'Burning' (2018) - Lee Chang-Dong.

This nuanced, beautifully acted, consistently intriguing Korean thriller certainly merits its many five-star testimonials, since the beguiling, deliciously elusive mystery at the heart of 'Burning' proved to be exquisitely enigmatic! Achingly lovely at times, there's an additionally haunting atmosphere throughout, and director, Lee Chang-Dong masterfully orchestrates some tense, palpably Hitchcockian levels of suspense. 

The increasingly uneasy union of our three fascinatingly divergent protagonists suffused with an existential melancholy that I found enormously appealing! Superbly visual, Lee Chang-Dong's captivating mise-en-scène has a rich literary quality which beguiles the viewer no less absolutely than an engrossing novel. Imbued with a tantalizing opacity, partially exposing its dark secrets in an immaculately composed slow burn, this profoundly aesthetic thriller also has a rigorously humane core. Not unlike the uniquely soothing balm of completely losing oneself in music, the two hundred and twenty spellbinding minutes of 'Burning' provides an equally immersive experience!