The recent thriller mystery movie Burning from South Korea directed by Lee Chang-dong gives rise to the in-depth consideration of my identity in this complex society. The story centers around mysteries that happened among three people from distinctive classes. Lee Jong-su is a young man from a broken family performing part-time jobs in Peju where he came across his childhood neighbor and later his trusted friend Hae-mi. Hae-mi does model for a living. She has trouble paying off her debt and also lives a struggling life. On her trip to Africa, Hae-mi got to know Ben, a wealthy young man. Ben achieved great success at a young age, he once told Jong-su that he has a hobby of burning plastic greenhouse because it means nothing to him and those burning plastic greenhouses give him a sense of relaxation. The movie goes on with constant mysteries showing up, such as the disappearance of Hea-mi, the existence of Hae-mi’s cat, Ben’s secret of killing, and so on. The whole movie swings between virtual and reality. It contains a lot of metaphors that subtly reflect the characters’ identity and social reality. One of explicit reality is the difficult employment situation of youth in Korean, in other words, the issue of the hard to change class solidification. Jong-su and Hae-mi are representatives of youth that struggle to find their place in a competitive society, they do not know their identity or the meaning of their lives. They are the subalterns who live at the bottom of society, the pressure and difficulties give birth to their anger, but there is nowhere to release these negative emotions. And these emotions get stronger when they meet people who possess high social class and take what they have long desired for granted.
After ran into Hae-mi, Jong-su realized that he has found his own greenhouse, a place he can get comfort and support. However, with the disappearance of Hae-mi, and the Hae-mi’s belongings he found in Ben’s house along with all other “spoils of war” in Ben’s personal collection, he believes that Ben killed Hae-mi. His only greenhouse got burned. There is a scene in the movie that presents a burning greenhouse in front of a young boy, it is a scene that appeared in Jong-su’s dream. He is burning because of the disappearance of the only meaning of his existence. He is burning because it is so easy for Ben to take away his hope. He is burning because he has to accept the reality that people like him and Hae-mi are just these burning greenhouses that nobody cares about them or means nothing to people like Ben. They are the “perfect” models of the subaltern and the other we have learned in this class who live with the struggle of letting themselves be heard or letting themselves be recognized. It seems to be an impossible mission for them to move up their social class. The relationship between Ben and Jong-su and the different meanings of greenhouse reveal the insurmountable gap among classes. Lee I believe there are many people out there burning just like Jong-su and maybe some of us will eventually join them in the future when we enter society. It is an unchangeable injustice that we have to accept probably for the rest of our lives.
The dramatic ending and mysterious metaphors interspersed with the plots present an authentic image of the subaltern and other identities. The friction among different social classes, the collision of different identities, and the cruel reality of classism presented in this movie bring the othering concept to a more intricate level. To Ben, burning greenhouse is a hobby, greenhouse means nothing but a toy that pleases him. While to Jong-su, the greenhouse is a hope. To students, I think the metaphor of plastic greenhouse is also a concept worth us to explore further for clear understanding of our identities.
