Burning

Dir: Lee Chang-dong

2018

*****

It is fair to say that I was sold on the film as soon as I heard that it was a Lee Chang-dong adaption of a Haruki Murakami story. Japanese broadcaster NHK, which owns the rights to Murakami work, approached Lee Chang-dong and asked that he’s pick any Haruki Murakami story he wanted and to adapt it as he saw fit. I believe there were a few disputes between Murakami and NHK but in my opinion, Chang-dong absolutely captures the mood and essence of the author’s style. Chang-dong decided to adapt the short story Barn Burning from Murakami’s The Elephant Vanishes – a collection of short stories. The film itself could be called The Slow-Burning as it slowly lures the viewer in, building up the characters but without giving away any of the mystery. It’s an absorbing work of psychological unease, there are scattered clues along the way but this certainly isn’t Agatha Christie, it is pure Murakami from start to finish and exactly what I see when I read his novels. The story’s protagonist is an aspiring young novelist called Lee Jong-su (played by Yoo Ah-in). He’s shy, quiet and somewhat awkward but we soon understand that he’s more of a thinker than a speaker but is certainly brighter than he often appears. After finishing university he find himself working odd jobs in Paju. One day he runs into Shin Hae-mi (Jeon Jong-seo), a childhood neighbor and classmate whom he does not remember at first. She is working as a promotions girl, dancing in a mini-skirt outside a busy supermarket. When she realises he doesn’t quite remember her she tells him she had plastic surgery. Later, as they have dinner together, she tells him about her upcoming trip to Africa, and asks him to feed her cat, Boil (named so because he was found in the boiler room of her building), while she is away. Jong-su's father, a cattle farmer, is in prison awaiting trial for assaulting an officer over legal affairs, and Jong-su has to return to the farm he grew up on but he agrees to travel to her apartment every day to feed her cat none the less. Jong-su meets Hae-mi' at her apartment, where she gives him instructions about feeding the cat, who remains unseen. Unexpected to Jong-su, Hae-mi seems to have lured him there for sex and the two copulate for the rest of the afternoon. After Hae-mi departs, Jong-su dutifully feeds her cat, although he never sees it. He does, however, know that a cat is there because he finds feces in the cat's litter box. He also begins habitually masturbating in her apartment, looking out of her window as he does, thinking about the intimate afternoon they spent together. One day Hae-mi calls, saying she had become stranded at Nairobi Airport for three days after a terror warning. When Jong-su comes to pick her up from the airport, she arrives with Ben (Steven Yeun), whom she met and bonded with during the crisis. The three go out for dinner, where Hae-mi recalls a sunset she witnessed during her travels. Moved by the memory, she cries and confesses that she wanted to disappear. Ben is well-off and confident, though it is never entirely clear what he does for a living. Jong-su, struggling to get by and taking care of his family farm while his father is in prison, envies Ben and his relationship with Hae-mi from afar. Hanging out at Jong-su's farm, Hae-mi recalls a childhood memory wherein Jong-su rescued her after she fell into a well near her home, which Jong-su does not remember. The trio smoke cannabis and Hae-mi dances topless in a rather trippy scene that feels like a tribute from Lee Chang-dong to European cinema. After Hae-mi falls asleep on the sofa, Ben confesses a strange hobby. Every two months, he burns an abandoned greenhouse. He notes that Jong-su's rural neighborhood is full of greenhouses. When asked when his next burning will take place, Ben claims it will be very soon and close to Jong-su's house. Jong-su tells Ben that he loves Hae-mi, but later berates Hae-mi for disrobing in front of other men. Hae-mi quietly gets into Ben's car and as they leave Jong-su tells Ben he will keep an eye on the greenhouses in his area. Over the following days, Jong-su keeps watch around the neighborhood to see if any greenhouses burn down, but none do. One afternoon, in front of an intact greenhouse that he happens to be inspecting he receives a call from Hae-mi, which cuts off after a few seconds of ambiguous noises. Jong-su becomes worried as she does not answer any of his calls afterwards, and begins to investigate after her phone number becomes disconnected. Eventually he convinces the landlady to let him into Hae-mi's apartment so that he can feed her cat. Hae-mi's apartment is unnaturally clean, her pink suitcase remains but all signs of the cat are gone. Jong-su begins stalking Ben, staking out his apartment and following him to see where he goes. When he sees Ben's Porsche parked outside a restaurant he goes inside to confront him. A young woman suddenly approaches the table, apologizing to Ben for being late. As the three of them leave the restaurant, Jong-su asks Ben if he has heard from Hae-mi and whether she had gone on a trip. Ben says he has not heard from her, and he doubts she had gone on a trip. One day, Ben finds Jong-su outside his place and invites him up to his apartment, where he finds that he has a new cat which he claims is a rescued stray. Jong-su's suspicions are raised further when on a visit to the toilet he finds a watch, similar to the one he had given Hae-mi, hidden in a drawer containing other pieces of women’s jewelry. Shortly afterwards, Ben's cat runs out of the apartment and Jong-su finds that it answers to "Boil", the same name as Hae-mi's cat. Jong-su asks to meet Ben in the countryside, claiming he is with Hae-mi. After Ben sees that Hae-mi is not there, Jong-su stabs Ben several times, killing him. Jong-su douses Ben's car and body in gasoline and sets it all aflame, tossing his blood-soaked clothes in as well. He stumbles naked to his truck and drives off. It’s a rather enigmatic affair and much of the mystery is unanswered, but then that really isn’t the point. It is intentionally ambiguous and it is about the bigger picture, the one where we are all still looking for answers. Life doesn’t always have the answers but as Hae-mi says in her pantomime, Once you convince yourself something's there, it's hard to believe that it's not. I think that is where Murakami was coming from, via William Faulkner's 1939 story "Barn Burning" and of course The Great Gatsby. Indeed, Lee Chang-Dong described the film as "the story of a young Faulkner living in the Murakami world." The film is mysterious but it really tells you all you need to know, especially in lines such as "the gaping holes in the chain of events, the missing piece from which we can never know the truth, alludes to the mysterious world we live in now; the world in which we sense that something is wrong but cannot quite put a finger on what the problem is". It’s clearly a personal story to Murakami, as our protagonist is a writer and the film is both a tribute to two of his biggest inspirations; Faulkner and F. Scott Fitzgerald. I’m glad Lee Chang-Dong respected this, but then it is probably one of the reasons he himself loved it in the first place. Each character gives the audience something to ponder and even in the most ordinary scenes, a fleeting character can give an insight to the mysteries of the universe and the faults of mankind. This is what happens when two great artists collide, Burning is utterly absorbing and is a modern day masterpiece.

Poetry (Shi)

Dir: Lee Chang-dong

2010

*****

Poetry's greatest achievement is that is raises many questions while it avoids answering them, the downfall for many a film but perfectly handled here thanks to writer and director Lee Chang-dong and his enigmatic mastery. It an exploration of the disorder of life and a look at modern society in comparison to the old ways - that aren't that much better - and vice versa. These slices of life are studied so delicately and so subtly, the film is almost like Poetry itself. Everything good that happens and everything bad that happens is, to a degree, a matter of opinion but how we view the world and each other is key in this masterful tale by master storyteller Lee Chang-dong. Jeong-hie Yun's performance is tender and understated and is probably my favourite performance of 2010, if not of all time. The story opens at a river where we see children playing on the bank. The body of a girl in a school uniform floats by. Yang Mi-ja (Yoon Jeong-hee), a 66-year-old grandmother, consults a doctor at a hospital who is concerned about her forgetfulness, referring her to a specialist. As she leaves the hospital she sees a woman manic with grief because her 16-year-old daughter has drowned. Though Mi-ja lives on government welfare, she has a small job taking care of a well-to-do elderly man who has had a stroke. At home, she cares for her ill-mannered 16-year-old grandson, Jong-wook (Lee David), whose divorced mother lives in Busan. When Mi-ja asks Wook about the girl from his class who drowned, Wook insists that he doesn't know her. When Mi-ja notices a poster advertising a poetry class at a local community center, she decides to enroll. The course assignment is to write one poem by the end of the month-long course. At the suggestion of her teacher, she begins writing notes about the things she sees, especially flowers. Wook frequently leaves home at odd hours to socialize with five other boys from school. One night, he invites all of them over without notifying Mi-ja, who nevertheless tries to be a gracious host, offering them a snack before they disappear into Wook's bedroom. Later, one of the boys' fathers insists that Mi-ja join him and the other boys' fathers for a meeting. She is told that the group of boys have repeatedly raped a girl, Agnes, over the past six months, before she jumped off a bridge into a river and drowned. Her diary was discovered, though only four members of the school's faculty are aware of the situation. The fathers fear retribution for their boys, and the school fears a scandal that will tarnish its reputation. In order to avert a full police investigation, the parents of the boys offer to pay a settlement of 30 million won to the widowed mother, a poor farmer. Mi-ja, who cannot afford her 5 million won portion of the payment, is pressured to ask her daughter (Wook's mother) for the money. Though Mi-ja occasionally speaks to her daughter on the phone, she does not mention the situation. When Mi-ja is diagnosed with early stage Alzheimer's disease, she again neglects to tell anyone. She attempts to confront Wook about his actions, but he simply ignores her. Mi-ja begins attending a local weekly poetry reading. A brash man frequently reads beautiful poetry at these readings, but follows them with crude sexual jokes that offend Mi-ja. Another amateur poet explains to Mi-ja that the man is a policeman with a good heart, and was recently reassigned from Seoul after exposing corruption within its police force. Mi-ja temporarily quits her job caring for the elderly stroke victim after he makes a desperate sexual advance toward her. She later returns after a journey to the bridge where Agnes jumped, and her hat flies off into the water. She walks down to the riverbank and sits, writing poetry until it begins raining. Dripping wet, she returns to the elderly man, agreeing to have sex with him. When she does, she appears emotionless. In another meeting with the fathers, Mi-ja is elected to travel to the countryside to convince Agnes' mother to accept the settlement. Initially not finding her at home, Mi-ja eventually comes across her working in the field. Mi-ja begins raving about how beautiful the weather, flowers, trees, and fruit are, forgetting about the task at hand. The two have a pleasant exchange before Mi-ja turns and begins to walk away. Finally, she remembers that she was meant to confront the woman about the settlement, but is too embarrassed and continues to leave. A few days later, Mi-ja returns to the fathers to admit that she still cannot pay her portion of the settlement. Though annoyed that she still hasn't contributed her sum, the fathers are overjoyed that Agnes' mother has agreed to settle, despite Mi-ja's failure to confront her. Mi-ja asks the elderly man for the money she needs, refusing to tell him what it is for. Wondering if this is Mi-ja's attempt at extortion, he pays her. Once the settlement has been paid to Agnes' mother, Mi-ja phones her daughter to come home, and insists that Wook shower and cut his nails. That night, the crude policeman from the weekly poetry readings appears with his partner to take Wook away. Mi-ja does not protest. The film concludes with Mi-ja's poetry teacher discovering a bouquet of flowers on the class podium with her poem, "Agnes's Song", but Mi-ja herself is not present. Her daughter returns to an empty home, and calls Mi-ja's phone, but receives no answer. The teacher begins to read Mi-ja's poem to the class. Mi-ja speaks in voice-over, though the voice of Agnes herself takes over midway through, following Agnes from the science lab, where she was raped, to the bus, to the bridge where she is to jump. Agnes turns to the camera, half-smiling, leaving Mi-ja's fate on an ambiguous note. In many respects the film feels like a visualisation of the phrase ‘Don’t forget to stop and smell the flowers’ but it also feels like a reminder that you can never walk away from duty or escape inevitability. You can address your responsibilities as well as smell the flowers, even with the shadow of horror upon you. Life is like poetry, poetry is a small piece of captured life and life, and thus poetry, is a collection of all things, whether they be bad or good. Lee Chang-dong has an amazing way of exploring such subjects through the most unusual and often dark corners of life. There is horror and there is beauty, again, there are no answers but plenty of food for thought.