Hello and welcome back to another movie and TV review!! This week we’ll be diving into the psychological thriller Burning, starring Steven Yeun from The Walking Dead. Spoiler alert: the film features dark tones of death, poverty, loneliness, overly sexual scenes, and the ever-growing wealth gap. This was a hard watch for me, not because it was gruesome, but because I just couldn’t get into it. I would start and stop for one reason or another, but oddly, the movie stayed on my mind, so here we are. In essence, I just couldn’t bring myself to like the characters, particularly the female lead, but I think that was intentional on the writer’s part. With that being said, let’s get ittttttttttt!

Set in modern-day Korea, the film visits many locations but mainly sits just outside Seoul in Paju, Lee Jong-su and Shin Hae-mi’s hometown. After a quick smoke break, Jong-su returns to his part-time job delivering something to a store, where the two have a chance meeting. Later, over drinks, she informs Jong-su that she’s going to Africa to satisfy her Great Hunger.

Sidenote: this was the initial reason I quit the movie the first time. Can we just leave Africa alone? PSA: hunger is everywhere in every country. Besides, most people know it’s countries and organizations like the US, Belgium, the UN, or worse yet African governments themselves doing the raping and pillaging. Further, I chuckled a little at the thought of Koreans going to Africa to feed the hungry when they have old people carting used boxes for pennies on the won. It sounds mean, but movies and TV making Africa the butt of the joke is tired. I’m talking about that peak garbage drama Shooting Star. I couldn’t get past the first few episodes; it was so pointless. Pretty-boy pop star with mom issues. Cry me a river. I’ll wipe my tears with the millions instead. Yeah, there are those that need help, but if you want to fix poverty, start in your own backyard.

Rant over — back to the regularly scheduled program.

Speaking of that “Great Hunger,” Hae-mi said she’d been saving up to go to Kenya, but in the meantime, she was also taking pantomime classes outside of her modeling/advertising gig. To which I questioned: how much does it pay that she can afford all this? Come to find out, sis had plastic surgery and was in deep debt, which was the primary reason she couldn’t go home. I even wondered if she was a failed K-pop star who didn’t debut. But I digress.

Back at her apartment, Hae-mi asks Jong-su to feed her cat, Boil (short for the boiler room where she found it), and that’s where we see them coupling in HD. Was this necessary?

After her sojourn in the great wild, she comes back just as unfulfilled, but with a friend in tow, Ben. Ben is her well-off older lover. I assumed they were sleeping together, because it was back to Jong-su and his right hand again. Sidenote: while she was “eat, pray, loving,” my guy was stroking himself on her bed. Gross.

That dynamic only gets more frustrating from there. Ben, being the generous older gentleman, must’ve felt like an oasis to her brokie lifestyle, so it would’ve been a no-brainer for Hae-mi to drop Jong-su in most cases — but she didn’t. And that annoyed me to no end. She clearly had feelings for him, yet she kept inviting him to events where he was the third wheel, even inviting herself and Ben to his home on short notice. Jong-su questioned what Ben saw in her, and she replied, “He thinks I’m special.” Turns out Benny Boy’s character was just as sinister as Jong-su thought… or maybe my guy was just jealous.

Like Dexter Morgan, Ben had a code he killed by; he picked women he viewed as pointless — people no one would miss or look for. This gave him the confidence to invite Jong-su into his circle and basically show him his next victim. So that, spoiler alert, made his death all the more satisfying. As this movie shows, that’s not always the case, but I wish everyone had friends and family who care enough to look for them. Though if I could ask Ben one question, it would be: what gives a person value in his mind?

Anypoops, I give Burning 4 out of 5 rose petals. Let me know what you think.