Mysterious ‘Burning’ is fueled by rage and heartache

In the smoldering centerpiece of Chang-dong Lee’s masterly “Burning” — a mournful cry of a movie — a young, tragic South Korean woman named Haemi (an exquisite Jun Jong-seo) dances before two men at twilight while Miles Davis floats bluely from a nearby car radio. The Korean countryside stretches northward behind her. Her arms sway low and then high.

It’s a dance she has learned from the Bushmen during a recent trip to Africa. She calls it the dance of Great Hunger, and she’s ecstatic as she moves. But, as if something catches her and brings her Jong-seo Jeon stars in “Burning.” back down tears.

“Burning,” the South Korean director’s sixth feature film (and first in eight years), sways with a mysterious heartache. to earth, she finishes in

‘Burning’

Chang-dong Lee. Ah-In Yoo, Steven Yeun, Jong-seo Jeon. At Harkins Camelview at Fashion Square.

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It’s ostensibly a psychological thriller, loosely adapted from a 1992 short story by Haruki Murakami, but every plot turn burns with an existential sorrow. Haemi and the two men watching her in that scene — childhood friend Jongsu (Ah-in Yoo) and her wealthy lover, Ben (Steven Yeun of “The Walking Dead”) — form the kind of triangle that could fuel any noir. But it’s the helplessness and rage that they share, which reaches such a stunning crescendo in Haemi’s dance, that slowly singes all through “Burning.”

Lee’s film, this year’s South Korean Oscar submission, was the sensation of the Cannes Film Festival in May (though it went home prizeless) and it’s one of the best of the year. Jongsu is the movie’s protagonist: a slow-witted aspiring writer who moves home to his fa- ★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★ ★★ ★★★★ ★