Review of “Burning,” Film, 2018. Co-written, produced, and directed by Lee Chang-dong. Stars Yoo Ah-in, Steven Yeun, and Jeon Jong-seo. Distributed by CGV Arthouse. Korean, English subtitles
A film about death and disappointment
Trying to survive despite the hands we are dealt. Trying to hang onto a past that is being burnt up. Trying to make ourselves into gods who can decide who lives and who dies. This is a movie about good and evil—in addition to being about many other things.
As Wikipedia tells us, “The plot depicts a young deliveryman, Jong-su (Yoo), who runs into his childhood friend, Hae-mi (Jeon). They soon meet an enigmatic young man named Ben (Yeun), whom Jong-su becomes suspicious of and begins to believe Hae-mi is in danger” (Burning (2018 film) - Wikipedia).
This page tells us how the film is a psychological thriller, how Jon-su is a delivery boy who meets Hae-mi when she is singing and dancing in front of a store selling novelties, and how he wins a gift in the raffle there—winning a little pink plastic watch which he in turn gives to her. She puts it on, mentioning how “tacky” it is.
The little pink watch is a symbol of the new South Korea—cheaply priced but profitable goods being sold in the new high-tech society there. The old South Korea is the home of self-supporting family farms (complete with small greenhouses) that are slowly vanishing. The greenhouses are symbols of that era, and they are also part of the metaphor of “burning greenhouses” that is rooted in the center of the film.
Jon-su exploring a greenhouse
The film is heavily laden with symbols and planted deeply with metaphors. Every review goes into the huge number of symbols and the high number of meanings of all that is included in this pensive and purposeful film.
The film is about disappointment—in many ways and for many characters—and part of the disappointment is murders of young girls and the end of their futures. The ends of hope for them are also clearly shown. And the ends of hope for South Korea as it struggles to sell its little pink watches and its farm families fall apart, get separated, get killed, and generally vanish into a society that becomes more about participating in part-time hourly work in non-descript factories.
People have moved away from the family farms (Jon-su does so also, and returns to help there when his father is put in jail and awaits sentencing). Jon-su himself sells the last family cow and goes to try to make some money as another extra worker in a generic factory.
We do not know what the factory makes or ships or packs—and that is significant. It is any factory making or doing anything in which people do not take as much pride as they do on a family farm. It is not important, the movie is saying, and it is what people do now to make money.
The film will be a fantastic choice for looking at contrasts between a rich and a poor South Korea—and the settings are perfect for helping convey the mood appropriate to the characters. Each of their characters has their very telling setting—and their themes are clearly illustrated by them.
Jon-su lives on a broken-down farm complete with “cow poop” and mess—but also surrounded by fields and beautiful sunsets. Hae-mi lives in a tiny urban room with a keypad on the door (this is important later in the film). Ben lives in a sprawling brightly-lit apartment (or condo?) with miles of windows and lighting and a bathroom large enough for a sports team. Completing the bathroom’s obsessively rich look is a stack of perfectly-folded thick bath towels—see Gatsby’s multi-colored shirts he throws through the air to impress Daisy.
The rural landscape reveals mile after mile of family farms—and almost every one of the farms has a small abandoned greenhouse on it. In a past South Korea, each family would be known for doing a good job of starting tomato plants or chives or other plants for use in the fields. Perhaps beautiful flowers. However, the greenhouse is basically a symbol of life, and hope, and creation. Fire is basically a symbol of death, destruction, and termination.
Teachers of film, literature, culture, history, and social studies can find a wealth of symbols and themes, metaphors and more here to stimulate class conversations. In addition, there is a wealth of reactions and reviews of the film out there to further enlighten—or argue with.
Death and disappointment. Lies and deceit.