Even though Korea is hugely famous for its K-dramas and romance genre, the talent it has to pull off the mystery and thriller generic films mostly don’t get cherished enough. As a fan of Psychological thriller/mystery, I am delighted to go on hunts for their classics thriller/mystery movies. Till today, Memories of Murder hold a special place in my heart.
So I was bored the other day and trying to find another classic Korean murder mysteries, and that’s when I stumbled upon the 2018 film Burning. At first glance, it didn’t look that appealing and the synopsis did feel like it followed the most common thriller/mystery plot line. But like they say, never judge a movie by its synopsis, you never know what you will manage to find.
The film mostly maintains a slow pitch motion to unravel its story plot and by doing so manages to establish a realistic portrait of individuals. We follow the day to day life of the socially awkward protagonist, who despite having lack of social skills manages to land on a potential girlfriend.
The beginning starts off as the main two characters slowly rekindle their long lost romance, but healthy functioning love story mostly never goes well with the thriller/mystery plotline, now does it? So, we slowly get down into the not so simple romance vortex. I really love the personality of the female protagonist, she is weird, but bold. At times, too bold for everyone to handle and pairing with a socially awkward boy just made the whole situation a little bit funny. Both having a complex past, struggling to find a way to get out of the financially broke situation and one day crossed each others path to start off something from the past. It could've been a such nice romance story that I was thinking, but where's the fun in watching that.
[Image taken from film]
Unlike most thriller films, Burning does the process to let you know there is a trap in a rather obvious way, you could see the outcomes from a mile away. However, it also did an amazing job at planting the clues in a rather puzzled manner and if you manage to solve those, the urge to pat yourself on the back for getting it beforehand is rather unavoidable.
The thing that struck me most is the silent desperation which it rather successfully manages to portray. Desperate to find the truth while struggling to get out from the sudden memory dilemma, it just felt quite real. No dramatic entries or confrontation, no fighting screens to keep the viewers glued to the seat, no unrealistic detective works but just pure realistic reaction, which at some point made me feel like shits really happened in real. But I was rather pleased with the ending, it was just so satisfying and made the whole thing worth watching.
One quote in particular just made me speechless, and could be used to summarized the whole film.
I have a hobby of burning greenhouses. I choose an abandoned greenhouse and set it on fire. Once every two months. I think that's the best pace for me. It's very simple though, you spray kerosene then throw a lit match. That's it. It takes less than ten minutes to burn down. You can make it disappear as if it never existed.
The film addresses some psychological traits and how most of the time, we fail to catch the red flags while it’s placed so plainly in front of us and regret the decisions when it's too late.
