Burning Film Difficulty Ranking: 4
Have you ever read a book by Haruki Murakami? If you have, and you enjoyed it – great, you’ll get to see his writing live. If you haven’t, no problem, you can start after this film. It’s the perfect mystery film.
From: South Korea, Asia
Watch: Trailer, Netflix, Amazon Rent, Amazon Buy
Next: Gone Girl, Tape, Vertigo
Why Watch Burning?
- For the feel of the film – it’s spooky and creepy, but intriguing at the same time.
- To see an awkward love triangle filled with toxic masculinity.
- It’s a perfect adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s writing.
- Witness characters created by their houses, bedrooms, dialogue, and movements.
The Breakdown
The first thing we see is half a door of an outdoor storage unit with a wisp of smoke rising from the side. A guy appears (Jong-soo), opens the door, and grabs a bunch of coats inside the room and starts walking. The camera follows him.
He notices two girls dancing in revealing clothing outside a supermarket – they’re advertising a raffle to prospective customers. One of them (Hae-mi) winks at him and draws his number – rewarding him a bright pink watch. She fixed the draw because she recognised him from high school. He doesn’t remember her – the girl he called ugly, because she’s had cosmetic surgery and is “pretty now”.
Sure enough, they end up in bed together at her house at the end of the day. But before he leaves, she asks for a special favor: she wants him to look after her cat whilst she goes on holiday to Africa.
Unfortunately for Jong-soo, who has quietly looked forward to Hae-mi’s return, she comes back with a male friend (Ben). He’s rich, cocky, and patronising – an obvious threat to what Jong-soo thought was his budding romance with Hae-mi. Jealousy slowly burns inside him, but his lack of emotion never reveals what he’s feeling. We can only guess from what’s unsaid.
Jong-Soo’s Lack of emotion
Jong-soo never shows any emotion. He’s a blank slate for the entire film. He never shows happiness or sadness, so it’s hard to sympathize with him. Also, because of his lack of emotion, we as an audience, are forced to try and find any clues in the little things he says, wears, and how he moves to try and read his character.
For example, when Jong-soo is with Hae-mi and Ben, he often appears as the odd one out. He’s placed further away from Hae-mi and Ben whenever they’re together – on the other side of the dinner table, or standing on the other side of a room. His distance from Hae-mi is also shown in the dark clothes he wears which contrast to the bright white clothing that Hae-mi and Ben wear. It’s through the little things that we can interpret his otherness – he’s holding back his emotion and letting it slowly burn inside him.
People and Where they Live
You can tell a lot about a person by seeing where they live. Seeing their bedroom, their personal belongings, and how they structure their living space shows us how they are and how they want to be perceived.
In Burning, the first personal space we see is Hae-mi’s small apartment. It’s a tiny studio in the top floor of a lone building high up on a hill. The view from the stairs gives us a panoramic view of the city, but Hae-mi’s windows face the other way – to a giant TV tower. She only receives sunlight for a minute in the afternoon when it reflects off of the TV tower’s shiny windows. It’s like light and beauty is within her grasp but she’s never able to quite grab it. Just as she’s desperately trying to find happiness in her life.
Next up is Jong-soo’s farm house. He’s taken it on from his father, who has fallen from riches to jail time because of his violent temper. The house is a mess. It’s a relic to the family he once had – with pictures of his family and the past. It symbolizes a past that Jong-soo can never escape. A past in which he accompanied his violent father in burning his mother’s clothes when she left him.
As for Ben, his apartment is big, spacious, and clean. He lives in an immaculate residential building in Seoul’s Gangnam district (the wealthy district). However, whilst the apartment is huge and spacious, there’s no sunlight and it feels too clean, almost sterile. It doesn’t feel lived in. Ben tries to compensate by filling it with living people to keep him company, but like his sterile apartment, he’s always caught yawning – he’s bored.
What to Watch Next
If you like the feel and slow-burn of this film, you should check out David Fincher’s Gone Girl. It’s another detective film with a similarly dry, clean, and focused tone.
Or if you want to see another film examining the male ego, check out Richard Linklater’s Tape featuring Ethan Hawke (First Reformed is also a good companion to Burning).
For a bonus, you could also return to two of the greatest mystery films of all time – Vertigo and The Third Man – both don’t feel too far from the tone of Burning.
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