Burning Movie: Thoughts

    After watching the movie Burning, I believe that it is very well-produced and that it is a further expansion on Murakami's Barn Burning. The first thing I noticed while watching the film is the setting. It is a very dark and gloomy setting which held consistent throughout the film, and I think it is an effective way of visualizing the dark and serious plot line. While reading Barn Burning, I did not get this kind of visual since the language was not descriptive enough to provide effective imagery. The second thing I noticed was that the protagonist, Jong-su, is a very quiet character and is strikingly ordinary. This is consistent with many of the protagonists in Murakami's works as well. 

    In my opinion, the most noticeable aspect that both the story and the movie share is Jong-su's constant uncertainty between what is real and what is imaginary. Primarily, his uncertainty is over whether or not Hae-mi had abandoned her life and her involvement with the two men, or that she was in fact killed by Ben. The Burning film leaves many more clues that suggest Ben did in fact murder Hae-mi when compared to the Barn Burning reading. Suggestive clues throughout the film include Ben's claims of burning greenhouses, his occasional drives out to the countryside, and that he has Hae-mi's cat after her disappearance. However, there were also many other reasons that she may have disappeared. She lacks a support system from her family that she is alienated from due to debt she has accumulated. On top of that, the one person that she claimed she could lean on and trust (Jong-su) called her a whore. There is also a large mirror in her room, which could be somehow connected to her disappearance as if she entered another reality on the other side. This is also a possible way of explaining disappearances of characters in other Murakami stories. It could be possible that Hae-mi did commit suicide in spite of the circumstances that were against her, however it is left up to the viewers interpretation by the end of the film. In last scene of the film when Jong-su murders Ben, it seems that it is done too easily for Ben to be a true murderer. I would think that if Ben did murder Hae-mi, he would be suspicious that Jong-su knew about it and would potentially retaliate. However, during the final scene, Ben seemed to be very trusting of Jong-su and did not suspect that he would harm him, much less murder him.

I think that the setting of the movie taking place in Korea added an interesting element; a socioeconomic difference between the two main characters, Jong-su and Ben. Jong-su representing the impoverished and Ben representing the upper class. The link between these two men being Hae-mi. Korea provides a location that has both poor and rich communities living in close proximity of one another. With the main characters being from either end of the socioeconomic class, it adds an element of tension between them. I initially found this movie to be too slow to maintain my interest, however as the plot progressed, I was very curious as to what happened to Hae-mi and if she was indeed murdered by Ben.

 

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