Thoughts on Burning Movie

 Burning was overall a very good movie in my opinion. This was the second Korean film I have watched, with the first being Parasite directed by Bong Joon-ho. One of the similarities between these movies that struck me was the lack of dialogue and background music for comparatively large swaths of the movie (when compared to Hollywood Films). I appreciate this style, as I think the imagery provided through the carefully cultivated shots can be extremely descriptive, at times exceeding dialogue in conveying the feelings of the moment. A prime example of this in Burning was the sex scene between Jong and Shin. In western films, sex scenes are often accompanied by background music or dialogue. In the absence of these, the sounds of labored breathing, bed creaks, and other natural noises are removed from the audio. But in the sex scene in Burning, the relative awkwardness of the encounter is perfectly conveyed through a lack of dialogue and songs, and the retention of these natural noises to accompany the imagery.  

I think the application of this style makes for distinct and entertaining movies. But more than that, I think the lack of dialogue in Burning helped to convey a similar feel as the short by Murakami, Barn Burning, that it was based on. For starters, Barn Burning is a short story, and the movie creates additional storylines to explore to fill its over 2-hour timeframe. Yet, one thing that stood out to me was the consistency of the portions of the movie that were copied directly from Barn Burning. In order to accommodate Murakami’s less-is-more style of storytelling, the dialogue in these scenes was not vamped to include unnecessary discussion. They employed the use of non-dialogue storytelling, and were able to tell the story in a way that evoked the feeling of the short story. I thought this was marvelous, and since we had read the short story just a class before I watched the movie I was able to really appreciate the similarities. 

Another interesting thing I noticed were the consistency in keeping with Murakami themes that supersede just Barn Burning. One element I noticed was the multiple references to wells, which are a recurring theme in Murukami's work. Additionally, both times Ben cooks he cooks Italian pasta, which evoked a reference to The year of Spaghetti which we read in class. I thought the theme of loneliness from that The Year of Spaghetti tied in quite well to Ben’s circumstances, and this seemed almost like an Easter egg for Murakami fans.  

A final consistency that I felt was preserved in the movie was Murakami’s method of only providing insight into the life of the main character of the story. Even though we get introduced to characters such as Ben, Shin, Ben’s friends, Jong’s father and Jong’s mother, we learn very little about these characters outside of their interaction with Jong. These characters only serve to augment Jong’s existence, just like the characters in A Wild Sheep Chase do for Boku. 

Overall, I was impressed by the movie's ability to retain many of the themes, and the overall feel, of Murakami’s work. I can't help but feel that if this film was made in the US that would not have been the case, which would have been a shame.

- Andrew