DIRECTOR: Lee Chang-dong
PRODUCERS: Lee Joon-dong, Lee Chang-dong
PRODUCTION CO: Pinehouse Film, Now Film, NHK, Finecut
​SCREENPLAY: Oh Jung-mi, Lee Chang-dong, based on the story "Barn Burning" by Haruki Murakami
PHOTOGRAPHY: Hong Kyung-pyo
EDITOR: Kim Hye-on, Kim Da-won
MUSIC: Mowg
WITH: Yoo Ah-in (Lee Jong-su), Steven Yeun (Ben), Jeon Jong-seo (Shin Hae-mi), Kim Soo-kyung (Yeon-ju), Choi Seung-ho (Lee Yong-seok), Lee Joong-ok (Patrolman), Moon Sung-keun (Lawyer), Min Bok-gi (Judge) Ban Hye-ra (Jong-su's mother) 

FESTIVALS: Cannes

REVIEWS

“Not a lot actually burns in Lee Chang-dong’s Burning…

But the cumulative effect of all its perfect moments, all its perfectly true, unexpected and consequential scenes, is scorching. The embers are banked up so gradually and relentlessly that it’s not until a few hours after the ending of this elusive, riveting masterpiece that you are far enough away to appreciate the scale of the conflagration…

It is based on a skeletal short story by Murakami Haruki in the same way a spreading oak is based on an acorn… The absolute precision of craft, from Hong Kyung-pyo’s unerring camera placement to [the] stunningly variegated and cleverly deployed score, illuminates a trio of performances that are little short of miraculous… The narrative is slippery as silk, eliding from romance to tragedy to mystery to something more unsettling…

​This sense of surprise and inevitability is a hallmark of truly masterful writing… and such skillful direction that it feels like you’re suspended within the story in an invisible tangle of glances and exchanges, secrets and lies, tricks and cruelties and lucky shafts of reflected sunlight.”

— Jessica Kiang, Sight & Sound

FILM SOCIETY SCREENINGS

​Hamilton   
Monday, 04 March, 6.30pm​

Whanganui   
Monday, 18 March, 7.00pm

Auckland  
Monday, 06 May, 6.00pm

Canterbury
Monday, 20 May, 6.00pm

Bigger Picture Ōamaru
​Thursday, 30 May, 7.00pm

Queenstown
​Tuesday, 11 June, 8.00pm

Palmerston North
Wednesday, 19 June, 6.00pm

​Nelson  
Wednesday, 03 July, 6.00pm​

Dunedin
Wednesday, 17 July, 7.30pm

Wellington   
Monday, 29 July, 6.15pm​

Tauranga
Wednesday, 02 October, 6.30pm
​at Luxe Tauranga

New Plymouth   
Wednesday, 16 October, 6.00pm​
KOREAN CINEMA  selection >> ​