Lee Chang-dong’s Burning is an engrossing thriller and social critique that ranks among the best films from South Korean cinema due to its allegorical story, gripping narrative, and societal implications. Lee Chang-dong beautifully balances moral boundaries and classism with an ominous tone that creates the atmosphere for a memorable psychgolcial thriller. 

 

The story is based firmly on happenstances and relationships that have ambiguous backgrounds. The story's primary focus is on Jong-Su, a lower-class citizen in South Korea who aspires to be a writer while taking whatever jobs he can get to keep his family farm afloat. The inciting action is introduced rather quickly after Jong-Su runs into an old friend, Hae-Mi, whom he barely recognizes, primarily because of her plastic surgery. They reconnect, and Hae-Mi tells Jong-Su that she's embarking on a trip to Africa and asks if he could feed her cat while she's away, a simple task that Jong-Su agrees to while he finds himself attracted to Hae-Mi. 

 

The first example of the evergrowing motif in the film is when Hae-Mi shows Jong-Su her hobby of pantomiming. This scene is integral to the plot and can be interpreted in various ways. First, Hae-Mi tells Jong-Su the key to pantomiming with her hand:

 

“Don’t think there is a tangerine there… Just forget that there isn't one…the important thing is to think you really want one.” 

 

Hae-Mi then explains two terms to Jong-Su, the little and great hunger. Those with “little hunger” are literally people who are hungry, and great hunger is someone hungry for the meaning of life. Jong-Su responds, asking her if she’s going to Africa to meet the great hunger, to which Hae-Mi confirms in an unsure manner. What we receive from this seemingly simple but actually layered scene is the existential crisis that Hae-Mi is trying to solve for herself. Hae-Mi’s speech about pantomiming applies to Jong-Su’s struggles to distinguish certainties versus relying on his intuition and emotion.

 

They both travel back to Hae-Mi’s apartment, where they have sex a day before she departs for Africa. Lee Chang-dong’s cinematography and focus on Jong-Su’s mental state inform the audience that this sexual encounter was meaningful to him. Jong-u leaves food for the cat, and while he never sees it, he realizes the food is disappearing, confirming his belief that the cay exists without seeing it. This concept falls right back onto Hae-Mi’s pantomiming philosophy, Jong-Su never sees her cat but accepts it exists. Jong-Su returns to Hae-Mi’s apartment and masturbates, growing infatuated with her even while she’s gone. 

 

Hae-Mi returns to South Korea with an upper-class man named Ben accompanying her. Ben’s hyper-capitalist nouveau wealth is the striking opposite of both Hae-Mi and especially Jong-Su. This conflicting dynamic guides our understanding of Ben. At the same time, we learn more about his character, including the fact that his identity as an outsider invading the purity of South Korea is embodied in his English name. At first, Ben seems harmless, but we begin to receive subtle and sometimes disturbing details about his morality. Further in-depth exploration of Ben's psyche includes a scene where he tells Jong-Su and Hae-Mi he has never cried, and while Hae-Mi cries in front of him, claiming she wants to disappear from society, he even laughs; this is the first sign we have of Ben feeling superior towards lower class people, specifically Hae-Mi and his potential disregard of humanity. 

 

Ben’s arrival triggers a love triangle that frustrates Jong-Su. Jong-Su and Hae-Mi spend time with Ben’s friends, including a dinner where Hae-Mi gets up and dances, entertaining everyone, almost appearing as a jester for the wealthy crowd as Jong-Su watches displeased. They spend time in Ben’s luxurious apartment and higher-end cafes. Ben makes condescending remarks towards Hae-Mi during their time together in front of Jong-Su. Jong-Su even refers to him as Gatsby, telling Hae-Mi that South Korea is full of strange men who are young and mysteriously rich. It becomes increasingly revealing that Ben embodies the egotistical and narcissistic South Korean upper class. Ben’s lack of expression, condescending remarks, and inert philosophy paint a disturbing portrayal of a man. Also, because Korean American actor Steve Yeun plays Ben with an accent, it only accentuates his unnatural presence in the film.

 

Ben’s philosophy is explained during a visit to Jong-Su’s farm. Ben and Jong-Su sit outside, looking over the land as Ben suddenly reveals a sinister secret. The most revealing sequence I will go in-depth about is Ben’s discussion of his strange hobby, burning down greenhouses. Jong-Su, Hae-Mi, and Ben spend time smoking marijuana, and as Hae-Mi falls asleep, Jong-Su tells Ben a heartfelt speech about his life, and just as he finishes, Ben replies, “Sometimes I burn down Greenhouses.” Ben doesn’t acknowledge what Jong-Su even confided in him. He just speaks out calmly about his disturbing activity. He explains that he does this once every two months and can get away with it because the police don’t care about those types of things. Ben says that tons of unpleasant and filthy greenhouses are waiting for him to burn them down. He eloquently talks about the pleasure and bass he feels in his heart when he burns them down. He compares his hobby to rain, how it falls, creates floods, and washes people away without rights or wrongs, just the morals of nature. The conversation ends with an ominous atmosphere as Ben tells Jong-Su it is almost time to burn another greenhouse and that he came to his farm to scout it because it's very close by. This reveal makes Jong-Su worried about Ben’s maniacal behavior, reasoning, ethics, and egotistical nature. Jong-Su blurts out that he's in love with Hae-Mi and Ben giggles with contempt. Their conversation is cut short after Hae-Mi comes outside. 

 

After Jong-Su learns of Ben’s activities, he doesn’t directly confront Ben, but in the following days, it leads Jong-Su to drive around, checking in on all the greenhouses in his area to make sure Ben didn’t burn any down. After Jong-Su finds no evidence of burnt-down greenhouses, he doesn’t hear from Hae-Mi for some time and has a conversation with Ben about the whereabouts of Hae-Mi. Ben says he doesn’t know where she is, although he assured Jong-Su he burnt down a Greenhouse. He tells Jong-Su that one can’t realize things that are too close to them, insinuating even more that the greenhouse was, in fact, Hae-Mi. Ben’s fearless, confident admission that he burns down greenhouses represents the upper class’ privileges over lower-class citizens. Ben is bragging about his self-inflated abilities right to Jong-Su’s face, believing he won't get caught. 

 

Ben admits to Jong-Su that the close feelings Hae-Mi had for him made Ben jealous. Unconvinced that Ben is innocent, Jong-Su follows Ben around and even spends time with his friends one night, finding a piece of Hae-Mi’s jewelry in a box of other miscellaneous jewelry. Jong-Su also finds Hae-mi’s cat at Ben’s apartment as it responds to its original name, boil. These findings are enough to push Jong-Su over the edge and commit murder in the form of vigilante justice, stabbing Ben to death.

 

The fact that some viewers aren’t convinced that Ben is guilty or that he murdered Hae-Mi highlights Lee-Chang Dong’s expert direction. His direction depicts a compelling story that leaves the villain’s motivations and actions to interpretation without feeling contrived. 

​

The story of Burning is yet meditative and thought-provoking, leaving violence until the bitter end. Ben's egotistical and narcissistic character represents South Korea’s upper class and the government's history towards the middle and lower classes. Ben’s carelessness toward women is witnessed through a metaphor as he compares them to the greenhouses he burns himself. As the movie progresses, this metaphor becomes increasingly suspicious. The true nature of Ben’s crimes toward women is a growing belief within Jong-Su. The idea of women serving as greenhouses becomes an obsessive thought for Jong-Su. While at the film’s conclusion, there is no undeniable proof that Ben has killed Hae-Mi, Nevertheless, this disturbing hobby triggers Jong-Su’s suspicion. Still, he’s unaware Ben’s meaning goes beyond simply burning down greenhouses. After her disappearance, Jong-Su finds Hae-Mi’s watch in a drawer full of Women’s watches and her cat at Ben’s apartment, furthering his suspicion of Ben to the point of no return. Throughout the film, Ben seems to toy with Jong-Su, being entertained by him, as he pictures Jong-Su beneath him. Ben doubted Hae-Mi could afford a trip somewhere, signifying his contempt for someone of her class. Jong-Su acts on his intuition and the clues he can visually see while piecing together what he believes is morally just. In an act of vigilante justice, Jong-Su meets up with Ben and stabs him to death without even deciding to discuss the problem with him.  Jong-Su’s journey relied on him using the concept Hae-Mi presented to him at the beginning of the film. Even though Jong-Su can’t definitively prove the horrible acts, he assumes Ben has committed devious deeds. Through witnessing the drawer of women’s watches, the mysterious phone calls from Hae-Mi, and the dubious perspective of Ben, there was something nefarious about Ben’s motivations. Whether he murdered, human trafficked, or had nothing to do with Hae-Mi’s disappearance, Jong-Su's measures don’t seem irrational. Lee Chang-dong's commendable craftsmanship creates a layered villain with mysterious motivations that lead the audience to an elusive conclusion. 

 

Dong’s story feels deeply rooted in the dysfunctional, violent, and chaotic government of South Korea, not so distant past that he witnessed. The political violence during the 1970s in South Korea cannot go unnoticed when understanding Burning. The president of South Korea, Park Chung-hee was isolated and met with strong resistance from South Korean citizens and some officials. Economic struggles, middle-class protests, and political unrest caused a problematic climate for president Park to serve. In 1979 at a dinner gathering in Seoul, Park was shot and killed by his own chief of intelligence Kim Jae-gyu. 

This troubled past for South Korea also includes student protestors being waterboarded to death and riots leading the cause to change in the late 1990s after decades of struggle. In 2010, the South Korean government, shutting down any ability for him to craft films, blacklisted Dong. After ten years of being censored due to governmental leadership, he was finally cleared. After applying the history of South Korea to Dong's political and creative visions, it is no surprise that Burning marked his return to the big screen as a mysterious study of classism in modern South Korea.