Burning

Even the damn metaphors are metaphors. All the time spent running and driving and pondering and waiting with Jong-su accomplishes so much more than just limiting the viewer to his perspective and manufacturing empathy for his disposition. As many point out, Miyazaki has a propensity to linger with his characters when they find themselves in a liminal space (Totoro spends so much tagging along with the everyday whims of its protagonists, the Spirited Away train, but also that entire movie is literally set between two worlds - same goes for Mononoke (yikes these don’t even really apply to the point i'm about to make but it felt cool to realize this omg the end ofHowls too)). But basically I'm thinking abt Miyazaki again because he values spending time with characters while they journey through the empty space between “action”. He typically deploys this concept, “ma” in Japanese, as a moment of rest to allow for imagination, reflection, rhythm, and introspection. It just might be the primary reason why everyone describes his films as dreamlike, but (finally got to the segway) the longer you confine someone in a liminal state, the easier it is for tension and dread and anxiety and solitude to creep into their day-dream. Miyazaki’s mastery lies in understanding precisely how long it will take for the uneasiness of silence to entrench itself in the subconscious, choosing only then to allow the audience back to the status quo. In Burning, director Lee Chang-dong, dares posit the question: what if I were to try and find out just how long it takes for liminal anxiety and dread to gain total control over my audience’s psyche?