Thoughts on Burning

Overall I think Burning successfully captures the surreal, ambiguous, and somewhat melancholic atmosphere of Murakami's Barn Burning. The biggest difference I noticed is that Murakami's writing has more room for interpretation, whereas the movie is more explicit about what messages it wants the viewers to get. Perhaps to make the story plot richer, the film gives its main character backstories and also offers social commentary on some prominent issues in Korean society.

In Barn Burning, when the narrator sees his female friend off at the airport, he says that "[by] the look of her...you'd almost think she was returning from North Africa," which vaguely suggests that North Africa symbolizes something of her past and she is more closely tied with distant North Africa than with modern-day Japan. In Burning, Hae-mi tells the story about "little hunger" and "great hunger" when she says that she's going to Africa, and does the Bushmen dance naked at sunset. Later Ben also explains to Jong-su that Haemi is "lonelier than she seems." Through these added lines and actions, the film is making it very clear that Haemi has been searching for the meaning of life and is spiritually connected with the world Africa represents even when she is physically in Korea. The film also provides more direct evidence suggesting that Ben has murdered Hae-mi like an unwanted greenhouse, whereas Murakami's story is more open-ended.

The characters in the film have more personality than they do in Murakami's story. Boku usually narrates the story quite objectively and rarely talks about his emotions, but Jong-su in the film clearly has emotions and doesn't hesitate to express them, such as when he tells Ben he's in love with Hae-mi, when he masturbates at Hae-mi's place, and when he murders Ben in the end. Jong-su does not feel like Murakami's typical "Boku," but the film's portrayal sure makes him a more interesting character. In addition, the film gives the "antagonist" a somewhat logical motivation behind his greenhouse-burning and human-hunting activities: his material needs are all easily satisfied so he needs the thrill of dominating and destroying unneeded objects (and human beings) to confirm his existence, which isn't really made clear in Barn Burning.

Besides the obvious similarities in plot, there are a few other commonalities between the film and Murakami's short stories. Murakami's characters mention real brand names a lot in his stories, and they also often talk about national or international news that the readers will be aware of to suggest that the magical stories take place in this very real world. Similarly, the film includes a speech of Donald Trump and has the characters eat at an ordinary restaurant with Korean writings all over the wall to situate itself in the realistic modern society. Like the characters Murakami's stories, the characters in Burning also reference specific western literature, such as The Great Gatsby and the writings of Faulkner. A lot of Murakami's stories blur the line between reality and illusion, and the film also does that by adding a cat and a well that both have and have not existed.

In addition to reflecting the story and themes of Barn Burning, the film also discusses a few social issues more specific to Korea. For example, the fact that Hae-mi becomes unrecognizable to her childhood friend because she has done plastic surgery touches upon the issue of Koreans' high standard for female beauty and Korean women's obsession with plastic surgery. Jong-su's unsuccessful job interview where all candidates are referred to by numbers and judged based on where they live offers a glimpse of the dehumanizing side of Korean capitalism. The stark contrast between Ben and Jong-su's professions and living conditions demonstrates the huge wealth gap in Korea, and Hae-mi's friend's complaint that "there's no country for women" also comments on the gender struggles in modern Korean society.

Crystal