Burning * * * *

   

Jong-su, Hae-mi and Ben casually accept my praise. Indeed!

        I won't spoil things by telling you about the end of this film, mainly because I don't know what happened.   The friends who I saw it with say they know; to them it was clear as day. But for me, when it was all over I wasn't sure if  the protagonist had made a terrible mistake or got things right.
       However, prior to that we had nearly 150 minutes of story.
       This Korean film from director Lee Chang-dong opened this week with much praise "You gotta see it" all the reviews are saying. I was pleased to note that some agree with me about the ambiguity of the final scenes, but I too would highly recommend testing your bladder and taking the time to view this modern story adapted from the book of the same name.
        It's a bit of a thriller mystery.  A young man Jong-su, is going through a rough trot. He is from a humble farm and is now working as a delivery driver, but he has aspirations of being a writer. One day he meets a girl who he knew from Junior High, Hae-mi. She's done an ugly duckling to swan routine. Now she is beautiful and wants to be an actress.  She talks about the skill of mime.  "It's not pretending that something is there, but rather, forgetting that it is not there."  She seduces him and Jong-su finds himself falling for her.
       Meanwhile Jong-su's father is put in jail so Jong-su has to return to the small farm to run it himself.  Not really the most glamorous of jobs.  Hae-mi announces she is going to Africa, for  no reason other than the experience of it.  Life continues in a boring and uneventful way for Jong-su.
         But then he gets a phone call out of the blue: Hae-mi is coming home early. When Jong-su picks her up from the airport she introduces him to her new found friend Ben, a handsome charming and confident man. We learn he is also independently wealthy, though we don't know how.  As Jong-su observes, he's like The Great Gatsby - something isn't adding up.  But Hae-mi is spending all her time with Ben and Ben's glamorous circle of friends and Jong-su is feeling rejected, so has Jong-su really got a handle on Ben, or is he simply feeling jealous?
       Hae-mi goes missing and Jong-su is concerned about her.  Her phone always goes to voicemail.  Ben is cool about it.  He tells Jong-su to chill, she's probably just gone off to another country or whatever. Really what business is it of anybody else what she does with her life? But Jong-su has other suspicions and starts to pursuit them....
        Okay, so that's the story more or less.  But the beauty of this film is in the telling of it. The meditative atmosphere in so many scenes. The unapologetic length of scenes, which at times are really quite magical.  Also extraordinary is the subtle conveyance of lies and insecurity.  You just can't be sure about anything, and then there are the many clues (or are they red herrings?)
        In one scene an inebriated Hae-mi shows how a dance is done by the natives in the Kalahari Desert to express two hungers - one of the body and one of the soul. Jong-su and the others are fascinated, but Ben is visibly bored.   Later another girl gives a demonstration on two things which are done in China where contempt and aloofness is conveyed in regard to money.  Again, Ben is visibly bored by this animated demonstration whilst everyone else is entranced or amused.
        There is a veritable bounty of beautiful and intriguing scenes in this film; not to mention the many symbolic scenes reminding us of the title, from smoking cigarettes and pot to cigarette lighters to arson, to Hae-mi dancing unclothed with a fiery sunset as the backdrop.  Then there is the obsession with an obscure well (the counter to something burning?) Indeed the slow build is like a burning in itself.
         In the end, I really didn't mind if I got it right or wrong or if I'm right or wrong in admitting I don't know.  The journey was good enough.