I’ve been waiting for ages to catch this since its critical acclaims from Cannes Film Festival. Safe to say, it hasn’t disappoint at all.

Burning is a slow-paced mystery drama that revolves around 3 main characters, all 3 very different human beings, Jong-su is a shy, soft-spoken guy who keeps to himself, Hae-mi is an outgoing, wild and idealistic girl, Ben, on the other hand, is a well-put together, charming and charismatic man, with a psychotic edge, almost alike Christian Bale in American Psycho. This film succeeds in merging 3 extremely different personalities into scenes perfectly, the attention to detail is sublime in Lee Chang-dong’s film. The personalities complements each other in different ways even though they are such distinct individuals, and that’s all up to Lee’s brilliant direction and marvelous script.

Burning is beautiful, the cinematography and the calmness within this film is something to behold. The metaphorical excellence that presents throughout as the film progresses is brilliantly executed. Burning leaves you with questions, and doesn’t feel the needs to explain. It wants the audience to find clues by themselves in small details, through Ben’s facial expressions, through small events that happen throughout the film, and by the end, you are left mostly impressed and also dumbfounded.

I sat in the theatre wondering what was gonna happen next, for such a slow-paced drama to keep me on the edge of my seat like a thriller is an amazing feat.

Burning is no doubt a masterpiece, and the style is very alike Edward Yang’s The Terrorizers, and to a small extent, A Brighter Summer Day. Burning, is no doubt, one of the best of the year so far.

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