Burning
バーニング 劇場版
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
Two young men and a woman who dances at dusk; the film about class rage that Murakami's story kept underground.
Lee Jong-su, a graduate who wants to be a novelist, gets by on delivery jobs in Seoul. At a street promotion he runs into Shin Hae-mi, who grew up near him in the countryside; he does not recognise her, and she tells him she has had plastic surgery. She is saving to travel to Africa and asks him to feed her cat, Boil, while she is away. They sleep together in her small flat. Jong-su's father, a cattle farmer in Paju, is arrested for hitting a local official, and Jong-su moves back to the farm, driving into the city to feed a cat he never sees.
Hae-mi comes home with Ben, a young man she met in Nairobi: rich, at ease, with a Porsche, a flat in Gangnam and no clear job. One evening the three smoke cannabis at the farm and Hae-mi dances topless in the open air. While she sleeps, Ben tells Jong-su that every two months he burns down an abandoned greenhouse, and that the next one will be very close by. Jong-su tells him he loves Hae-mi. Then he rebukes her for undressing in front of men, and she leaves with Ben.
Day after day Jong-su checks the greenhouses near the farm. None burns. Hae-mi calls once, a few seconds of indistinct sound, and then cannot be reached. Her flat has been tidied and every trace of the cat is gone. Ben, with a new girlfriend, says he did burn one and has not heard from Hae-mi. Jong-su follows his car. Hae-mi once said that Jong-su pulled her out of a dry well when they were children; her family says there was no well, and his mother, whom he has not seen in sixteen years, says there was. In Ben's bathroom Jong-su finds a pink watch like the one he gave Hae-mi, in a drawer of women's trinkets, and Ben's new cat comes when he calls it Boil.
His father is sentenced to eighteen months in prison. Jong-su begins writing in Hae-mi's empty room. Then he asks Ben to meet him in the countryside, saying Hae-mi is with him. When Ben arrives, Jong-su kills him, burns the body and the car with his own clothes, and drives away naked.
Starring
Yoo Ah-inas Lee Jong-su
A would-be novelist doing delivery jobs, son of a cattle farmer in trouble with the law, who cannot let Hae-mi's disappearance go.
Lee Jong-su’s story
Jong-su has a degree, no job and a novel he cannot begin. Hae-mi finds him at a street promotion, he gives her the pink watch he has just won, and after they sleep together he feeds her unseen cat while she is in Africa and his father awaits trial. She comes back with Ben. Jong-su tells Ben he loves her, then rebukes her for undressing in front of men, and she leaves in Ben's car. When she vanishes he checks the nearby greenhouses day after day and follows Ben, and in Ben's bathroom finds a pink watch among women's trinkets, and a cat that answers to Boil. His father is sentenced; Jong-su starts writing in Hae-mi's room. Then he calls Ben out to the countryside, kills him, burns the body and car with his clothes, and drives away naked.
Steven Yeunas Ben
A rich, easy-going young man with no clear job, who says he burns greenhouses for pleasure.
Ben’s story
Ben has money, a Porsche, a flat in Gangnam and no job anyone can name. He meets Hae-mi at Nairobi airport, where she is stranded for three days, and comes home with her. At Jong-su's farm, while she sleeps, he says that every two months he burns down an abandoned greenhouse, and that the next will be very close by. After Hae-mi disappears he tells Jong-su that he did burn one, that he has not heard from her, and that she trusted only Jong-su, which made Ben jealous for the first time in his life. He has a new girlfriend, and invites Jong-su up to a flat with a new cat and a drawer of women's trinkets. Told that Hae-mi is waiting in the countryside, he drives there, asks where she is, and is killed.
Jeon Jong-seoas Shin Hae-mi
Jong-su's childhood neighbour, dancing at street promotions and saving for Africa, who vanishes after meeting Ben.
Shin Hae-mi’s story
Hae-mi dances at street promotions, says she has had plastic surgery, and is saving to go to Africa. She tells Jong-su that he once pulled her out of a dry well when they were children, asks him to feed her cat, Boil, while she is away, and sleeps with him. Stranded at Nairobi airport, she comes home with Ben, and over dinner cries and says she wants to disappear. At Jong-su's farm she smokes cannabis and dances topless in the open air; rebuked by Jong-su for undressing in front of men, she gets into Ben's car without a word. Later she calls Jong-su once, a few seconds of indistinct sound, and is never heard from again. Her flat is found tidied, the cat gone, and her family says there was no well. The film never says what became of her.
Choi Seung-hoas Lee Yong-seok, Jong-su's father
Jong-su's stubborn, violent father, a cattle farmer on trial for assaulting an official.
Why it matters
Burning is a mystery that refuses to be solved, and it is about the people left to fill the silence. Jong-su is poor, angry and unable to write, the son of a failing farm and a violent father; Ben has everything, including an ease that looks to Jong-su like contempt; Hae-mi, the one who vanishes, is never really seen by either man. Lee Chang-dong took a short story by Haruki Murakami and filled it with what critics described as class envy and sexual jealousy, so that the question of whether Ben is a killer becomes a question about what a young man does with a rage he cannot name. It won the FIPRESCI prize at Cannes in 2018 and became the first Korean film to reach the Academy's final shortlist for foreign-language film. It never confirms what happened to Hae-mi. The only violence it shows for certain is Jong-su's.