Burning (Lee Chang-dong)

[Peng]

[Peng]

Hedging the rating a bit here, since it's almost certain to go up when I watch the film again on bigger screen next week; even in smaller boutique theater -- that is by no mean inferior -- the imagery is immersive, and the way a single theater-shaking beat thrums out loudly among the sparsely used soundtrack is so thrillingly shiver-inducing. My two main reservations are ones that will probably lessen or disappear next week, now that I know the film's overall shape: the ending, which doesn't feel so much poetically inevitable as borderline standard for arthouse almost-thriller (maybe for this more unconventional film, I'm craving a fitting punctuation more than normal inevitability, like the one in just-watched Western or Bong Joon-Ho's Mother); and I'm not sure if the way we are linked with our lead's frustrated mindset tips over too much into actual audience's unproductive frustration at various moments (also not sure if this is a storytelling problem or a Yoo Ah-In problem).

The latter feels like nitpicking though, in the face of such magnificent filmmaking (FYC scene of the year: "The Great Hunger" with Miles Davis), and of how those frustrations morph seamlessly into arising, barely registered possibilities of answers, before spinning into new, even more fearsome questions again. Hopefully even more raised appreciation to come on second watch, but one greatness is immediate upon impact: MVP Steven Yeun, who has nary a hair out of place or out of his ethereal calmness, but whose smallest normal changes in emotions or gestures can chill you to the bone, with their real-world evocation of casual, outsized privilege. 8.5/10

[Pop Trash]

Is there an American release date for this yet?

[Peng]

Yeah, I just checked and it’s October 26. After consistent one-year lags of Koreeda’s films I always check US release date of Asian films that might have a chance to screen there to see where it might go in the forum’s year subgroup. (Shoplifters winning Cannes seem to break the trend though, so I don’t have to wait for next year subgroup when it comes to Thai this weekend).

[transmogrifier]

75/100

The psychological implications of deep economic and political divisions run deep in Lee Chang-dong's latest. By design, this can obviously be read a number of different ways, but for me, it works best by considering [

Show Spoiler

Jong-soo (Yoo Ah-in, who not so long ago was playing loathsome rich-boy in Veteran; he's excellent here playing against type) the antagonist who directs his deep self-loathing and sense of unfairness outwards towards two more or less innocent (if not pure) victims - the sexually liberated Hae-mi and the smugly/comfortably well-off Ben.

There are a number of little things that don't add up if you take the central mystery at face value (e.g., Ben turning up at the end genuinely asking after Hae-mi, when if he was involved in her disappearance, he wouldn't be doing that, even as an act, because he would know what the meeting was set up under false pretenses); instead, the entire film revolves around Jong-soo - there is not a single scene that does not feature him in it - and charts his mental disintegration as he navigates the norms and behaviors of a society he does not feel part of. (Of course, a second option is that everything after the shot of him writing from outside the window is part of his novel, now that he has figured out what he wants to write about, but I don't find that particularly interesting.)

]

Helped by a superb minimalist soundtrack, Lee foregrounds the character interactions and allows the calculated ambiguity (it almost seems too calculated at times, as if Lee is consciously making a choose your own adventure tale for his audience, rather than following a specific train of thought himself) to percolate in the background. Yuen is a little stiff at times, but it works for his character, while Jun knocks her debut out of the park.

(Don't read the spoilers before seeing the film - one of the pleasures is trying to figure out what the film is up to all on your own. And chances are, you will have a different interpretation to me).

[Stay Puft]

I'm gonna try to see this again when it releases. I saw it at TIFF and it threw me for a loop. Not at all what I was expecting, and quite different from the previous Lee films I've seen. Lee's films usually cut me deep, straight to the bone, but my emotional response to this was a lot more diffuse, perhaps owing to the deliberate ambiguity. And I agree with trans about it feeling too calculated at times; I found the way Lee kept tossing out "clues" in the final stretch to be a little clumsy and even unnecessary.

Overall, though, I really liked it, have thought about it a lot since, and I thought the strength of Lee's directing was pretty much at a career best.

My immediate reaction to the ending was that [

Show Spoiler

it was the "story" he was writing, but in retrospect I came around to the same impression trans had: the events transpired, Ben was innocent, and Yoo is the antagonist of the story.

]

[Ivan Drago]

The more I see the trailer for this, the more excited I get for it. The cinematography is astounding.

[Mal]

I found this to be a complete waste. The ideas regarding class and new Korea replacing tradition are poorly realized, instead overtaken by meandering moments that are as beautifully shot as they are meaningless to the scope of the storytelling. [

Show Spoiler

Once the lead called the female object of his obsession a whore for getting high and taking her clothes off- with a whole hour left still in the picture- the entire film and his quest to relocate her became beyond insufferable. Why should I care what he does or doesn't achieve as he sleepily questions what is going on with his mouth agape, puzzled never-changing expression- and stalks the man who is the opposite of him? Adding to the brushes with misogyny, we see the same scenes repeated again and again in the countryside and the more urban areas. This is really bad- there is no significant revelation in any of these moments (BUT OF COURSE THE FUCKING CAT) and even when the conclusion is that nothing is can be told about her disappearance, WHY do we have to take the long way to get there. This isn't Jeanne Dielman. I never saw the Cannes cut of The Brown Bunny but if there ever was another movie you could edit down to 90 minutes to make it sort of work, this would be it. Burning desire, ho fucking hum.

]

[transmogrifier]

Well, [

Show Spoiler

Jong-soo is the bad guy, so the misogyny is hardly a surprise

].

[Mal]

Well, [

Show Spoiler

Jong-soo is the bad guy, so the misogyny is hardly a surprise

].

[

Show Spoiler

Everyone is awful. I don’t have a problem with a film portraying misogyny, but having to follow him and the movie acting like he is owed a resolution without questioning why he’s a misogynist and the objectification of Hae-mi in any sense? The ending does not suggest he is going to change and learn from this at all. For some people they won’t even identify the problem of his behavior either and just see him as a poor farm boy who lost his crush. This movie reminded me of Spoorlos so much but had none of the content and scripting that could have made it all worth it.

]

[Spinal]

(Don't read the spoilers before seeing the film - one of the pleasures is trying to figure out what the film is up to all on your own. And chances are, you will have a different interpretation to me).

I did have a different interpretation than you, but I like yours a lot. It made me appreciate the film all the more.

[

Show Spoiler

I did accept that Ben was actually a serial killer and that the film was about a couple of things: first, about class difference when it comes to punishment for crime (Ben vs. Jongsu's father); secondly, about how young women are viewed in society (Haemi is impulsive and sexually forward, thus making it easier for Ben to use her flightiness as cover).

]

However, I don't think I can discount your take, which makes for an even richer film. Between this and Secret Sunshine, Lee's becoming one of my favorites. I really need to catch up on Oasis asap.

[dreamdead]

Having seen all of Lee's films, this feels comparable to Secret Sunshine or Oasis to me (I've grown to see SS as his masterpiece after first thinking it was Oasis, though I greatly respect that and Peppermint Candy); certainly upper echelon in terms of abstraction and ambiguity. For us it played most like Antonioni, offering itself to whatever you want to project onto it, with differing levels of value applied to each reading. Jun in a marvel of desire as she searches for the big hunger, even as she's indifferent to the larger attempts at control from Jong-soo.

Yoo Ah-in has the hardest role in that he has to make [

Show Spoiler

his shift incrementally and almost non-verbally, so that the movement into being a murderer keeps us on his side until we start cataloging all of the details. We ultimately settled on Hae-mi discarding both men, though we did end up a bit perplexed on why Ben is then applying make-up to the new girl.

]

While the Faulkner nods are a bit obvious in that they influenced Murakami's story of the same name, the legacies of violence, rural resentment towards the upper class, and other aspects actively work to make the pairing more interesting. One of this year's delights for me, all the more that Lee is getting rewarded for almost 20 years of stellar filmmaking.

[Pop Trash]

Spicy Korean BBQ. Echoes of The Talented Mr. Ripley, Antonioni, Paul Schrader, and even Hitchcock's obsessives (think Jimmy Stewart in Rear Window and Vertigo) + I'm curious how much of the depth here is Murakami (I haven't read the story this was based on)... but Lee Chang-dong puts the burn in slow burn. There's a lot going on here re: class, globalization, North / South Korea (I get the idea that the poorer you are in South Korea, the closer you are to the N. Korea border), obsessive "incel" culture, masculinity, faith, and so forth. Also interesting this showed at Cannes with Under the Silver Lake since they are both playing in the same sandbox of gone girls and the (young, dorky) men who obsess over them. Would make an interesting (if LONG) double feature.

[Peng]

I'm curious how much of the depth here is Murakami (I haven't read the story this was based on)

I haven't either, but I gather from people who have that this is heavily adapted, since the Murakami seems to be a short story comprised entirely of that conversation about barn burning between the two men while sharing the joint. Also, if I remember correctly, both men aren't that much different in class (if at all), so the class commentary is entirely from Lee.

[Pop Trash]

I haven't either, but I gather from people who have that this is heavily adapted, since the Murakami seems to be a short story comprised entirely of that conversation about barn burning between the two men while sharing the joint. Also, if I remember correctly, both men aren't that much different in class (if at all), so the class commentary is entirely from Lee.

Interesting. This might replace Beale Street for best adapted screenplay of 2018.

[Pop Trash]

Also, this is TOTALLY BOTHERING ME but...

[

Show Spoiler

So there's a shot of Ben (Steven Yuen) right before the scene of him getting stabbed and set on fire, where he is putting make-up on his new (old?) girlfriend. It looks like the MIA girl Hae-mi, but I can't figure out if it's actually Hae-mi, or Lee Chang-dong cast another actress that looks just like her, or he cast the same actress, but she is playing another character (similar to Paul Dano's switcheroo in There Will Be Blood). Did anyone else notice this or are my eyes deceiving me?

]

[Peng]

Also, this is TOTALLY BOTHERING ME but...

[

Show Spoiler

So there's a shot of Ben (Steven Yuen) right before the scene of him getting stabbed and set on fire, where he is putting make-up on his new (old?) girlfriend. It looks like the MIA girl Hae-mi, but I can't figure out if it's actually Hae-mi, or Lee Chang-dong cast another actress that looks just like her, or he cast the same actress, but she is playing another character (similar to Paul Dano's switcheroo in There Will Be Blood). Did anyone else notice this or are my eyes deceiving me?

]

It's been about half a year, but I think... [

Show Spoiler

it's the same new girl that Jong-soo saw with Ben earlier. Probably, to call back to a speech he gave, just another aspect of Ben's life that he "plays" with.

]

[Pop Trash]

It's been about half a year, but I think... [

Show Spoiler

it's the same new girl that Jong-soo saw with Ben earlier. Probably, to call back to a speech he gave, just another aspect of Ben's life that he "plays" with.

]

[

Show Spoiler

Huh. It can't be a coincidence that she looks just like Hae-me... unless it's me being a White person with a #problematic processing of Asian faces.

]

[Ezee E]

Thought this was excellent. Love a slow burn, but even better, a mystery both on the surface and something more quite beyond it. Def would've hit my top five.

[Grouchy]

[

Show Spoiler

Huh. It can't be a coincidence that she looks just like Hae-me... unless it's me being a White person with a #problematic processing of Asian faces.

]

No offense, I think it's that, but it happened to me too.

This might be a great film but I didn't connect with it anywhere, with any character or situation. I've read Murakami and I thought Secret Sunshine was a devastating drama but... this just didn't do anything for me. I must have checked the watch 90 times. A theater experience might have been different, but... *shrug*