'Burning' features beleaguered youth of the time

Director Lee Chang-dong speaks about his upcoming film “Burning” at a CGV theater in Seoul during a press conference, Friday. /Courtesy of CGV Arthouse

By Park Jin-hai

“For the young generation of today, engulfed in helplessness and rage, the world would come as a big conundrum,” said director Lee Chang-dong, talking about his upcoming film “Burning” that entered the competition at this year's Cannes Film Festival.

The international film festival kicked off Tuesday in France's southern coastal city until May 19, and Lee's latest film is slated to have a world premiere there on May 16.

Prior to his departure for the festival, the 63-year-old director said he needed time to ponder what to tell through his film, adding that “Burning,” breaking his eight-year hiatus, is the outcome of his sympathy for the current young generation.

“As a teacher, I shared their way of looking at the world. The result has been Burning,” said the director, who taught high school Korean literature between 1981 and 1986. He debuted as a novelist in 1983 and started his film career in 1993 as a screenwriter for the fantasy film “To the Starry Island.”

“I think the current young generation is the first generation that is worse off than their parents' generation. The world develops but they feel despair because such development cannot make their life any better. In the past, when life gets harder, it was easy to spot what causes the hardships, but nowadays it has become hard to find what to blame for their hopeless future,” the director said during a recent press conference in Seoul. “It is a story of those youth harboring helplessness and rage facing a mysterious situation.”

Starring actor Yoo Ah-in from “Veteran” and Hollywood actor Steven Yeun of the U.S. television series “The Walking Dead,” “Burning” is an adaptation of famed Japanese author Haruki Murakami's short story “Barn Burning,” telling the story of two young men and a woman in their 20s getting involved in a mysterious incident. One of the men makes the unusual claim that he is an arsonist.

Lee says title “Burning” is intended to mean the expression that youth often use when they devote themselves enthusiastically to something they like, but also to tell the ironic situation of today that they cannot ignite the flame even if they want to.

Lee made his directorial debut with “Green Fish” in 1996, and has probed into an acute social and ethical issues and epochal changes, thorough his projects like “Peppermint Candy,” “Oasis” and “Secret Sunshine.”

Distancing himself from his previous works, Lee said his upcoming movie puts more emphasis on expressing emotions and senses than delivering ethical messages. “I wanted to communicate with youth though the same sense of feelings they have,” he said.

Lee has been a mainstay at the Cannes international film festival. His second film “Peppermint Candy” was invited to Director's Fortnight in 2000. His fourth film “Secret Sunshine” made a foray into the Cannes competition section and its leading actress Jeon Do-yeon won the trophy for the Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007. In 2009, Lee was appointed as a jury panelist for the 61st Cannes Film Festival and won the Best Screenplay for “Poetry” in 2010.