Among the most acclaimed films from 2018's Cannes festival, Lee Chang-Dong's first feature in nearly eight years came full of expectations - and boy, does it deliver. This mesmerizing character study kicks off with an unexpected encounter between protagonist Lee Jong-su, a quiet, restrained young man who tends to his father's property - located near the border with North Korea, one of the many ways in which the narrative conveys its unique sense of unease - while he battles in court over his alarming anger issues, and Shin Hae-mi, a wide-eyed, lonely girl with an unsettling penchant for pantomime, who finds herself lost, in a perennial journey to find purpose - or the Great Hunger, as she tells an amused Jong-su. As the two get to know each other again, years after Lee disregarded her in school, they engage in a surprisingly delicate and beautifully filmed encounter, whose dreamy quality he tenderly nourishes, only for Hae-mi to quickly escape, some time later, into another one of her trips. When she returns from Nairobi, the thin glimmer of light that is their relationship evaporates, replaced by an ineroxably growing tension. This is due to the introduction of Ben, the ever-smiling and mysterious man she encountered in Africa. Jong-su is visibly taken aback by his presence, and over the course of a few reunions, his uncanny wealth and excesses provide the audience with discomfort - that is, until Hae-mi suddenly vanishes. From then on, the film becomes a feast of paranoia, barely contained fury, and relentless search for the truth. Was her disappearance obvious from the start, a distant girl with nothing to hold on simply cutting all ties with her world? Or does it have something to do with the uncanny hobby Ben revealed to Lee shortly before she finds herself gone? There is nary a moment wasted throughout its long and breathtaking two and a half hours, that elevate its surreal source material to a rare kind of arthouse thriller, whose slow burning quality finally explodes in a cathartic and ultimately unavoidable ending. Bursting with memorable imagery, richly underpinned by a variety of subtexts such as class tension, misogyny, and anger, impeccably acted and miraculously directed, "Burning" reveals itself as one of the best movies of year. It is self-contained, agressive, and frantic all at once. A must-see for any fan of Murakami - and for anyone who craves a tale of loss and revenge.