Burning (2018) I feel is a very good adaptation to the Murakami story and faithful to the themes that it had. The main idea that I thought it conveyed well is the questioning of what is reality and what is being thought of in the protagonist's head. It left it open ended as to whether Ben was really a serial killer or Jong-su was just being paranoid about Ben, whether Hae-mi had abandoned her life or was killed, whether the events at the end really happened or not. And these aspects I think connect to a common Murakami theme of what is being told is not actual reality and the questioning of what is and isn't, like the Rat visiting Boku even though he's already dead in A Wild Sheep Chase.
In the original Barn Burning story, I think the idea that the boyfriend being a serial killer was a bit more subtle than Burning, with Burning leaving suggestive clues like the drawer of accessories of different people, Ben having Hae-mi's cat with the cat responding to being called Boil, his strange trips to the countryside. These clues didn't really exist in Barn Burning, but I don't think that's a bad thing, as it brings in more the question on whether Ben was a serial killer or not, it helped with the suspense. Of course non of these are conclusive reasonings, so it makes the audience question that what is being suggested is the real case or not, which I think is a common theme or Murakami.
This sense of questioning what is being presented is also the case with Hae-mi and whether or not she was killed or abandoned her life. There's evidence of her not liking her current like with contemplating what I'd be like if she disappeared when she got back from Africa, she had a lot of debt to pay off, which kept her family from helping her, and the straw that might've broke the camel's back was Jong-su calling her a whore, making her feel completely unwanted. It also makes it hard for her to feel genuine with the falling in the well story, as no else says happened or that there was even a well in the first place, with the only person agreeing with her being Jong-su's mom but she doesn't even seem one hundred percent about it. This also goes with Murakami theme of remembering things, characters remembering things that seem a bit outlandish or differently from others, and this theme is used well in the movie as it adds an element as to whether Hae-mi is being genuine with her character or just a pathological liar and has gotten herself too deep in a mess. So this also adds to the questioning of what the audience is being told and what is and isn't true.
The events at the end can even be called in question on whether they really happened or not, with it being connected to Jong-su's book. Near the end we see him writing in Hae-mi's old room and then it eventually transitions to the murder of Ben, it brings in the idea of what if what's being portrayed is really just Jong-su's story that he's envisioning. It could explain why the murder scene was a bit strange, Ben gave no resistance to being killed, even though he's well fit enough and potentially knowledgeable about murders, so just letting Jong-su kill him without any fight back makes it seem too easy and simple, lending to the idea that it was just what Jong-su envisioned what would've happened, even though it's not that realistic. Which again adds to the questioning of the reality of the film.
The Korean setting I think worked in the movie's favor, instead of barns it was greenhouses the boyfriend wanted to burn, which makes sense as Korea had a boom of greenhouses during it's White Revolution of agriculture. It also incorporates the theme of rich and poor more than the original story, with Ben being very rich and entrepreneur and Jong-su is a farm boy. I'm aware this social contrast is very popular in Korean films, and I think it adds more to the contrast between Ben and Jong-su.
Overall I think that Burning is a great adaptation of the Murakami story, incorporating common themes that Murakami uses so that it could even be an easy introduction to explore him as a writer more.
-David Barnes
No comments:
Post a Comment