Burning

Burning (버닝, 2018) is a South Korean mystery drama directed by Lee Chang-dong that you can watch online on iFILM. The film won the FIPRESCI Prize at Cannes and is adapted from a short story by Haruki Murakami.

Jong-su is a delivery worker who reconnects with Hae-mi, a girl from his old neighbourhood, just before she leaves for Africa. She asks him to feed her cat. He never sees the cat. When Hae-mi comes back she brings Ben — affluent, smooth, and hard to read. Ben eventually shares a hobby with Jong-su. He says it calmly and matter-of-factly. After that conversation, Jong-su cannot stop watching Ben. Yoo Ah-in, Steven Yeun and Jeon Jong-seo carry the entire film on controlled ambiguity, and at 148 minutes it never feels long.

Lee Chang-dong stretches Murakami's source material into a slow-burn portrait of class resentment and vanishing women in contemporary Korea. What Ben actually does — and whether he does anything at all — the film refuses to answer. Watch Burning (2018) online on iFILM.