Burning Review

    I liked the movie. I felt like it captured the atmosphere of the short story pretty well. In part, that may have been due to the background audio and the actors who I felt did a great job with the characters such as Ben and the girl. The main thing that I liked about the movie is how they went beyond the ending of the original story. I liked the idea that the protagonist would finally make the connection that the barn burning was not actual barns but people. And would set out of their way to find out the truth of why the girl disappeared. And even though it had a conclusion in which the protagonist killed Ben and burned his body with the car. The ending still felt open-ended and up to interpretation. 

    I don't think shifting the setting of the movie to Korea changed it all that much. I think that there was some cultural changes to the story when they changed the setting but considering that it was already changed in many different parts when you don't include the setting of the story. As movie establishes that both characters knew each other before the events of the story, while in the short story they met an acquaintance wedding. Which brings up another point as the story establishes the protagonist is married to another woman but in the movie he is single and in love with the girl who would eventually bring back Ben. And there was a big age difference between the two characters.

    There was a couple of reference I noticed to Murakami. One was when the protagonist mentioned Faulkner to Ben. Another one that I think may be a reference, albeit brief, happens towards the end of the movie. The protagonist was in Ben's bathroom looking at himself in the mirror. I don't know if it was all of the tension leading up that scene in which we knew Ben was the killer and the protagonist started piecing things together but his reflection seemed a little off.

Michael