‪Without having to do anything particularly scary, this movie is so good at being scary. For a long portion of the film, nothing significant happens. But there’s this creepy atmosphere that surrounds every scene. I was expecting something to happen at every scene. I think that that creepy atmosphere is the best thing that the director Lee Chang-dong accomplishes in Burning. However, with nothing really happening and the 150 minute runtime the overall watching experience gets a little bit dull. There isn’t a main focus and for over an hour and a half there isn’t any thing to really follow. Also I didn’t find the protagonist as interesting as the other two characters, but he’s the one you follow throughout the film. I get that it has to be like that for the movie to work the way it does, focusing on the other characters would take away from the overall ambiguity which this movie utilizes in the best ways, and I appreciate that, but still I didn’t find him interesting. It was either the amazing cinematography or my expectations of the movie taking a sharp turn at any moment that made me not feel bored, but my interest in what I was watching was low for a long time. Otherwise brilliant film. Burning excels in every technical aspect. Also it was a pleasant surprise to see Steven Yeun in Sorry To Bother You, but korean-speaking Steven Yeun is something else. ‬

Edit: I’ve been changing my rating of Burning and its place in my list of 2018 movies for a few days now. I think I have finally made up my mind about it. I had no doubt about how technically good this movie was, I had doubts about how I feel about it. I think four stars is fair to how I feel and so it will be my final rating, I don’t see it changing without me rewatching the movie. Overall I really like it.