Post your interpretations

>incel got mad that the chad pumped and dumped his childhood love
How was she his childhood love, you retard. The ONLY thing he EVER said to her while being children was "You're ugly".

Holy shit Yea Forums can't literally can't read/follow simple plot points

>we'll never know if she lied about the well or not
>we'll never know if there was a cat
>we'll never know if TWD guy killed her
You might say her yellow watch was at his place but throughout the movie there were other people with the same watch (her colleague) so it might just be a popular watch.

Ofc I believe TWD guy killed her (burning a greenhouse that is REALLY close to you 1-2 days after the talk), also he described her "vanishing like a smoke" which kinda confirms that burning a greenhouse = killing her

But we'll never know for anything sure

Ultimate incelcore. Ben did nothing.

That was the only thing he said to her in middle school. It's implied they were more familiar as children but drifted away in adolescence.

ben didn't do anything and actually just gave the girl a chance to have a new identity, one removed from her poor background.

Cremation can also mean makeup, so new look, new life. I mean idk maybe Ben's just misunderstood coz he's rich as hell and consequently made him eccentric af.

based

kys whiteboi

She was the cat

Jongsoo was the cat. He was invisible to women because he was a tedious incel. And then he shits all over everything by killing a normal member of society.

I'm pretty sure after thinking very much about the film that Steven Yeun's character essentially helps girls like Shin Haemi, girls who are at the short end of the stick and want to 're-invent' themselves by leaving everything in their life behind and becoming someone completely different. One of these methods is basically learning how to convincingly lie to their friends about past experiences, or about completely new traits about themselves. Hence the whole 'pantomime' technique. I feel like the whole 'trip to Africa' was a lie and Shin Haemi was consulting Ben on how to detach herself from her old life and leave everything behind. One of her motivations clearly being to become an actress. If she can convince her only friend, if she is willing to take drastic measures, then she has what it takes.

She's obviously able to convincingly conjure up stories (she already aspired to become an actress beforehand and could lie to her parents in the past), and I feel like Ben convinced her to lie to the one person she truly trusted, Jongsu. In the scene involving her dancing topless at dusk, I think its supposed to portray her feelings of re-inventing herself as someone new, then when her high slowly fades away she realizes how much she has lost her old self. This is further emphasized when Jongsu confronts her about becoming a whore. I felt it was somewhat odd at first that she would lie to the one person she trusted, but I believe Ben convinced her to do so.

I think when Ben is seen with a different girl after she disappears, is when he feels Haemi is ready to be on her own, and he takes on his next disciple. The whole statement on how 'you don't believe you have an orange in your hand, you 'forget' it's not there in the first place' really comes into play here. That's why he keeps her watch and her cat. That's why he lies to Jongsu's face and convinces Haemi to do so as well.

Ben probably has some sort of superiority complex, and, as he puts it simply, 'plays' with other people. He loves seeing others go through different emotions, ones he can't go through himself (he states he can't cry), he's fascinated with manipulating others into transforming into completely different people, and seeing them lie to themselves, and others, thus 'playing' with their emotions. Definitely a hobby that came as a by-product of growing up rich and not learning about dealing with consequences of one's own actions. Which is why he seems genuinely surprised when Jongsu stabs him and kills him in the end, since he thought it was all a game and he himself would never be on the receiving end. I personally think Ben had so much money to himself he never had to work, and boredom drove him to manipulating others as a sense of satisfaction, with the objective of allowing his victims to transform themselves being some sort of 'moral' justification for his actions.

A lot of what we see of Ben is through Jong-su's tainted perception (he is jealous of Ben's wealth and possibly Hae-mi's attention) which makes innocuous things like the yawning seem more insidious than they could actually be,

a) Ben could literally be burning women. Cremation and makeup are spelled the same in Korean. The bracelets and watches he keeps could very well be mementos or trophies from his victims. He kills women who he knows no one will look for because they are in such a ditch in their lives.

b) He traffics them (specifically, he sells them as sex slaves in Africa). He promises women who come from humble and unfulfilling lives a life of luxury and adventure without revealing what that entails. We know he has traveled to Africa more than once (note all the African art and souvenirs in his apartment) and his door man mentions to Ben that he is back from home (which we find out later is a lie since his family clearly lives in Korea). While he could very easily come from money, which I think plays into the commentaries on class and what people inherit, this could explain his income. This makes me consider that him showing off the women to that specific circle of friends is not just him parading around these "low class" people for their amusement but also a way of "showing off the wares" so to speak, specially if they are also involved in that as well.

c) His way of "burning abandoned greenhouses" is taking these women from sad sack lives and giving them new lives. This is the one I think there is the least evidence for but again works if you consider that our perception of Ben is through Jong-su's lens who is essentially a jealous country bumpkin who doesn't understand metaphor, takes everything literally (checking the sames greenhouses for a month+).

I think that if the ending where Jong-su kills Ben is real and not imagined (which is a whole other tangent), it plays into Ben having no idea what happened to Hae-mi. For one, if he did kill her, why would he be surprised Hae-mi isn't there and arrive without protection into something he would know absolutely know is a trap?

Other things.

-Another proof on Jong-su's mental health and his patheticness is his masturbation on haemi's room because he keeps trying to relieve that moment where he was having sex with haemi.

-Haemi's is supposedly a poor (maxed out credit cards) so it's possible she just started a new life with the help of Ben

-He's also poorly educated like many people because despite taking creative writing in college he can't intellectually discuss why he likes Faulkner (and yeah he doesn't know what the fuck a metaphor is).

If you're willing to go full abstract on this

Jong Su jacks it in HaeMi’s apartment bc HaeMi is symbolic of his soul. His Anima/Feminine side. He is trying to commune with his soul, which is being threatened by envy of harmful capitalist materialism. From Jong Su’s perspective, it’s not enough that this piece of shit, Ben, has everything, but he has to come into his territory, try to corrupt his soul, and burn down what poor farmers have? Ben more than anything represents the devil to Jong Su, whether the former killed Hae Mi or not, he is the devil.

So is this movie any good? How does it compare to Parasite? Judging by the interpretations offered here, it seems pretty interesting.

Don't post "enigmatic" threads about this movie as though this boring, unsatisfying, 2.5 hour long that strings your along with promise but never really provides much fulfillment is worth watching.

This movie 2.5 hours long. It takes an hour before the real intrigue or narrative obstacle of the movie arises

Don't be tricked by this thread into watching this dully, unsatisfying movie unless you like those kinds of movies. It's like Enemy with Jake Gyllenhaal but with more reality.

anyway my interpretation

If the dude really murdered her then it wouldn't make sense him being so trusting of the main character when he knows the main character is stalking him, or meeting the main character unarmed when the main character says him and Hae Mi are there. At the same time it's quite a coincidence that she'd happen to leave him just after he made that ominous speech about burning down green a nearby green house, and he'd get a new cat at the same time, and that she'd leave without using her suitcase or taking any other possessions. Anyway it's contradictory information like the question of whether there was a well next to Hae Mi's house. So the lesson is that sometimes the world provides contradictory evidence.

>we'll never know if there was a cat
Cat was def real. We saw a short glimpse of cat droppings in the litter box. And Jong-Soo kept feeding it, he would've known something was wrong if the cat food wasn't being eaten. We just can't confirm if the cat at the end was really Boil I think.

But I don't own a cat, can any cat owner confirm that a cat will come to you if you state its name?

I enjoyed it. But it's very ambiguous in terms of storytelling. There's a lot of mystery to it. While it shares a lot of themes with Parasite it's a lot more blatant that the rich aren't good people where Parasite does allow you to sympathize with the rich more often.

It is heavily implied that Jongsu was shitting in the litter box and eating the food himself as part of his sexual perversion.

that cat interaction isn't particularly realistic in several ways so you can't read that much into it.
If the MC is means to be familiar to the cat because the cat was watching him provide food and visit the appartment then he probably wouldn't have such scared body language to the MC before the MC calls "boil".
If the MC is meant to be a stranger to the cat but the cat is the one from the apartment (but the cat never saw the MC before) then it's not very realistic that the cat would come to a stranger just because the stranger called its name. Only quite sociable cats would go up to strangers who call their name.
If the cat is not the one from the apartment then again there probably wouldn't be such a change in body language where the cat is anxiously edging away from the MC one second then comes to him another second and is happy being held the rest of the evening.
So it's also contradictory info that you can't draw much confidence from.
narratively we're probably meant to think that there's a decent possibility the cat simply decided to come to the MC from his body language and tone of voice and might not have been paying attention to the name.

boring as fuck

Existing and not existing. Hae-Mi's cat is the Schrödinger's cat, we are told that it is there, but never see it.
Hae-Mi herself is then placed in the box, effectively becoming the cat. When Boil is shown to be in Ben's apartment, the lid is opened. She is alive and well, but not in Jong-su's mind. He refuses to acknowledge that everything between him and Hae-Mi didn't "exist" and instead adopts a view that Ben is the reason Hae-Mi he knew, isn't there. This jealousy and toxic possessiveness has a root, when Jong-su explains about his family and how his mother left the family, it's a trauma that he doesn't want to repeat, the fear of rejection. Jong-su was a romantic, thinking she was as invested in him as he was into her and building this almost dreamlike foundation for their relationship, her story of falling into the well and being rescued, only to find out that the home and the well didn't really exist. Jong-su's idealized foundation of their relationship played into the overall theme, it didn't exist.
In a metaphorical ending, Jong-su gains a catharsis, shedding these hateful feelings for Ben and learning to let go of Hae-Mi by burning the clothes and everything associated with Ben, poetic as it was mentioned earlier that it was how Jong-su's father moved on from the abandonment of the mother, by burning her clothes.
I guess that's what the title alludes to, burning things so one can survive. To continue on with life. Hae-Mi burned her past, her memories of the city, Ben burned down green houses to fuel his will to live, Jong-su burned everything associated with Ben. An allusion to life being a roaring flame we must at all costs try to keep aflame.

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Honestly I took it pretty literally after watching.

I really like this idea though

Thanks for the in-depth analysis, user

The scenes with the girl only existed in the novel MC was writing, he was getting his novel and reality mixed up, and basically killed the dudee for no reason at the end.

that was actually a nice interpretation.

What are some similar films in this vein? Idk how exactly to describe it.. like overall it's very mysterious, ambiguous and hypnotic, but still maintaining the level headed semblance throughout..

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It reminded me to The Lighthouse by the way it doesn't answers your questions and let you decide what actually happened (and multiple scenarios make sense)

But since you're on Yea Forums you probably seen it

Blow-Up (Burning is literally Blow-Up but Korean)

I've watched a few movies similar to what you're describing but I can't name all of it right now, so I guess it's Enemy, Parade (it's a japanese film, it's very straightforward but the ending gave me a similar feeling)

He literally has sex so not an incel

Jongsu isn't an incel but people who connect with him over Ben sure are

>throughout the movie there were other people with the same watch

thanks user, I didn't realize they made it even more ambiguous with this detail.

>yellow watch
The watch was pink, wasn't it? Or OH NOO AHHH IM GOING INSANE

Unironically this. Not even memeing. Zoglywood is hot shite compared to K-cinema

Antonioni's Blow -UP. Burning is definitely inspired by Blow Up. Burning is Korean Blow-up set in modern Korean society with class theme

Blow-Up is ambiguous as hell.That's why it is considered as peak postmodernism kino

both deal with similar themes (class disparity), Parasite is narrative driven, while Burning is more of an atmospheric slow burn.

She ghosted him and made the other guy promise her he wouldn’t tell him.

I read explanation of burning from critics in my country. They said Burning's ending can be seen as 3 different ways.Its too difficult to me

Yeah I'm not sure if there were multiple people shown wearing it, but her colleague was definitely wearing it. And since they gift it as a present it would make sense more women have it.

Attached: watch.png (1366x768, 1.94M)

Yeah sorry, I meant pink lol. See Guess I'm subconsciously racist against yellow people

the rich chink took the word roastie too literally

Not the guy who asked but movie looks interesting as fuck and I'll be checking it. Should I continue with Antinini if I like it or his other films are nothing like it?

can any Yea Forums fags tell me about his favorite author William Faulkner?

Patrician. Faulkner is the dark souls of literature.

i noticed he also has a story called barn burning. Have you read it and do you think it's reasonable the ending of that book can be taken as the ending for the movie. Also was Murakami's version a semi-reference to it?

yeah

When hae-mi does the dance of great hunger or whatever it's a visual representation of flames, so burning. I love when she does it in the restaurant and Ben kind of uses it to embarrass her.

Based.