Film Review: <em>Burning</em>
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How does one endeavor to describe a movie that’s best to go into knowing absolutely nothing at all? This is a quandary that I, and I suspect many other reviewers, have to deal with regarding the exquisite film Burning. I walked into this film not knowing a thing about the movie other than it was at Cannes, costarred Steven Yeun, and was from a very popular South Korean director. Two and a half hours later I was bowled over, run through, and just thoroughly overjoyed at having seen one of the best films of the year.
Director Lee Chang-dong, directing from a script that was adapted from a Murakami short story, knows that the power in his story is in appearances. How do we perceive ourselves? How do we see others? What are we hiding in the simplest of interactions? Burning is a movie that stirs up it’s wonders in a brew and forces you to shift your focus, allegiance, and expectations with the simplest of camera moves or moments from its actors. Lee keeps this tale spinning so smoothly that you don’t even notice that the movie has been playing you until just the precise moment.
Yoo Ah-in, at least in these American eyes, doesn’t seem like your typical man, but his performance as Jong-su is amazing. He channels the angst of being a young man who is perhaps overly influenced by what must certainly be his first love. It’s through this obsession that the movie finds it’s center and perspective, and as Jong-su gets drawn deeper into the web of the tale, Yoo Ah-in brings it acting wise. This might be the closest thing we’ll get to the male version of the “Women Who (Maybe) Lie to Themselves” story and Yoo challenges us to form a view on the proceedings and match his fraying emotions.
The causes of this fraying are Hae-mi and Ben, played with revelatory verve by Jeon Jong-seo and Steven Yeun. These actors do some really difficult work in that they have to embody their characters three dimensionally AND serve as enough of a template for the character Jong-su to project the entire movie’s perspective on. Both actors acquit themselves amazingly well to this task. Yeun though, what to say about him but wow. His intensity and jovial nature perfectly fit a man for whom life has become easy, but also dull. He’s the fire the movie needs to go from a brilliant flame to an all consuming fire.
There are many other platitudes to lay at the feet of this movie (I am not sure you’ll find a more technically competent movie this fall) but it’s best to exit this review now. Just know that when you enter the theater to see the film, you’ll be getting a one of a kind experience.
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