Burning

Well Go USA Entertainment | Release Date: October 26, 2018

7.7	USER SCORE Generally favorable reviews based on 202 Ratings

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OlivierPielJan 16, 2019

Movie critics seems to have fallen in love with this cinematic adaptation of Murakami. They seem to praise the atmosphere of the film, congratulating themselves in deciphering the metaphores dropped here and there like a little Tom Thumb byMovie critics seems to have fallen in love with this cinematic adaptation of Murakami. They seem to praise the atmosphere of the film, congratulating themselves in deciphering the metaphores dropped here and there like a little Tom Thumb by the film director, some even philosophizing on the Little/Great Hunger theme brought up by the female protagonist.
Reading all of them, I was left wondering if any had ever read Murakami's work because this author indulges far too much in pseudo-philosophy à la Paulo Coelho or Yann Martel's Life of Pi with immature failed artists trying to find "the meaning of life"! To be fair, the film manages indeed to accurately put on the screen the gently nihilistic, decadent pre-otaku world of Murakami and his world of likeable over-educated dreamy but lazy, passive "sick-of-the-world" Japanese losers (in a way that resembles Wong Kar Wai's Chungking express). He also goes further, by evidently adding a layer of social-political critique of our current materialistic society. This is slightly too much on the nose however and adds to the biggest problem of this film: It's 2 1/2 hour long!! All the scenes could have been cut by 2/3rd and wouldn't have lost much. Many scenes are also totally useless both for plot exposition or the characters development. The second half of the film is almost totally redundant in scene after scene, for no good artistic reason.
Murakami never left me with an impression of art and beauty but rather an unhealthy habit of self-indulgent introspection to justify a lack of will. Compared with the great Japanese masters, Sooseki, Oe or Mishima, his work seemed trite but content of this very fact.
This is the same with this film.
It doesn't add up to much....and definitely won't "leave a lasting impression"as many critics seem to believe.… Expand

3 of 11 users found this helpful38

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BITESCREENApr 15, 2019

Im wuseligen Seoul trifft Jong-su zufällig seine alte Mitschülerin Hae-mi wieder – die den schüchternen Tagelöhner kurzerhand zum schnellen Sex ins Mini-Apartment einlädt. Als Gegenleistung passt er ein paar Tage auf ihre Katze auf, alsIm wuseligen Seoul trifft Jong-su zufällig seine alte Mitschülerin Hae-mi wieder – die den schüchternen Tagelöhner kurzerhand zum schnellen Sex ins Mini-Apartment einlädt. Als Gegenleistung passt er ein paar Tage auf ihre Katze auf, als Hae-mi in Afrika urlaubt – und mit dem hübschen wie stinkreichen Ben (Korea-Starexport Steven Yeun) im Gepäck wiederkommt. Zu dritt trifft man sich zum Fine-Dining, Feiern im Club oder zum Kiffen auf dem Land – wo Ben Jong-su schließlich ein dunkles Geheimnis anvertraut. Dann verschwindet Hae-mi plötzlich. Eine unerreichbare Frau, Jazz und eine komische Katze: Die Haruki-Murakami-Verfilmung Burning hat einige Lieblingsthemen des Erfolgsautors an Bord. Und auch Regisseur Chang-dong Lee gibt sich nicht mit nur einem Genre zufrieden. So dümpelt der überlange Film ewig als gut gespieltes und stimmungsvolles Mystery-Liebesdrama herum, nur um sich im letzten Drittel plötzlich in einen uninspirierten und zudem vorhersehbaren Krimi zu verwandeln.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

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SergioMaJan 9, 2019

A good thriller (if it fits into this category), but the actors were lacking enough skills. Hence, the movie lost a lot of its potentials due to the bad choice. Sometimes, the viewer would feel bored due to the monotone narration. TheA good thriller (if it fits into this category), but the actors were lacking enough skills. Hence, the movie lost a lot of its potentials due to the bad choice. Sometimes, the viewer would feel bored due to the monotone narration. The psychotic events were nicely written.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

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JordanLaytonApr 27, 2020

A more apt title for this film would be "Slow Burning". You could say that this film falls into the "genre-switching" category that Parasite did last year. The only caveat to that being, the first of the two genres for this film is justA more apt title for this film would be "Slow Burning". You could say that this film falls into the "genre-switching" category that Parasite did last year. The only caveat to that being, the first of the two genres for this film is just nothing. In total sincerity, I cannot tell you what purpose the slow and puttering first half of this film served that could not have been done in half the time. This might be my American short attention span talking, but it was truly a struggle to get through.

And what was my reward? A slightly more interesting, but still underwhelming, second half. I think the main issue this film has is that it's main character is supposed to be a quiet writer that's more than meets the eye, but this characters dialog and the actors performance just make him come off as having some sort of mental disability. I suppose this was supposed to contrast to the suave, rich 3rd point of the love triangle in this film, played by Steven Yeun, who's sociopathic performance is easily the best thing about this film. Maybe narration would have helped me to better understand the main character. I just don't think enough context was given to explain his personality and actions. If ambiguity was the point, I disagree with the point. It's well shot and an interesting window into Korean culture with a great Steven Yeun performance, but the plot and main character make this difficult to recommend for me, despite it receiving tons of critical praise.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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