Next year’s beguiling thriller
BURNING Director Lee Chang-dong talks us through the smoky mysteries of a stunning thriller...
I’m lazy,” smirks South Korean director Lee Chang-dong when asked why it’s been eight years since his acclaimed film Poetry. He’s jesting, of course – his follow-up answer reveals the considerable thought he’s put into his new film, Burning. “I was thinking about what kinds of films I want to make, and what kinds of meanings I want to put in the films,” he says. “I thought about it deeply.”
Well, his extraordinary mysterythriller is a) twisting with thoughts and themes, and b) worth the wait. An adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s short story Barn Burning, it sees country boy Jong-su (Yoo Ah-in) fall for the ebullient Haemi (Jeon Jong-seo), only for her to start hanging out with the rich and worldly Ben (Steven Yeun). Heavy-hearted Jong-su is permitted to tag along, and his confusion and resentments are only stoked when he begins to suspect that Ben is a sociopathic arsonist.
“It’s happening everywhere in the world,” muses Lee when asked if his ambiguous, otherworldly film is designed to plug into the malaise and rage brought about by South Korea’s severe socio-economic divide. “In the past, class system and inequality were very clear. As time goes by, it’s more covered. Now, everyone has mobile phones. But in real life, the gap is there,
and it’s even bigger than before. People feel useless and feel anger but they don’t know where their anger is directed.”
The best reviewed film at this year’s Cannes, Burning so swirls with dense mystery and thick atmosphere that it might irk some people as much as it inflames the passion of others. Did a fear of alienating viewers occupy a corner of Lee’s pondering over those eight long years?
“Of course I was worried whether the audience would get my intentions,” he says. “The film follows lots of situations – sociologically, politically – and there are complex life issues. There are things we can see and things we cannot, and there is no logical ending. But it is representing the modern life, what is happening at the moment.”
ETA | 1 FEBRUARY / BURNING OPENS NEXT YEAR.