Burning still holds up to multiple viewings, because it’s not really about one particular mystery regarding a missing young woman. The film is dealing with a much bigger mystery…what is our purpose in life?

| Oct 10, 2024

But no matter which way you choose to interpret the film, we’re left with a hauntingly engrossing experience that’s going to gnaw away at my psyche for weeks to come.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 14, 2024

... A captivating film that explores mysteries, class struggles, and fiery love triangles. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 9/10 | Jan 2, 2024

Perfectly calibrated as a piece dependent on nuanced performances and an exacting tone, Burning rewards those willing to invest and engage in all that Lee refuses to spell-out or show to his audience.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Mar 4, 2022

Episode 20: When Jeff Tried To Save The World / Creed II / The Ballad of Buster Scruggs / The World Is Yours / Burning

| Original Score: 75/100 | Sep 3, 2021

Characters and viewers are taken on a journey that both fascinates and unsettles.

| Original Score: 9/10 | Jul 30, 2021

Burning is a slow-burn thriller that is utterly captivating from beginning to end. It's economic emasculation that brings inevitable violence. It's Lee's script that shines: layered with hefty metaphors and symbolism, yet the film is surprisingly subtle.

| Feb 13, 2021

Lee Chang-dong's potent drama sparks unconventional mysteries

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 19, 2020

It unfolds like a poem in its esotericism, wearing the ambiguity on its sleeves that make for something almost entirely transfixing.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Jul 24, 2020

It's an epic, eloquent, lyrical, stunningly lensed (by Hong Kyung-pyo) tragedy that will likely be one of the toughest films of 2018 to shed.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 7, 2020

Whether deliberate or tedious, meditative or dull, depends on the eye of the beholder, and as thrilling and fantastic as certain elements are, other tested the bounds of patience.

| Original Score: B- | Jun 30, 2020

The filmmaking is assured to the point where long takes go unnoticed, and the impeccable pace makes the 148-minute running time feel all too short[.]

| Jun 30, 2020

as often happens in the films of Lee, there comes a mysterious moment when the scattered threads of the plot begin to tie together, and Burning suddenly moves up to a higher level of intensity.

| Jun 26, 2020

Lee Chang-dong delivers what may be cinema's most elliptical serial killer drama...

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 22, 2020

Burning is so engrossing it makes you wish you didn't have to blink.

| Dec 6, 2019

Despite the uneven narrative, Burning is a visually striking slow-burner of a mystery with three intriguing performances.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 8, 2019

Lee's screenplay balances the drama and intrigue beautifully, suggesting fully the dangerous volatility of the heart while never stooping to easy, sensationalistic tricks.

| Oct 23, 2019

Burning is a superior thriller with a double edge - a film that's about a doomed romantic obsession and also a social critique that lays bare the impotency of an outsider seeking to understand the opaque world of the mega rich.

| Sep 24, 2019

Lee is patient with the story. He illustrates the rather grim reality of how circumstance and people can define you and shape your perception of the world for better or worse.

| Jul 3, 2019

Lee Jongsu, a country boy drifting through life alone as a delivery man, is out of his depth from day one when he re-connects with the mercurial Haemi from his schooldays.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 23, 2019