BURNING directed by Lee Chang-dong (South Korea. 2019)
This quietly subversive and absorbing movie is based on the short story, Barn Burning, by Nobel laureate in waiting Haruki Murakami.
I haven’t read this but from a synopsis on Wikipedia it seems that the tale has been used as a stub from which the director has let his imagination flow freely. Lee Chang-dong appears to have added more than a few ideas and themes from The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle such as a missing woman, a mysterious garden well and an elusive cat.
The point of view in the film is that of Jong-su (Yoo Ah-in) who, when first seen, allows himself to be seduced by Hae-mi (Jeon Jong-sei), a young, vivacious girl he once knew at high school. He seems strangely complacent about such a stroke of luck and locked in a sad, solitary existence with unrealized dreams of becoming a novelist.
Hae-mi has a thirst for adventure and after a holiday to Africa returns with a suave yet swarthy man, Ben (Steven Yeun). Although it is unclear if these two are lovers, Joong-si understandably sees Ben as a rival.
The contrast in lifestyle between these two men couldn’t be greater. Jong-su drives a battered pick up truck, eats TV dinners, lives in a run-down farmyard shack and appears emotionally distant. Ben drives a Porsche, cooks his own meals while listening to ambient jazz, lives in an elegant city apartment and is supremely self confident.
On the face of it, the question as to who will end up winning the girl should be a no brainer. But in the world of Murakami nothing is ever quite as it seems. By the end we are left to wondering if the free spirit Hae-mi is actually serious about either of them, where Ben’s wealth comes from and what Jong-su really thinks of it all.
A Vogue reviewer glibly describes all this as a mystery about toxic masculinity. This is at best a shallow, simplistic interpretation and at worst a lazy, politically correct misreading with no basis in fact.
Neither man in the story is a great catch since both are so totally wrapped up in their own worlds. Just because men are in crisis does not necessarily make them toxic.
The ambiguities and mysteries accumulate as the slow moving plot unfolds. The violent and disturbing ending is strangely inevitable but leaves no real sense of closure and significantly more questions than answers.
