Burning
(Lee Chang-dong, 2018, 148 min, South Korea, in Korean w/ English subtitles & English, Color, DCP)
Introduced by Prof. Hae-Young Kim (AMES)
Based on Haruki Murakami’s short story “Barn Burning,” the sixth feature from Korean auteur Lee Chang-dong is at once a riveting examination of class resentment and a masterful, slow-burning thriller. When an aspiring writer (Yoo Ah-in) becomes involved with a woman he knew from childhood (Jun Jong-seo) he agrees to apartment sit for her; but when she returns from Africa with a Gatsby-esque partner (Steven Yeun), his confusions and obsessions begin to mount, culminating in a stunning finale.
Winner of the FIPRESCI International Film Critics’ Prize for Best Film in Competition at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival!
“You won’t be able to get it out of your head.” Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
“This is a beautifully crafted film loaded with glancing insights and observations into an understated triangular relationship, one rife with subtle perceptions about class privilege, reverberating family legacies, creative confidence, self-invention, sexual jealousy, justice and revenge.” – Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter
Also showing on Thu Jan 17
Sponsored by the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image (AMI), the Asian/Pacific Studies Institute (APSI), and the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (AMES).
