"What do you have to do to live that kind of life at a young age? Travel around leisurely, drive a Porsche, cook pasta in a mansion."
"You're rich at a young age."
"The great Gatsby. Mysterious young people who are rich and rich. There are too many Gatsbys in Korea."
Gatsby's sentence is the only similar sentence said by the two male protagonists in "Burning" and the original novel "Burning the Barn".
"Burning" is adapted from the short story "Burning the Barn" by Haruki Murakami. In addition to the similar plot to the original, the film is full of Murakami flavors: the cat named Boil, the well that Emi fell into as a child, the unanswered phone that rang frequently at night, and the most crucial image: plastic Shed (originally used as barn). It’s all things whose authenticity cannot be determined—whether the well exists, whether the plastic shed is burning, what’s false and what’s real, this is Murakami’s favorite trick. Before this, Li Cangdong never played this set. Li Cangdong's films are true to the core, and this kind of verbal metaphor is the first time he has appeared in his works. Perhaps he was influenced by Murakami unconsciously, or he deliberately borrowed Murakami's style.
This work also inherits the same theme as the original: the alienation and differentiation of people in capitalist society. People are no longer called people, but reduced to the existence of warehouses (plastic sheds). In the short story "Burning the Barn", Murakami only briefly glanced at the theme, while in "Burning", Li Cangdong made a more comprehensive presentation. Ben's life is more fully revealed, his personality, his hobbies, and what kind of social circle he has, Li Changdong has portrayed an elegant and rich young man for us. The male protagonist Zhongxiu and the heroine Huimei and Ben are in stark contrast. Huimei's admiration for Ben, Zhongxiu's embarrassment and discomfort in front of Ben, all highlight the class gap that cannot be bridged between them.
But "Burning" is very different from "Burning the Barn". In "Burning the Barn", the narrator only told such a story. Although he was also curious about the burned barn, he did not pursue it, but "in the dark of night, I thought about the burned barn from time to time". He is a mature man in his thirties, with a family and a career, and an insider in a capitalist society. As Ben said in "Burning the Barn" (this person is unknown in the novel, let's call him Ben for the time being), you are a novelist, and I think you can enjoy it as it is before making a judgment on it, saying that you accept it in its entirety It's not impossible.
It is also for this reason that in "Burning", Ben has a good impression of Zhong Xiu from the very beginning, and said to Zhong Xiu: I heard that you are writing novels, and I also want to find an opportunity to tell you my story. In his eyes, the identity of a novelist has given Zhong Xiu a halo. Although he has not yet written a novel, he is different from the people at the bottom after all. So he treats Jong-soo as a friend and invites him home to the party even after Hye-mi is gone.
But this time he was wrong.
Zhongxiu and the "I" in "Burning the Barn" are two completely different people. Zhong Xiu was born in a farmer, and was a poor young man with odd jobs, daydreams of being a writer, and barely making ends meet. He is an outsider in this capitalist society. The difference between him and Emi is that he has no vision for the so-called high society. That's why, when Emi danced intoxicatedly in front of Ben's friends, he could detect the mocking expressions of these people and Ben's bored yawn.
In this day and age, play and work are more and more alike, says Ben. He told Zhong Xiu, you are too serious, you have to learn to enjoy and hear the voice of bass in your heart. Zhongxiu didn't speak, he looked at Ben at that moment, what was he thinking? Presumably think of Ben as an alien from another world. If your mother abandoned you since you were a child, your father is facing jail, and you are an unemployed youth who is worried about food and clothing, can you still talk freely about the voice of bass? By the way, Ben's father also represents a type of person in the current society: he clearly has the opportunity to develop, but he dismisses it, insists on his own ideas, and ends up miserably.
Zhong Xiu is not the "me" in "Burning the Barn". He's not a novelist who can enjoy everything, and there are so many things he doesn't understand. He said, the world is like a huge mystery to me. But he knew it was wrong to kill, you killed my love, so I killed you.
Haruki Murakami asked questions, while Li Cangdong delved into the answers. It is not the answer to solve the problem and make the world a better place, but, when this question is asked, how will young people answer it? In the end, Li Cangdong told us with Zhong Xiu's few knives that this young man couldn't give an answer. He could only destroy others and himself.
To add a word, Zhongxiu's following Ben in the second half of the movie always reminds me of Nolan's "Following". Nolan, watch and study hard. Compared with Li Cangdong, you are a follower of a hammer.
Finally back to Ben. As Jong Soo said, he is the Gatsby of Korea. But he was far different from Gatsby. Times have changed. If the people of the Jazz Age cheered for the gold floating in the air, then the rich people of our age have long been numb to the gold. They had long since abandoned any dreams, and Ben didn't have a wish that had to be fulfilled like Gatsby. Ben must think Gatsby is stupid, why should you think about a woman? You have to enjoy life, you have to hear the voice of Beth in your heart, and women are just one barn after another. Ben has no goals, no regrets, spends long hours on red wine and marijuana, and spends his life enjoying himself.
Actually, I think Zhongxiu is more like Gatsby than Ben. The gleam of sunlight he saw when he and Emi had sex for the first time was the green light for Daisy's house in Gatsby's eyes. After Emi left, he always liked to look out the window and masturbate to the sunlight. Sunshine represents his hope, and masturbation is his disillusionment. The knife he stabbed was his anger, but after venting his anger, he still didn't know what to do. A century has passed since Gatsby's time, and facing this world, young people still have no answers.
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