ARTICULATING A METAPHOR

In his six celebrated feature films, director Lee Chang-dong has explored trauma and hardship in South Korean society with an unflinching eye for the intricacies of suffering. He confronts hopelessness, violence, oppression, suicide and grief head-on, crafting gorgeously composed landscapes of human truth. In 2018, following an eight-year filmmaking hiatus, Lee returned to cinemas with the critically lauded Burning, an adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s short story Barn Burning.

In this meditative psychological thriller, Lee Jong-su, a lonely aspiring writer, runs into childhood friend Shin Hae-mi in the streets of Paju. She’s planning a trip to Africa and asks that Lee watch her cat while she’s away. Despite their blossoming romance, Hae-mi returns with Ben, a wealthy and mysterious man who confides to Lee about his hobby for burning down abandoned greenhouses. When Lee asks if he’s decided which greenhouse to burn next Ben replies, “I have. A great one to burn down.”  

Bright Wall/Dark Room’s Veronica Fitzpatrick and Chad Perman return to Galerie to explore a handful of key scenes from this mesmerizing thriller, highlighting Lee Chang-dong’s expert pacing and layered unease.