Lee Chang-dong lights up Haruki Murakami adaptation ‘Burning’
SEOUL: Top Korean auteur, Lee Chang- dong has set Burning as the first film he will direct in some eight years.
The picture is an adaptation of the short story Barn Burning, written by Japan’s “Norwegian Wood” author Haruki Murakami, and first published in The New Yorker.
The film is to be produced by Lee’s Pine House, Now Films and Oh Jung-wan’s Bom Films Production. It will star actor Yoo Ah-in ( The Throne) as one half of a mysterious couple that a writer meets at a party. In the story, the man claims to be an arsonist, and last year Lee described the project as a mystery thriller.
“It is a story about young people in today’s world. When they think of their lives and this world it must feel like a mystery,” Lee said at the Busan festival last year.
Pine House was previously in talks with actor Kang Dong-won ( Veteran, Woochi) for another role. The actress for the lead female role, has not yet been finalised. Production starts later this month.
It had been set to begin in November last year, but was held up by a dispute between Murakami and Japanese broadcaster NHK, which owns rights to many Murakami works.
Lee, who was also Korea’s minister of culture between 200304, has a stellar track record as a director of challenging art movies. He won the silver lion at Venice in 2002 for Oasis, and the screenplay award at Cannes in 2010 for Poetry, his most recent film as director. His Secret Sunshine had earned Jeon Doyeon the best actress award at Cannes in 2007.