Jong-su delivers parcels in Seoul and wants to write. Hae-mi, who grew up in the same village near the North Korean border, stops him in the street. She is going to Africa and asks him to feed her cat. He never sees the cat. She comes back with Ben, who drives a Porsche, lives in Gangnam and does not seem to work. Burning is adapted from a Haruki Murakami short story and is the film that put Steven Yeun on a different level.
What Happens After The Greenhouse
At Jong-su’s father’s farm, at sunset, Hae-mi dances topless to Miles Davis and Ben tells Jong-su his hobby: every two months he burns down an abandoned greenhouse. He says the next one is very close. Then Hae-mi stops answering her phone. Jong-su runs through every greenhouse in the area every morning. He follows Ben. He finds a cat in Ben’s flat that answers to Hae-mi’s cat’s name, and a watch in a drawer. The ending in the snow is either justice or madness.
Why It Was Called The Best Film Of 2018
Lee Chang-dong had not made a film in eight years. It won the FIPRESCI prize at Cannes with the highest critics’ score the festival had ever recorded. Yoo Ah-in plays Jong-su as a man who cannot say what he feels. Yeun’s Ben, yawning in a church, is one of the great quiet villains.
Watch Burning On GoMovies
148 minutes in HD, Korean with subtitles. Press play above. Free, no sign-up.
