Burning [2018]

Burning [2018]
Original Title: Beoning
South Korea
Director: Chang-dong Lee
My Rating: 5/10

This is another movie that I like and don't like.  I generally like a lot of build up, but this movie is just too slow paced.  When nothing is revealed and what happened is up for interpretation, sometimes it works and sometimes it feels lazy.  Steven Yeun is fantastic in this movie, but the lead actor Ah-in Yoo is difficult to watch because he spends the entire movie with his mouth agape.  Something like that shouldn't reflect on the film as a whole, but it's so distracting.

I started watching this knowing nothing about it, but immediately recognized the idea adapted from the Murakami story, which is the most interesting part but seems to only serve as a  metaphor here.  With a half an hour edited out from the first act and some motivation given for all the characters, it could have been a really excellent story.  I don't think it would have taken away from the mystery.