Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
One of the best films of 2018—and one that you probably didn’t see—is now on Netflix: Burning. The psychological drama, originally titled Beoning, comes from celebrated South Korean director Lee Chang-dong and was shortlisted for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. It was the first Korean film to do so, but in the end, did not nab the nomination. Despite star power with Walking Dead‘s Steven Yeun—who co-starred alongside Yoo Ah-in and Jeon Jong-seo—and rave reviews from critics, Burning didn’t make a splash in American or Korean theaters.
“Director Lee has always held a mirror up to society, and that’s sometimes hard to ask people to come out and watch,” noted Yeun in a recent interview with Decider. “But what’s really great about his films is they have lasting impressions on society as a whole.”
Yeun has a point: Burning is not exactly a joyous escape from reality á la the epic superhero battles of Avengers: Endgame, which made a record-breaking $1.2 billion in the global box office this weekend. Instead, Burning, which is based on Haruki Murakami’s short story Barn Burning, examines the lives of three young people living in a time of uncertainty in South Korea. The main character is Jongsu (Yoo), a poor aspiring writer who reconnects with his childhood friend, Haemi (Jeon), a free-spirited young woman. After they sleep together in Haemi’s tiny studio, she asks Jongsu to feed her cat while she goes on a trip. Jongsu does, though he never actually sees the cat and spends much of his time alone in Haemi’s apartment masturbating.
When Haemi returns, she brings with her a new love interest, Ben (Yeun). Ben is rich, suave, cool and unfailingly polite which infuriates Jongsu to no end. At one point the three chill at Jongsu’s childhood home, smoking marijuana on deck chairs while a loudspeaker blasts propaganda from the North Korean border, just a few miles away. (A note from Yeun: Marijuana is extremely illegal in Korea, and therefore not treated lightly the way it is in America.) It’s here that Jongsu learns Ben has an unusual hobby: burning abandoned greenhouses in rural areas like Jongsu’s neighborhood.
A mystery unfolds, and Jongsu starts to suspect Ben is capable of much worse than arson. But Jongsu has hardly made himself a likable or reliable narrator: He wears his bitterness and resentment on his sleeve, and compared to the calm, collected Ben—played by Yeun with eerie preciseness—it’s hard to know who to trust. If you’re looking for an answer to that question, much like life, Burning won’t provide it. (Nor will Yeun, who told Decider he will take the secret to his grave.) It will, however, provide a fascinating insight into a with which you may not be familiar, and mesmerizing images that will stick with you for years to come.
Burning (2018) is now streaming on Netflix.
