Burning Review

     Overall, I thought Burning was a great movie. I think the movie captures the atmosphere of the story well. It keeps important elements of the story's plotline, and I also noticed some common Murakami themes and tropes that aid in maintaining the style that Murakami writes in. In Burning, Hae-mi practices her pantomiming at the bar, pretending to peel oranges, and even says something similar to the line in the story, "It's not a question of making yourself believe there is an orange there, you have to forget there isn't one" (134). Also in the movie, Hae-Mi asks the protagonist to pick her up at the airport where he meets Ben. They eventually end up at Jong-Su's place smoking marijuana, and that's when Ben tells Jong-Su about his burning habits. Thus, by following the plotline of the story fairly well, the producers managed to match the atmosphere of the story.

    However, I think they most effectively captured the atmosphere of the story, and of Murakami's writing, by adding some details in the movie that seem eerily similar to some of Murakami's other novels and stories. First of all, Hae-mi asks Jong-su to watch her cat while she is gone, which reminded me of the scene in A Wild Sheep Chase in which Boku makes a big deal to ensure that his cat would be taken care of properly while he was on his trip. I then noticed another parallel from A Wild Sheep Chase. In the movie, Jong-su returns to his childhood house all alone where he takes care of cows for his father. The house is in a rural area that seems to be mostly secluded. In A Wild Sheep Chase, the Rat returns alone to the old summer house he used to go to as a kid, which is almost completely isolated. There, his dad took care of a bunch of sheep in the countryside. Also in the movie, there is a scene where Jong-su is smoking cigarettes with Hae-Mi's coworker. Smoking cigarettes seems to be a common occurrence in Murakami's stories.

    The main thing I noticed in this movie, though, was the importance of the well. This may be a stretch, but I think the well could be interpreted as a reference to the "other world". It's made clear in the movie that Hae-mi acts differently than most people and has a unique personality that seems to be out of touch with everyone else's. I thought it was interesting that she mentioned falling into the well when she was seven, and being stuck down there for hours, and how Jong-su saved her but he didn't even remember it. Then, when Jong-su asked Hai-Mi's family and another man that lives near the property, they said there was never a well there at all. The only person that remembered the well was Jong-su's mom, but she didn't remember Hae-mi falling into it either. I think maybe Hae-mi fell into the well and was somehow transported to the "other world", like how Miu was transported via the Ferris wheel in "Sputnik Sweetheart". I just thought this was interesting to think about, and it made the movie much more enjoyable for me.

Corrina