With all the confirmed-unconfirmed-confirmed news every month, Lee Chang Dong’s most anticipated movie “Burning (버닝)” could most likely be accused of trolling the movie buffs and actor’s fans. Sadly, the director is no troll. The situations around him are trolling him.
On January 24, news outlet reveals that the director Lee Chang Dong’s movie “Burning” is actually an adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s short story.
Haruki Murakami is a famous Japanese writer. His books and stories have been bestsellers in Japan as well as internationally, with his work being translated into 50 languages and selling millions of copies outside his native country. The critical acclaim for his fiction and non-fiction has led to numerous awards, in Japan and international. He is one of Yoo Ah In’s favorite writers. Yoo Ah In has once instagrammed a paragraph of Haruki’s first novel “Hear the Wind Sing” [read here].
Rumors has it that “Burning” is based on Haruki’s notable novel “Norwegian Wood”. The production company states that this is not true. “Burning” is an adaptation of a short story by Haruki Murakami. The title of that short story hasn’t been revealed yet by Lee Chang Dong.
Originally, “Burning” set to film on November 3 last year. However, due to various reasons, it got delayed at the end of November. What’s the production problem that’s putting the movie on hold? The answer is, apparently, copyright issue.
Years ago, NHK (major Japanese publishing company that holds the copyrights for Haruki’s works) has met with the director Lee Chang Dong, and asked him to create a movie based on a short story by Haruki. It is one of the art projects in which NHK collaborated with international writers for works based on novels by Murakami Haruki.
The movie was supposed to start filming last November. But, the fact that Haruki is having a disagreement with NHK has caused this delay. Haruki likes the fact that director Lee Chang Dong will be adapting his work into motion picture. His problem is solely with the publishing company NHK.
As Murakami Haruki and NHK hasn’t settled down the copyright issue, “Burning” has a new filming date, and that’s August this year. The copyright issue hasn’t been resolved yet, but the director will keep on working on the movie details hoping that everything will be resolved by the month of August.
Only confirmed actors are Yoo Ah In and Kang Dong Won. Auditions are still being held for the female lead. Former f(X) member Sulli is only mentioned because the director had a meeting with her. She’s not officially confirmed. In one of the articles, they mentioned that the film was about to start in 2013 (no copyright issue back then) with Won Bin, Zhang Ziyi, and Sol Kyung Gu. But Lee Chang Dong changed his opinion.
At the moment, Yoo Ah In is still waiting for the fourth physical re-examination [due to his shoulder injury/ligament rupture on his shoulder] from the military manpower administration. Yoo Ah In’s military issue could prevent him from joining the movie, which would be “unfortunate”, because it will be highly interesting to see how the worlds of director Lee Chang Dong and Murakami Haruki would harmonize together, and what kind of picture Yoo Ah In would paint.
Further update on Yoo Ah In’s enlistment as of below:
Yoo Ah In is catching fire with issues related to his enlistment and re-examination, especially he became the target of President Park Geun Hye’s fans (yes, she has fans). They want to sue Yoo Ah In. They’re using his recent candlelight rally participation and trying to accuse him of purposely “avoiding military enlistment” even though he was officially checked by the military health check-up and is scheduled for a re-check so that he can participate in the military [read “Yoo Ah In’s military enlistment put on hold” here]. Luckily, Dispatch got his back and revealed this situation, which got more people to support Yoo Ah In [read here].
On the 27th of December last year, Yoo Ah In received three judgments of suspension of military service due to a shoulder injury, and he said that he was undergoing rehabilitation in order to enlist. The Military Manpower Administration (MAA) and Yoo Ah In have repeatedly stated that nothing was set except that he is to be re-examined.
In the afternoon of the 5th of January, Yoo Ah In spoke with OSEN, “There is no notification from the MMA regarding the re-examination. There is no change in the official announcement that they made last December, which is that I will re-examined to join the military.”
The Daegu Regional Military Manpower Administration, which is in charge of re-examining Yoo Ah In, also spoke to OSEN at the same time. The Daegu Regional MMA said, “It is true that Yoo Ah In is enlisted under the Daegu Regional MMA, but regarding his re-examination, we cannot confirm it because it is considered personal information.”
During the same afternoon, the spokesperson of the Military Manpower Administration gave his point of view to OSEN, and it was similar to the one given by the Daegu Regional Military Manpower Administration. He said, “Mr. Yoo Ah In has received a current rating hold, and after he gets re-examined, he will find out whether he will serve active duty or supplementary duty (like social work services). Other facts are personal information of Yoo Ah In, so there is no fact to confirm.”
He also said, “The MMA does not set a re-examination period every three months. The doctor who is in charge makes his decision based on each individual. Each enlisting applicant is different when it comes to his pain condition. With such situations, the period of time (for the next re-examination) can’t be decided. The decision to hold a military service grade shall be made entirely by the conscription doctor. Even if it is not Yoo Ah In’s case, there is also a case where a single illness is judged for up to two years.” [Don’t freak out yet! The spokeperson only gives an example for other worst cases]
Finally, the MMA hasn’t announced whether Yoo Ah In will be re-examined after March, and it seems that Yoo Ah In’s side has not been notified either.
Now here’s our thought:
Basically, MMA doesn’t want to say publicly when his re-examination will take place, and they indicate that it could take longer than 3 months of waiting. They didn’t specify a thing. It’s like they said, “it’s up for the doctor, we don’t know and we can’t give statements guesses.”
So, in the meantime, rather than staying in a limbo of doing nothing, Yoo Ah In actually can do something fruitful with the time he’s wasting just waiting, such as taking another role in a fantastic movie like “Burning”. Remember, he took 50 episodes and six months of shooting of “Six Flying Dragons” after MAA postponed him in 2015. Filming a movie could only take two to three months.
We also hope that the copyright issue between Murakami and NHK will be solved soon (or better yet, sooner than expected) and that Yoo Ah In can be a part of this awesomeness. Let’s pray for Yoo Ah In and send him positive vibes! <img src="https://s0.wp.com/wp-content/mu-plugins/wpcom-smileys/twemoji/2/72x72/1f64f.png" alt="