I seem to remember Gatsby also featuring a couple times in Norwegian Wood. And when she disappears, we feel a void. His love for movies and production has led him to write his well-received film explanation and analysis articles to help everyone appreciate the films better. In some ways, Rebecca ends very differently than most murder stories. Hae-mi decides that she’s going to disappear from her current life and move elsewhere and start over. Analyzing its influences reveals Burning to be a sizzling commentary on class struggle and resentment,… They relocate to a different farm, but the father quickly butts heads with the owner there. His life and house are one to yearn for, but when you go after materialistic goals, you are seldom happy once you achieve them. The final blow comes when Jong-su calls her a wh*re. So the idea of vanishing and starting a new life has been brewing in her head for a while. Jong-su knows that there is no pressing evidence against Ben. It seems that Lee Chang-dong was not satisfied with using a passive protagonist. Lee Chang-dong is by no means the most prolific of the many great South Korean directors to come to major prominence in the 21st Century: Burning, his sixth feature, comes to us after a long eight-year gap since his fifth, 2010's lovely Poetry.But he does maybe put up a real fight to be considered one of the most important filmmakers from that nation - he directed 2002's Oasis, the … Jong-su is no Nick, no writer. Why does Jong-su kill Ben? This angle explores the metaphorical nature of the movie Burning. The well is an outstanding element of misdirection. This was probably just before her death. Hae-mi is constructed as an unreliable character in the movie Burning. He tells Jong-su that he’s scouting for his next target and that it is “very close” to Jong-su. Everything from finding Hae-mi’s watch in Ben’s bathroom, to confirming the cat to be Boiler, to killing and burning Ben is part of the story in the novel.Â. The film is centered on Jong-su, who wants to become an author. Nevertheless, I was very intrigued by how the film would play out after first learning about it. In Faulkner, ‘barn burning’ as a concept works in the opposite way. Burning Movie: What was real, and what was part of Jung-su’s novel? 04/07/2019 A24. The Great Hunger dance scene is pivotal to the movie Burning not only because it cinematically captures the duality of life, both light and dark, it is also the last time we see Hae-mi. One is literally, where Ben is a sociopath serial killer, he has murdered Hae-mi, and Jong-su takes his revenge by killing Ben. So good. Jong-su misunderstands this as an actual greenhouse, but as he confirms, no greenhouses in his vicinity have been torched. Hae-mi decides that she’s going to disappear from her current life and move elsewhere and start over. In Murakami, ‘barn burning’ is a metaphor for the careless exploitation the upper class against the lower class. I think he wanted Jong-su to find them. Everything from there is only part of the book’s fictional story. Burning, the South Korean film by Lee Chang-dong, is a film deeply indebted to three literary inspirations. Here’s the thing, though. Going Out With a Bang. The writer only continues searching for a burnt-out barn he’ll never find. Burning, the South Korean film by Lee Chang-dong, is a film deeply indebted to three literary inspirations. Now, a war takes these forms of violence to a new extreme, destroying society and its infrastructure altogether. Burning Cane is a 2019 American drama film written and directed by Phillip Youmans in his feature directorial debut. It’s safe to say that everything up until that night they spend at Jung-su’s place is real and is also part of his book. The landowner takes off after the father on horseback, and in the distance the boy hears a gunshot. The patriarch of the family, a civil war veteran, is prone to rage and resentment; he retaliates against his land-owning employers for any perceived slight. The film’s ending, with its jealous murder, is decidedly not. While Jong-su assumes that Hae-mi is in a serious relationship with Ben, that is not the case. But these qualities put him at an intellectual remove, unable to stop any of the novel’s tragedies from playing out. There has to be a catch! But even his literary tastes betray him-he lists Faulkner as his favorite writer, a nod to the story’s influence. For two short stories named after the same act of arson, Murakami and Faulkner’s works could not be more different, and Burning simmers with a narrative tension generated by the combination of two conflicting stories. As Jong-su begins writing his book, it ends up being about his own life, and the story is centered around a mysterious wealthy guy. Jong-su’s mother, however, remembers a well, but she herself is a wreak and highly unreliable.Â. The end. He runs into a girl who used to be a neighbour when they were kids. If you like Bong Joon-ho’s films like Parasite and Snowpiercer, you’ll like this one. ( Log Out /  Jong-su’s mother, however, remembers a well, but she herself is a wreak and highly unreliable.Â, So what is the relevance of the well? The Great Gatsby follows Nick Carraway, a veteran from the Midwest, as he explores the upper crust and seedy underbelly of New York. Grotesque figures of doomed people. Burning Movie Plot Explained: Ben is a serial killer, Burning Movie: Clues that point towards Ben being a serial killer, Ben claims that he has never shed a tear in his life, that he’s never felt sadness.Â. If the article doesn’t answer all of your questions, drop me a comment or an FB chat message, and I’ll get you the answer to your question. You can find other films using the search option on top of this page. The novel’s ending depicts the inevitable self-destruction of such an oppressive society. This seems to be part of Ben’s process to eventually kill his victim. It is a microcosm of South Korea, which has been permanently altered by the influence of Japan and the USA. Sometimes you even wonder if she’s just taken on a false name to mess around with Jong-su. She is a married working class woman who is deeply unhappy with her life. The dissonance is inherent in the meaning behind the stories’ titles. You might also like. It’s a long film and has both literal and metaphorical components. For someone as meticulous as Ben, it seems odd that he left his kill trophies in the bathroom out in the open. Jong-su kills and burns Ben to seek revenge.Â. This could be Ben’s decision that his time has come, and he’d rather die at the hands of someone of his choice. Burning Cane, 2019. He tries to get ahold of Hae-mi, but she won’t answer her door or her phone. We examine the provocative and artful Annihilation ending, the new sci-fi … The short story is consistent with Murakami’s usual style; it is full of mystery and an undercurrent of violence that never quite breaches the surface. There's a lot to unpack, and we don't just mean bear entrails. The other angle is that Ben is not a killer, Hae-mi has just moved on and created a new life for herself elsewhere and what we see towards the end of the Burning movie is the story of the novel that Jong-su is writing. Jong-su’s upbringing is as constricting as Faulkner’s tales of poverty; his family’s social class holds him back and fills him with shame. The well is one such event she brings up from the past, which is mysterious. As the director mentions, Jong-su belongs to one end of the spectrum, the struggling working-class. Despite his wealth, Ben seems to be a genuine guy. The ending’s inspiration can loosely be found in another short story—one that shares the same name as Murakami’s. She seeks refuge in an affair with Tom Buchanan, a brutish man who comes from old money. ye video mystery movie BURNING ka explaination hai. She leaves everything behind and moves away. Ben is not literally burning greenhouses. If the article doesn’t answer all of your questions, drop me a comment or an FB chat message, and I’ll get you the answer to your question. Though he has feelings for her, he never expresses them to her. Hae-mi is constructed as an unreliable character in the movie Burning. It’s safe to say that everything up until that night they spend at Jung-su’s place is real and is also part of his book. And Murakami’s writer is much the same. – What was real, and what was part of Jung-su’s novel? While Jong-su assumes that Hae-mi is in a serious relationship with Ben, that is not the case. The short story and film share the same core character dynamics. The film opens with a young Korean man, named Jong-su (played by Yoo Ah-in), running into Hae-mi (Jeon Jong-seo), a childhood acquaintance from the rural farms where they both grew up. Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com. Pedestrians regularly get mowed down by speeding vehicles. In case you’re new to my site, here’s how it works. However, in Jong-su’s novel, he’s decided that Ben is a killer. She then informs him she’s about to leave for a vacation, and asks him to watch her cat. By Tom Nicholson. He sees himself as a man possessing good values and a rational head. He likes to burn down the barns—more likes shabby greenhouses, he clarifies—found on farms in the rural suburbs. And after the woman disappears and the writer has spoken with the other man, the story ends. Back to Burning, the movie seems to get tons of positive reviews among critics so I took a shot today. This could be Ben’s decision that his time has come, and he’d rather die at the hands of someone of his choice. But the film’s plot grows increasingly tawdry, almost like a boilerplate thriller. Change ), How Burning’s Literary Influences Explain its Ending. Sometimes you even wonder if she’s just taken on a false name to mess around with Jong-su. Ultimately, her connection to Tom gets her killed when she is accidentally hit by a car. The message of the story is that poverty and disenfranchisement can rob a man of his humanity, leaving him a husk of rage and resentment. This is not shown in the film, but the director insinuates that the movie Burning’s ending is probably Jong-su’s novel.Â. The root of Burning’s dissonance can be found in the choice to combine the works of Murakami and Faulkner. Burning Cane is a compelling look at weighty themes -- and a remarkably assured debut from an impressively talented young filmmaker. Hae-mi’s cat, Boiler, is in Ben’s house, and he lies that he brought a stray cat home. Much of what she says leaves both the audience and Jong-su questioning her authenticity. – Why did Ben show up to the rendezvous if he had killed Hae-mi? Hence, Jong-su takes matters into his own hands like his father, who is in jail because of his anger issues. Her grief-stricken husband George attempts to avenge her death by shooting the man he believes responsible before killing himself. Yet the ending also offers a specter of hope. The son is restrained by his mother, but he breaks free and rushes off to warn the landowner. While Ben is a cultured, wealthy guy, the novel presents a dark side by making him a serial killer. He is a man who is witnesses a deed of great evil, but is too blinded by the manners of the perpetrator to even acknowledge his darkness. Without reading these stories, Burning could be dismissed as a melodramatic thriller, albeit one that is filmed with a mysterious and eye-pleasing aesthetic. Instead, Jong-su is quick to ask her to go with Ben and pulls her bags out of his truck. Click to browse all his film articles, In case you’re new to my site, here’s how it works. They met while on the same vacation in Africa. She leaves everything behind and moves away. Burning simmers. Alone with Jong-su, Ben confesses that he has a strange habit. ( Log Out /  Hae-mi is missing, and her room is neat and tidy, which is unlike her, but more like Ben. It’s like we were waiting for it. Jong-su also asks him why he hasn’t burnt down a barn yet. When I first saw Burning, I was struck by the discordance between the dreamy, contemplative cinematography and the plot, which towards the end felt like an old-fashioned thriller. Jong-su begins running around his neighborhood, keeping track of the local barns and looking for one that has burned down. Instead, Jong-su is quick to ask her to go with Ben and pulls her bags out of his truck. Both stories portray love triangles and violence that crosses social class barriers. For someone as meticulous as Ben, it seems odd that he left his kill trophies in the bathroom out in the open. Why did Ben show up to the rendezvous if he had killed Hae-mi? Unfortunately, he seems very neutral and displays no fight inside him for her.Â. We are shown one scene from the perspective of Ben, where he ritualistically prepares another girl by using makeup. Honestly speaking, there is a third angle – North Korean Propaganda. Here, the agent of justice, Colonel Julyan, actually seems to help cover up the crime, and Mr. and Mrs. de Winter both go free. Korea emphasizes on getting career jobs and that going hand in hand with your worth to society. The Burning movie’s cast has Ah-In Yoo, Jong-seo Jun, and Steven Yeun in the leading roles. Jong-su finds Ben and asks him about her disappearance, but he acts unconcerned and implies that a girl like Hae-mi would not be missed. Seoul-based auteur Lee Chang-dong made a much anticipated return to the Cannes Film Festival in May with the world premiere of Burning, his sixth feature and first film in eight years. South Korea exploded in economic growth, but it is still plagued by deep income inequality, and many South Koreans still struggle in poverty. It isn’t clear whether Hae-mi is dating either of the men, and the trio strike up an uneasy friendship. Like Faulkner’s protagonist, Jong-su witnessed his father committing acts of arson when he was young–setting all his mother’s belongings on fire when she abandoned the family. The reason she does up her room like that is to make it feel like she never lived there, like she never existed. When Ben offers Hae-mi a drop home, she expects Jong-su to step up and say that he would drop her. Only plausible deniability and his own son’s refusal to testify save him from a guilty sentence. To me, it appears that Ben was fond of Jong-su, and it feels as if he allowed himself to be caught by him. At the end, when Jong-su is stabbing Ben, he doesn’t resist; instead, he hugs him. They live far outside of Seoul, in a rural town within earshot of the border to North Korea, a country of abject poverty and ruthless oppression. The wealthy man already has everything he could ever want, but he still feels drawn to acts of destruction against the lower class, whether it be arson or murder. . That’s when I noticed a few new details that I hadn’t picked up on before.The new boyfriend of the narrator’s female friend is noticeably wealthy. Murakami’s protagonist is a successful, married writer; he spends time with the woman, who in the short story is younger than him, more so as a way to have fun than out of genuine love for her. In the past century, the region that became South Korea suffered two brutal occupations, first by Japan from 1910-1945, and the second by the USA from 1950-1953 during the Korean War. In the sense, it might have been a stray that visited her room and not her pet. This notion about her is used to provide the element of surprise when Jong-su calls the cat by the name Boiler, and it responds.Â. The story begins in a courtroom, where he is on trial for burning down a barn. It needed to be folded into the American stories of post-civil war violence and the hopelessness of escaping poverty before it would make sense taking place in present day Seoul. Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. Even the women’s accessories are not substantial evidence. The film stars Wendell Pierce, Karen Kaia Livers, Dominique McClellan and Braelyn Kelly.Set in rural Louisiana, we follow Helen Wayne, a deeply religious mother, as she tries to mend both her self-destructive son and the alcoholic pastor of her church. Ben, on the other hand, is a successful character much in the lines of the Great Gatsby. "Burning" takes place in a world of fluctuating and amorphous borders, invisible yet pressing in on the characters. They head back to Hae-mi’s tiny studio apartment, where they sleep together. Ben always seems to be in the company of women like Hae-mi, who exhibit no restraint and are free souls unashamed to express their thoughts and feelings. She makes ends meet by taking up odd jobs, lives on credit, but is the only character who is looking for the meaning of life. To me, it appears that Ben was fond of Jong-su, and it feels as if he allowed himself to be caught by him. It feels like it’s adapted from an entirely different story. ( Log Out /  As Ben mentions, he sees it not as a crime but as an act of nature. Though he has feelings for her, he never expresses them to her. ( Log Out /  She claims to have fallen into that well when she was 7-years-old and that Jong-su was the one who spotted her. – What does Ben mean by Burning Greenhouses? While in reality, Hae-mi just left, Jung-su tries to give her disappearance a reason in his book – Ben. We are not shown anything negative about Ben. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Jong-su is aspirational; he wants to be a cosmopolitan writer. Burning, or Beoning, is a 2018 Korean Crime Drama directed by Lee Chang-dong. : the Mumblers, small child like creatures ( that we call the Greychildren in the movie,) Harry Mason meets them … But the power dynamics have shifted. The film’s cinematography is luxurious, soft, and patient. Barry is a technologist who helps start-ups build successful products. Read critic reviews. Ben’s bathroom has a box filled with women’s accessories. While Jong-su can’t identify any evident bad traits about Ben in real life, in his book, he bestows upon him a dark side, a serial killer. To keep things tidy, we'll focus on the last three paragraphs here. Ben says ‘yes,’ and that ‘it’s quite close’ by Jong-su’s house. But the way he says this to Jong-su, it feels apologetic in some way. He sees himself as a writer like the one in Murakami’s story, but in the shadow of Ben’s opulence, he has more in common financially with Faulkner’s hapless young boy. For nearly two-and-a-half perfectly measured hours, it turns up the heat without boiling over: a drama becoming a thriller in slow motion, intensifying little by little minute by minute, until finally it reaches a shocking, powerful crescendo. They all drink, and soon Hae-mi passes out. In Murakami, there is the same trio, the same confessional moment on the farm where the protagonist learns of the other man’s barn burning, and the subsequent disappearance of the girl. The family owns a farm, but they are not much better off than Faulkner’s sharecropping family. After the war, South Korea emerged as a nation separate from its Northern territory. He considers women who are nurturing, warm and looking for the true meaning of life to be metaphorical greenhouses. Thanks so much for this! The message of the story is that the wealthy cannot help but take from the poor, even when there is nothing of value the poor can give. – Burning Movie Plot Explained: The End was Jong-su’s novel. The ending of "Barn Burning" is intriguing. Wonder Woman 1984: Ending explained, postcredits scene and unanswered questions. Usually, the murderer is either killed or caught, most often by some agent of justice. And the result is explosive-a violent murder and a blazing fire. The neighbour also says the same thing. They share similar protagonists-men of good means and education who act as witnesses to the story’s events. WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Brightburn, in theaters now.. At the end, when Jong-su is stabbing Ben, he doesn’t resist; instead, he hugs him. The father attacks his employers as payback for the indignity of working as a sharecropper, a position of indentured servitude. Written and Directed by Phillip Youmans. Ben says he enjoys locating greenhouses and burning them to the ground. In the film, Jong-su tells Hae-mi that Ben reminds him of a character from an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel—Jay Gatsby. Burning Movie Plot Explained: The End was Jong-su’s novel. “Burning” is a beautifully built film that manages to balance the multiple tones and genres of romance, mystery and horror. After this announcement, Ben and Hae-mi leave. Somehow, as viewers, even we feel completeness to the calm, rich, well-mannered gentleman, Ben, when we’re shown that he could be a serial killer. The first half was slow and typical love triangle movie. He’s regularly available for a chat conversation on his website and consults on storyboarding from time to time. The second half seems like an OK crime film. Ben corrects him and says that he has burned down the barn, commenting enigmatically that perhaps Jong-su couldn’t see it because it was too close to him. The story ends with the son alone in the gloom of a nearby woods, grieving his father’s death. He refers to his job as “playing”. The neighbour also says the same thing. Perhaps he felt that Murakami’s story didn’t quite fit when set in South Korea. He seems to be a perfect gentleman. You can find other films using the search option on top of this page. I think Burning is a movie that represents that state that society sees the different classes. I was curious how his short story handled the tale a jilted lover seeking revenge against his love’s killer. movie review Updated Oct. 24, 2018. I’d got as far as the Murakami/Faulkner influences but Gatsby and the American/Japanese history in Korea was tuly insightful. Increasingly convinced that Ben is responsible for Hae-mi’s disappearance, Jong-su begins tailing him, ultimately luring him out to the countryside and murdering him, lighting fire to his sports car to dispose of the evidence. We don’t know what Ben does for a living, but he does have an odd way to describe it. What did you think about the movie Burning and its ending? Jong-su has no memory of this. Blitz Spirit: Independent Short Film Review, Dogtooth Ending Explained (With Plot Analysis), Mulholland Drive: Explained Simply (With Character Map), 10 Best Sci-fi Horror Movies (A Must-Watch List), I Lost My Body: Explained Simply (2019 Netflix), Parallel Movie Explained (Plot-holes and Fixes), Starfish Movie Recommendation and Explanation, Tenet Explained Simply (With Timeline Diagrams), Annihilation (2018) : Movie Plot Ending Explained, Los Cronocrímenes / Timecrimes (2007) : Movie Plot Ending Explained, Ben mentions to Jong-su about his “hobby” of burning greenhouses. It makes us think that Hae-mi is a compulsive liar and that she may have been lying about her cat too. William Faulkner’s “Barn Burning,” set in the late 19th century American South, is about a young boy and his agrarian family as they struggle to support themselves off the income from sharecropping. But then she meets Jong-su and hopes to have found love. Jong-su still lives on his father’s farm in the suburbs, and one day Hae-mi and Ben visit him for a casual get-together. He is like poor George Wilson, trapped in the social class he was born into, avenging the death of his lover because he has been given no other option. The reason she does up her room like that is to make it feel like she never lived there, like she. They are both working menial jobs in Seoul, but Jong-su tells her he’s trying to make it as a writer. While watching the film, it is apparent that all of the filmmakers involved are extremely talented. But that can’t be true, can it? It is drawn from Murakami’s tale of mannered bourgeois violence, where all the ugliness is hidden away. The story culminates with his father storming off to burn down yet another barn. Analyzing its influences reveals Burning to be a sizzling commentary on class struggle and resentment, the recent history of the Korean peninsula, and the paralyzing way that poverty robs individuals of free will. It wasn’t until I saw Phillip Youmans’ extraordinary debut feature, “Burning Cane,” that I began to fully grasp the inherent strangeness of this ritual. She claims to have fallen into that well when she was 7-years-old and that Jong-su was the one who spotted her. People in hell. It looks like Ben kills someone once in two months. From Murakami’s large body of work, Barn Burning may not be the most obvious choice for a film adaptation. Like his Faulknerian counterpart, Jong-su tries to support his father’s legal battle, petitioning his neighbors to vouch for his father’s character. She expresses herself in her raw form, happy and free, but gets called a wh*re by the one person she trusts most. Another explanation is that they are hallucinations. , Lee Chang-dong, there are two ways to explain the movie Burning. What keeps me stay till the end are conflicts and unanswered questions: the actual origin & disappearance of Hae Min, Did Ben really killed her? It is an act of retaliation perpetrated by the otherwise disenfranchised poor against their oppressors. is movie ki IMDB par rating hai 7.5 and it is 95% fresh on rotten tomato with 90% of metacritic score. Ben expresses that he felt jealousy for the first time when Hae-mi tells him that Jong-su is the only one she trusts. But nobo… The well is one such event she brings up from the past, which is mysterious. Jong-su has no memory of this. Why does Jong-su not go to the police? It appears that Hae-mi was raising the cat secretly as pets were not allowed in the building. Jong-su loyally does so, even though he never sees a cat in the tiny apartment. Jong-su asks him if he has his next barn picked out. There is a minor character in The Great Gatsby named Myrtle Wilson. Here are links to the key aspects of the movie: Based on what is stated by the director, Lee Chang-dong, there are two ways to explain the movie Burning. Steven Yeun Makes His Leading-Man Korean Film Debut in Burning. In creating a film about class inequality that is set in South Korea but adapted from American and Japanese sources, Lee Chang-dong draws a connection between those years of occupation and the severe income inequality in present day South Korea. Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia, the director of Netflix's new thriller The Platform, answers some of our burning questions about the ending of the film. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. The reference is lifted directly from the Murakami story where the writer makes the same connection, and it’s clear that Murakami was influenced by Fitzgerald’s novel of class violence in the roaring 20s America. In the opening credits, the film lists itself as an adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s short story called “Barn Burning.” I had read Murakami’s other works and was familiar with his style of ghostly magic realism and original stories. She introduces Ben (Steven Yeun) to Jong-su with the intention of spending time with both of them. When Hae-mi returns, she does so with another man, named Ben by her side. The son doesn’t want to lie, but his family pressures him to be complicit in his father’s crimes. There’s a scene when Jong-su receives a call from Hae-mi, and all he can hear is running and panting. Starring Wendell Pierce, Karen Kaia Livers, Dominique McClellan, Braelyn Kelly, … By Emily Yoshida. But in reading it, I discovered that the film diverged significantly from its listed inspiration. Let's look at how Diana Prince's latest DC adventure went down, some of … I’d be grateful to anyone who can provide their theories in the comments section below. Now, Burning is something of a (forgive me) slow burn—it takes two and a half hours to reach its devastating climax. There is no attempt to avenge his girlfriend’s disappearance by murdering the wealthy man. e.g. Faulkner’s burning resentment lashes out in reaction to Murakami’s burning exploitation. If he mentioned the cat, there would be no way to confirm it was Hae-mi’s as even the building admin didn’t know about the cat. Without reading these stories, Burning could be dismissed as a melodramatic thriller, albeit one that is filmed with a mysterious and eye-pleasing aesthetic. But in that meanwhile, Ben has murdered Hae-mi and gotten rid of her body. It feels like the coarseness of Faulkner’s doomed poverty is struggling to break out against Murakami’s style of veiled drama. Ben, on the other hand, is a successful character much in the lines of the Great Gatsby. The Very Upsetting Ending To 'Midsommar': Explained.