BURNING

South Korean auteur Lee Chang-dong adapts Haruki Murakami’s short story of romantic longing for this critically acclaimed, Cannes FIPRESCI prize-winning thriller starring Korean heart-throb Yoo Ah-in and The Walking Dead’s Steven Yeun.

Loosely based on the 1992 Murakami story, Lee’s (Poetry, MIFF 2010; Oasis, MIFF 2002) much-anticipated new work evolves from a meet-cute between delivery man Jongu and old friend Haemi, who disappears to Africa only to return with Ben, a rich, enigmatic playboy with a dark and strange hobby.

Wildly praised at Cannes, Burning set a new record for the highest-ever score in Screen International’s poll of critics at the festival, and with good reason: across its perfectly paced 148 minutes, Lee’s film goes from romantic character piece to exquisitely poised thriller, taking on contemporary political fears, class imbalances, and old fashioned existential despair with masterful control.

"Cannes delivers a triumph with Lee Chang-dong’s slow-‘Burning’ masterwork. A character study that morphs, with masterly patience, subtlety and nary a single wasted minute, into a teasing mystery and eventually a full-blown thriller." – Los Angeles Times