hae-mi?
– What was real, and what was part of Jung-su’s novel?

Burning Ending Explained By The Director

Based on what is stated by the director , Lee Chang-dong, there are two ways to explain the movie Burning. One is literally, where Ben is a sociopath serial killer, he has murdered Hae-mi, and Jong-su takes his revenge by killing Ben. The other angle is that Ben is not a killer, Hae-mi has just moved on and created a new life for herself elsewhere and what we see towards the end of the Burning movie is the story of the novel that Jong-su is writing.

Burning Movie Plot Explained: Ben is a serial killer

Burning Movie: Clues that point towards Ben being a serial killer

Ben claims that he has never shed a tear in his life, that he’s never felt sadness.
He refers to his job as “playing”. We don’t know what Ben does for a living, but he does have an odd way to describe it.
Ben’s bathroom has a box filled with women’s accessories. In the serial killer’s world, this is a ‘trophy’, one for each of his kills.
Ben expresses that he felt jealousy for the first time when Hae-mi tells him that Jong-su is the only one she trusts. But the way he says this to Jong-su, it feels apologetic in some way.
Hae-mi’s cat, Boiler, is in Ben’s house, and he lies that he brought a stray cat home.
Hae-mi is missing, and her room is neat and tidy, which is unlike her, but more like Ben.
Ben mentions to Jong-su about his “hobby” of burning greenhouses. This is elaborated upon below .
We are shown one scene from the perspective of Ben, where he ritualistically prepares another girl by using makeup. This seems to be part of Ben’s process to eventually kill his victim.
Ben always seems to be in the company of women like Hae-mi, who exhibit no restraint and are free souls unashamed to express their thoughts and feelings. That seems to be his victim type.

Burning: What is the relevance of the well Hae-mi talks about?

The well is an outstanding element of misdirection. Hae-mi is constructed as an unreliable character in the movie Burning. Much of what she says leaves both the audience and Jong-su questioning her authenticity. Sometimes you even wonder if she’s just taken on a false name to mess around with Jong-su. The well is one such event she brings up from the past, which is mysterious. She claims to have fallen into that well when she was 7-years-old and that Jong-su was the one who spotted her. Jong-su has no memory of this. He asks Hae-mi’s family, and they say that they never had a well. The neighbour also says the same thing. Jong-su’s mother, however, remembers a well, but she herself is a wreck and highly unreliable.

So what is the relevance of the well? It makes us think that Hae-mi is a compulsive liar and that she may have been lying about her cat too. In the sense, it might have been a stray that visited her room and not her pet. This notion about her is used to provide the element of surprise when Jong-su calls the cat by the name Boiler, and it responds.

What does Ben mean by Burning Greenhouses ? (Burning Movie Greenhouse Metaphor)

Ben says he enjoys locating greenhouses and burning them to the ground. He likes erasing things from existence. As Ben mentions, he sees it not as a crime but as an act of nature. Here’s the thing, though. Ben is not literally burning greenhouses. He considers women who are nurturing, warm and looking for the true meaning of life to be metaphorical greenhouses. Ben murders women with these specific traits and disposes of the body, perhaps near the lake.

How did Ben kill Hae-mi in Burning?

It looks like Ben kills someone once in two months. He tells Jong-su that he’s scouting for his next target and that it is “very close” to Jong-su. Jong-su misunderstands this as an actual greenhouse, but as he confirms, no greenhouses in his vicinity have been torched. But in that meanwhile, Ben has murdered Hae-mi and gotten rid of her body. There’s a scene when Jong-su receives a call from Hae-mi, and all he can hear is running and panting. This was probably just before her death.

Why does Jong-su not go to the police? Why does Jong-su kill Ben?

Jong-su knows that there is no pressing evidence against Ben. If he mentioned the cat, there would be no way to confirm it was Hae-mi’s as even the building admin didn’t know about the cat. It appears that Hae-mi was raising the cat secretly as pets were not allowed in the building. Even the women’s accessories are not substantial evidence. Hence, Jong-su takes matters into his own hands like his father, who is in jail because of his anger issues. Jong-su kills and burns Ben to seek revenge.

Why did Ben show up to the rendezvous if he had killed Hae-mi?

To me, it appears that Ben was fond of Jong-su, and it feels as if he allowed himself to be caught by him. At the end, when Jong-su is stabbing Ben, he doesn’t resist; instead, he hugs him. This could be Ben’s decision that his time has come, and he’d rather die at the hands of someone of his choice. For someone as meticulous as Ben, it seems odd that he left his kill trophies in the bathroom out in the open. I think he wanted Jong-su to find them.

Burning Movie Plot Explained: The End was Jong-su’s novel

This angle explores the metaphorical nature of the movie Burning. As the director mentions, Jong-su belongs to one end of the spectrum, the struggling working-class. Ben, on the other hand, is a successful character much in the lines of the Great Gatsby. His life and house are one to yearn for, but when you go after materialistic goals, you are seldom happy once you achieve them. Hae-mi is somewhere in between. She makes ends meet by taking up odd jobs, lives on credit, but is the only character who is looking for the meaning of life. And when she disappears, we feel a void.

This is not shown in the film, but the director insinuates that the movie Burning’s ending is probably Jong-su’s novel.

Burning: Ben in Jong-su’s novel

In the beginning, Ben jokingly suggests Jong-su should write about him. Despite his wealth, Ben seems to be a genuine guy. He’s respectful and doesn’t mistreat Jong-su because he’s poor. He goes out of his way to call Jong-su over to his parties and introduces him to his friends. We are not shown anything negative about Ben. He seems to be a perfect gentleman. But that can’t be true, can it? There has to be a catch!

As Jong-su begins writing his book, it ends up being about his own life, and the story is centered around a mysterious wealthy guy. While Jong-su can’t identify any evident bad traits about Ben in real life, in his book, he bestows upon him a dark side, a serial killer. Somehow, as viewers, even we feel completeness to the calm, rich, well-mannered gentleman, Ben, when we’re shown that he could be a serial killer. It’s like we were waiting for it. Perhaps there is a horrible consequence to Ben’s lifestyle, but definitely not as bad as being a murderer. However, in Jong-su’s novel, he’s decided that Ben is a killer.

Great Hunger Dance – Hunger to find out the meaning of life

The Great Hunger dance scene is pivotal to the movie Burning not only because it cinematically captures the duality of life, both light and dark, it is also the last time we see Hae-mi. She expresses herself in her raw form, happy and free, but gets called a wh*re by the one person she trusts most.

Burning Movie: What happened to Hae-mi?

Now, remember, in the beginning, Hae-mi is curious what it would be like to disappear as if she never existed. So the idea of vanishing and starting a new life has been brewing in her head for a while. But then she meets Jong-su and hopes to have found love. Unfortunately, he seems very neutral and displays no fight inside him for her.

When Ben offers Hae-mi a drop home, she expects Jong-su to step up and say that he would drop her. Instead, Jong-su is quick to ask her to go with Ben and pulls her bags out of his truck. Though he has feelings for her, he never expresses them to her. The final blow comes when Jong-su calls her a wh*re. While Jong-su assumes that Hae-mi is in a serious relationship with Ben, that is not the case. Hae-mi decides that she’s going to disappear from her current life and move elsewhere and start over. The reason she does up her room like that is to make it feel like she never lived there, like she never existed . She leaves everything behind and moves away.

Burning Movie: What was real, and what was part of Jung-su’s novel?

It’s safe to say that everything up until that night they spend at Jung-su’s place is real and is also part of his book. Everything from there is only part of the book’s fictional story. While in reality, Hae-mi just left, Jung-su tries to give her disappearance a reason in his book – Ben. While Ben is a cultured, wealthy guy, the novel presents a dark side by making him a serial killer. Everything from finding Hae-mi’s watch in Ben’s bathroom, to confirming the cat to be Boiler, to killing and burning Ben is part of the story in the novel.

The final burning question is – where is Jung-su now headed, physically and in life?

What did you think about the movie Burning and its ending? Honestly speaking, there is a third angle – North Korean Propaganda. I know very little about it, so I didn’t venture into those details. I’d be grateful to anyone who can provide their theories in the comments section below.

Barry is a technologist who helps start-ups build successful products. His love for movies and production has led him to write his well-received film explanation and analysis articles to help everyone appreciate the films better. He’s regularly available for a chat conversation on his website and consults on storyboarding from time to time. Click to browse all his film articles

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Lee Chang-dong Remembers ‘Burning’ and ‘Poetry’: ‘Each Film Led Me to the Heart of Darkness’

Ryan lattanzio, deputy editor, film.

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“ Burning ” remains a new classic of the 2010s, an elusive portrait of loneliness and desire that never spills on its narrative secrets. It grossed an impressive $718,000 at the U.S. box office in fall 2018, turning the filmmaker into something of a discovery for American cinephiles. But Lee, a trained novelist first, had long been making features dating back to 1997 with his breakout portrait of disaffected military youth, “Green Fish,” suicide postmortem “Peppermint Candy,” Oscar entries “Oasis” and “Secret Sunshine,” and dementia drama “Poetry,” whose star Yoon Jeong-hee herself died from complications of Alzheimer’s in 2023. As Lee explained in an email interview with IndieWire on the occasion of an ongoing Metrograph retrospective of his work , Yoon began to develop symptoms of dementia while “Poetry” was in production.

Lee has not released a feature since “Burning” and has since focused on fiction writing; his short story “Snow Day” was published in The New Yorker in 2023. His literary bona fides show throughout his career: Lee won Best Screenplay at Cannes in 2010 for “Poetry.”

In our interview below, condensed and edited for clarity through a translator, he mentions a couple projects he’s working on, though he’s not certain where either will land just yet.

The Lee Chang-dong series “Novel Encounters” runs at Metrograph through April 26 .

The following interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

IndieWire: Released in 2018, “Burning” is one of your most internationally acclaimed films. You were even a contender for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. How did that elevated reputation change your relationship with filmmaking?

Lee Chang-dong: I don’t really feel anything has changed from then. I do get more pitches from foreign producers than before. But I wasn’t able to find any projects or stories that I wished to do, so I could not accept them.

How does “despair” drive the narrative in your works, and why do you think it is a crucial aspect of your filmmaking?

BURNING, (aka BEONING), from left: YOO Ah-In, JEON Jong-seo, Steven YEUN, 2018. © Well Go USA / courtesy Everett Collection

You have worked as a novelist prior to becoming a filmmaker. How has that influenced how you approach film? For example, “Burning” utilizes Haruki Murakami’s story “Barn Burning” as merely a starting point for more ideas. It’s a loose adaptation.

I have always questioned human nature and life through writing novels. That didn’t change when I entered filmmaking. I wish to ask questions through my films, so that the audience can each find their own answers. That is my default attitude when it comes to filmmaking. I also interpreted Haruki Murakami’s novel as a question about life and the world we are living in. In order to do so, it was necessary to portray and explore today’s world and reality. “Burning” is not only connected to the world of Haruki Murakami, but also the world of William Faulkner. Murakami writes with endless imagination that defies gravity, but Faulkner represents the souls of everyday people suffering from our reality. I wished to combine the two contrasting worldviews with “Burning.”

The final scene of “Burning” is, well, burned in my brain. Did you have that endpoint in mind when you started writing the film?

The final scene consists of an unexpected murder, the extreme shock and outburst of emotions that follows, and destructive arson. It had to be vividly conveyed to the audience as if they were watching it happen in real life, so the scene had to be shot without any cuts. It had to be meticulously crafted and calculated, but it should not feel artificial. But again, the “reality” I seek came in the form of a coincidence. When the camera began rolling, it began to snow. The snow was the coincidence and the reality that only films could show.

POETRY, (aka SHI), YOON Jeong-hee, 2010. ©Kino International/Courtesy Everett Collection

Yoon Jeong-hee was widely praised for her phenomenal performance in the film “Poetry.” What do you remember about working with her? Did you keep in touch until she passed away in 2023?

Yoon Jeong-hee was starting to show symptoms of Alzheimer’s when we were shooting this film. Just like the protagonist of the film, she was suffering from dementia. That was her fate, and “Poetry” was also her fate. She was actually living the life of “Mija” [her character] in the film. Despite her illness, she was able to perform perfect long takes until the end of production. After the film, we often met in Seoul or in Paris where she lived. I also had to watch her condition gradually get worse due to the illness.

I am currently writing two different projects. I do not know which one I will get to do first as of now.

What is your proudest or fondest film out of the selection of this year’s Metrograph retrospective on your career? What film has pulled you to the darkest and hardest places?

I cannot choose one film that I am most proud of or that I feel is closest to my heart. Not because I like them all equally, but because they feel like undetachable parts of my body. Every film was difficult for its own reason, and led me to the “Heart of Darkness” that I didn’t know existed during its production.

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Common sense media reviewers.

Slow, enigmatic character study with nudity, violence.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Bleak character study presents ultimately negative

Jong-su is emotionally mysterious but also likable

Almost none except for one strong sequence that sh

A couple kiss with tongue, take off their tops. A

"Butt," "whores," and one "f--k." Bonus features s

Lots of incidental food and beverage products with

Main characters, probably of legal age in Korea, d

Positive Messages

Bleak character study presents ultimately negative examples of people who don't have real friendships or family support, which could be used as an example of how important both of these are to personal happiness. Some iffy beauty messages from dancing girls being used to attract customers to stores, and when Hae-mi says she had plastic surgery to become beautiful.

Positive Role Models

Jong-su is emotionally mysterious but also likable. He does what he has to when his father runs into trouble, and helps out an old friend. But he commits a terrible crime for revenge. Ben is very mysterious, possibly a sociopath. Hae-mi is a free spirit but financially unstable, also hard to know and mysterious.

Violence & Scariness

Almost none except for one strong sequence that shows a fight and stabbing from middle distance. Blood is visible, repeated stabbing is simulated outside camera frame; there's a dying embrace, and blood smears visible on car, clothing, bare legs. A body is put in a car; the car is set on fire. Dream sequence shows large structure fire. A court hearing mentions a fight and injuring a government official.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

A couple kiss with tongue, take off their tops. A woman's bare breasts are fully visible and shown being caressed. Putting on a condom is simulated outside camera frame; simulated sex shows thrusting, kissing from chest up. Several scenes show simulated masturbation; one scene simulates manual stimulation in dream. Female breasts, male buttocks shown. A couple make out in background.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

"Butt," "whores," and one "f--k." Bonus features show a crew member with the word "f--kin'" on a baseball hat.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Lots of incidental food and beverage products with labels in Korean. One box of Marlboro cigarettes shown.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Main characters, probably of legal age in Korea, drink wine and beer, mostly with meals or socially; excess isn't shown. Several scenes take place in bars. One cocktail party scene. Main characters smoke marijuana once and become very giggly. Main characters and background action frequently show cigarette smoking.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Burning is a long, slow character study in Korean with English subtitles that has strong sexual content and a bloody act of violence. There's a scene that simulates sex and shows a woman's bare breasts and a few scenes that show simulated masturbation. No other sensitive parts or explicit acts are shown on-screen. The only direct violence is a stabbing with smears of blood, and burning the body in a car. The main characters frequently smoke cigarettes and smoke marijuana once. Wine and beer frequently appear with meals and socializing, and several scenes take place in bars. There's one instance of "f--k." The three main characters live lonely, isolated lives, so it can be a good opportunity to talk about how things might be different without close ties to friends and family. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Community Reviews

Parents say (3)

Based on 3 parent reviews

Slow and steady

What's the story.

In BURNING, Jong-su (Ah-in Yoo) reconnects with childhood friend Hae-mi (Jong-seo Jun) just before she takes off on vacation to Africa. Jong-su finds himself pining after Hae-mi while she's gone, and is excited to pick her up at the airport when at last she gets back to Seoul. But Jong-su's dreams of romance will have to wait when Hae-mi shows up with the mysterious Ben ( Steven Yeun ) in tow. When Hae-mi suddenly disappears, Jong-su is convinced Ben has something to do with it and sets out to find her.

Is It Any Good?

At right around two and a half hours, this quiet, slow-paced character study offers a lot of food for thought while keeping the audience at arm's length. The slow pace, isolated lives, and enigmatic characters make it hard to establish an emotional connection with Burning . It does provoke some thought about why we live the way we do, how that affects us, and what the consequences are of living cut off, if only emotionally, from other people.

The absorbing story, thoughtful direction, and talented acting manage to hold the viewer's interest; we're drawn in despite not being able to feel a real connection to the characters. The ending isn't really an ending, and contributes to a sense of unease, but also encourages thought about where the story might go from there. Strong sexual content, adult themes, and rare but strong violence make it best for oldest teens and up.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the sex in Burning . How much is OK to show in movies? Why?

What about all the cigarette smoking ? Is it realistic? What about the scene where they smoke marijuana? What are the possible consequences of smoking either one?

What kind of effect did the violent scene have on you? How much violence is OK to show in movies?

Movie Details

In theaters : November 9, 2018
On DVD or streaming : March 5, 2019
Cast : Ah-in Yoo , Steven Yeun , Jong-seo Jun
Director : Chang-dong Lee
Inclusion Information : Asian actors
Studio : Well Go USA Entertainment
Genre : Drama
Topics : Friendship
Run time : 148 minutes
MPAA rating : NR
Last updated : December 2, 2023

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What Is Amar Singh Chamkila’s Release Time on Netflix?

By Devanshi Basu

Imtiaz Ali’s much-anticipated film Amar Singh Chamkila, starring Diljit Dosanjh and Parineeti Chopra , is gearing up to arrive soon on Netflix. As fans eagerly await its release, viewers have been wondering about Amar Singh Chamkila’s release time on Netflix.

Diljit Dosanjh’s Amar Singh Chamkila release time?

Beloved actor and singer Diljit Dosanjh has captured hearts not only in Punjab but also across Bollywood. Now, he is gearing up to impress audiences again with his upcoming movie. The excitement surrounding the movie is palpable as fans eagerly await its release on April 12, 2024, exclusively on Netflix. Moreover, recent reports suggest that Amar Singh Chamkila will premiere at 1:30 p.m.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Netflix India (@netflix_in)

Imtiaz Ali has delved deep into the untold story of Amar Singh Chamkila, a renowned figure in Punjab’s music scene during the 1980s. Often hailed as the ‘Elvis Presley of Punjab,’ Chamkila’s music struck a chord with the masses, elevating him to unprecedented fame and popularity.

Yet, amidst the adoration, Chamkila faces numerous challenges. His lyrics often sparked controversy and provoked opposition. Despite the backlash, Chamkila remained steadfast in his dedication to his craft, a commitment that tragically ended with his untimely demise at just 27 years old. Diljit Dosanjh’s upcoming movie aims to showcase this remarkable journey, offering a poignant and insightful glimpse into the life of a true musical icon.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by DILJIT DOSANJH (@diljitdosanjh)

The premiere of Imtiaz Ali’s directorial was a star-studded event. Shabana Azmi, Mrunal Thakur, Bhuvan Bam, Piyush Mishra, Sunny Kaushal, and more graced the event. After the screening, the actors responded with admiration for the film. Now, as the movie is all set to release on Netflix soon, it remains to be seen how well it will perform among fans.

When not obsessively writing about anything and everything related to cinema, you can catch her documenting nooks and crannies of Delhi.

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IMAGES

BURNING Korean Movie (버닝
Burning movie review: Lee Chang Dong's film brings a Haruki Murakami
Burning (2018)
'Burning' review: South Korean movie builds to a thriller with an
Burning (2018) 버닝
Burning (2018 Korean)

VIDEO

燃えさかる韓国料理 Burning Korean food
'버닝' 해석
ഇനി മാജിക് ചെയ്യില്ല മക്കളേ😂😂|Gopinath Muthukad Magic Fail Troll Video|Troll Video
The great Hunger Dance( in search of the meaning of life)

COMMENTS

Burning movie review & film summary (2018)
Advertisement. Everyone is hungry for something in "Burning," the new film from South Korean master Lee Chang-dong. How that hunger manifests, and what hunger even signifies, is up for debate. The debate itself is too dangerous to even be spoken out loud, since it threatens the class status quo. Based loosely on Haruki Murakami's short story ...
Burning
KOREAN BBQ - My Review of BURNING (4 Stars) It may sound corny as hell to call South Korean filmmaker Chang-dong Leeï¿ 1/2(TM)s BURNING a slow burn, but thereï¿ 1/2(TM)s no escaping the truth ...
Burning review
L ee Chang-dong's Burning is a superbly shot and sensuously scored movie, a mystery thriller about obsessive love taken from a short story by Haruki Murakami but with something of Patricia ...
Review: In 'Burning,' Love Ignites a Divided World
Directed by Chang-dong Lee. Drama, Mystery. Not Rated. 2h 28m. By Manohla Dargis. Oct. 25, 2018. One of the most beautiful scenes in a movie this year — in many years — comes midway through ...
Burning Is a South Korean Movie About Toxic Masculinity That You Didn't
Back at the Vancouver International Film Festival in 1997, I was on a jury that gave this South Korean auteur top prize for his first film, Green Fish, a funny, unsettling crime picture that was ...
Burning review
Burning review - mesmerising thriller of murky motives. "I want to just vanish, like I never existed.". It's a seemingly flippant, throwaway comment from Hae-mi (Jeon Jong-seo). Lee Chang ...
'Burning': Film Review
'Burning': Film Review | Cannes 2018. South Korean filmmaker Lee Chang-dong's 'Burning' is a quiet romantic thriller in which an aspiring writer and a rich hotshot become rivals for the ...
'Burning' Review: Lee Chang-dong Meets Haruki Murakami
By Eric Kohn. May 16, 2018 6:07 pm. "Burning". Korean filmmaker Lee Chang-dong and Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami share distinct fixations — loneliness and desire — so the combination of ...
'Burning' Review: Love Triangles, Class Envy Fuel Three-Alarm Thriller
Burning starts like a romance in the manner of The Talented Mr. Ripley as poor boy Jongsu, an aspiring writer played by Yoo Ah-in, falls under the spell of Haemi (Jun Jong-seo), a free spirit in ...
Film Review: 'Burning'
Film Review: 'Burning'. In this loose riff on Haruki Murakami's short story 'Barn Burning,' Korean director Lee Chang-dong tries to make sense of life's mysteries. The word " Burning " may ...
'Burning' Movie Review: A Quiet but Impactful Thriller
The story continues to flow at the same pace as before. I loved that Chang-dong opted to make Burning a slow, quiet film. Editing is slow paced, and shots linger for extended periods of time. We ...
Burning (2018)
Burning: Directed by Lee Chang-dong. With Yoo Ah-in, Steven Yeun, Jeon Jong-seo, Kim Soo-Kyung. Jong-su bumps into a girl who used to live in the same neighborhood, who asks him to look after her cat while she's on a trip to Africa. When back, she introduces Ben, a mysterious guy she met there, who confesses his secret hobby.
Burning (South Korea, 2018)
Review: Critics tried to outdo one another with praise for "Burning".An unparalleled masterpiece and clearly one of the best, if not even THE best Korean movie of 2018, they say. Considering the fact that Lee Chang-dong was directing, it shouldn't come as a surprise that critics might already be praising the movie before they have actually even seen it.
Burning (2018)
Burning is an engrossing tale of the unravelling of a rational and innocent mind by sheer desire, rich with characterisations and themes. It is a Korean film unlike any other Korean film I have seen and it immediately warrants a second or third viewing to catch all the nuances. I hope I don't have to wait another eight years for his next film.
Burning Review: One of 2018's Best Overlooked Films is Now on Netflix
Published April 29, 2019, 2:00 p.m. ET. One of the best films of 2018—and one that you probably didn't see—is now on Netflix: Burning. The psychological drama, originally titled Beoning ...
Burning (2018)
Burning 버닝. Directed by: Lee Chang-dong (이창동) Starring: Yoo Ah-in (유아인), Steven Yeun, Jeon Jong-seo (전종소) The Film: Now tell me the truth. A part time delivery truck worker named Jong-su (Yoo Ah-in) meets a girl, Hae-mi (Jeon Jong-seo), who used to live in the same neighborhood as him when he was young, who asks him to take care of her cat while she goes on a trip to Africa.
K-Movie Spotlight: "Burning" Eloquently Challenges Existing Social
Plot Sketch. Warning: Spoiler Ahead. Burning traverses the journey of Lee Jong-su (), an aspiring writer who works as a delivery person in Paju, a town located at the Korean border.A chance ...
Burning (2018 film)
Burning (Korean: 버닝; RR: Beoning) is a 2018 South Korean-Japanese psychological thriller film co-written, produced, and directed by Lee Chang-dong.The film is based on the short story "Barn Burning" from The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami, with elements inspired by William Faulkner's story of the same name. It stars Yoo Ah-in, Steven Yeun, and Jeon Jong-seo.
'Burning' review: South Korean movie builds to a thriller with an
Lee Chang-dong's "Burning" initially presents itself as a simple boy-meets-girl tale, set in South Korea. Protagonist Jongsu (Ah-in Yoo), a young deliveryman who passively dreams of putting ...
Burning Movie Explained: Director's Views (Korean Film)
Burning, or Beoning, is a 2018 Korean Crime Drama directed by Lee Chang-dong. The film is centered on Jong-su, who wants to become an author. He runs into a girl who used to be a neighbour when they were kids. Just when you think this is going to be a love story, enters Ben, a wealthy guy who confesses his strange hobby.
Burning (2018)
Erik, the Asian Movie Enthusiast presents:A review of "Burning", a Korean film from 2018 that was directed by Chang-dong Lee - a highly revered and criticall...
Lee Chang-dong on 'Burning,' 'Poetry,' and More Films
Lee Chang-dong shares memories of 'Burning, 'Poetry,' and more as a Metrograph retrospective of his work plays in New York.
Burning (2018) Analysis
Burning is one of my favourite films. I watched it again the other day and have become obsessed with the film again, trying to find meaning in a movie that seems to evade meaning itself. After watching it, I looked online for reviews and discussions to see other people's interpretations and found most of them very lacking.
Burning Movie Review
Our review: Parents say: ( 3 ): Kids say: Not yet rated Rate movie. At right around two and a half hours, this quiet, slow-paced character study offers a lot of food for thought while keeping the audience at arm's length. The slow pace, isolated lives, and enigmatic characters make it hard to establish an emotional connection with Burning.
What Is Amar Singh Chamkila's Release Time on Netflix?
The excitement surrounding the movie is palpable as fans eagerly await its release on April 12, 2024, exclusively on Netflix. Moreover, recent reports suggest that Amar Singh Chamkila will ...

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Reviewed at Cannes Film Festival (competing), May 16, 2018. Running time: 148 MIN. (Original title: “Beoning”)

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