What Happened to Hae-mi at the End of Burning (2018): Ending Explained

Burning is a ‘mystery-thriller’ movie, released in 2018, directed by Lee Chang-dong, is loosely based on a short story by Haruki Murakami. The storyline has a psychological mystery that explores obsession, jealousy, and strange behaviors among the three characters.

It follows Jong-su, the lead character, an aimless young writer, who reconnects with Hae-mi (potential love interest), his childhood acquaintance. Hae-mi works as a promotional dancer, who recognizes Jong-su and slips in a coupon that makes him win from the shop. Turns out, he won a “pink watch”, which Hae-mi wears, talking about how she never got to wear a watch ever. Things turn strange when Hae-mi returns from a trip to Africa, with a newly formed friendly relationship with ‘Ben’, who is wealthy and a mysterious man.

Movie reveals turning points when Hae-mi suddenly vanishes. The shift happens the day after the three get high, and she drives off with Ben. Jong-su suspects, in a passive way, that Ben had something to do with her disappearance. Burning is a slow-burn story that you will expect to unfold gradually, but the long silences sustain until the end. The climax is promising, but it is ambiguous, and viewers are left with piecing together clues. So, if you’re wondering what really happened in the burning, keep reading:

What’s the deal with the psychopath: Ben?

Ben is a character in the movie that enters the scene with his enigmatic nature. It makes him the central figure for the film to explore class disparity, psychological smartness, mysterious life, and human psychology.

He is portrayed as wealthy, who hangs out with friends from urban life. His house, cars, and furniture are portrayed dark with a golden hint to set his character’s tone. His background remains unknown, as when questioned about his occupation, he answers vaguely. As a thriller-obsessed movie nerd, one can tell the psychopath vibe that you get from him. His luxurious lifestyle contrasts with the existence of Jong-su and Hae-mi’s struggling lifestyle.

The difference is beautifully portrayed when Jong-su and Hae-mi visits Ben’s house for the first time, and smokes in the gallery portraying cheap love, while Ben preparing paste in his fancy dishes, with premium choice.

One of the most chilling moments in the film was when Ben casually confessed to Jong-su about his peculiar hobby. Yes, this hobby connects the ending well with this movie. Ben’s hobby is burning down abandoned greenhouses every two months. This revelation is delivered as a casual question mark to audiences, why would he burn down greenhouses?

The metaphorical implications of his confession become more apparent as the narrative unfolds. Ben is killed by Jong-su in the end, in the car, burning! He was the greenhouse who died the most deserving death.

His ”greenhouse burning” hobby could be connected well with his pattern of meeting and forming relationships with quirky and full-of-life women. The burning signifies the discarding of the women, once his interest wanes. Serial-killing is portrayed in this film, without uttering anything about it.

When Jong-su first visited Ben’s house, he went to the bathroom and opened the shelf to find several ornaments. It seems, Ben collected bracelets, watches, or any piece of jewelleries in his drawer, signifying the win for each killing or green house burning (as per him). But how did Jong-su confirm this?

The Cat was Confirmation in Burning (2018)'s Ending

Remember, the first time that Jong-su visited Hae-mi’s room, she asked him to feed her cat. It was a one-room apartment, but the cat was nowhere to be found. As the audience and even Jong-su suspected, there was no cat.

The story builds on this thought that Hae-mi often talks rubbish or creates imaginations in her mind. Throughout the film, there have been instances of Hae-mi talking about her cat, saying she hides and is shy. She talks about falling down in a well, in childhood, but when Jong-su visits her family, they deny the possibility.

They even add that “she often imagines things that are never right”. The film feeds us the idea, starting with the cat, that Hae-mi might be a pathological liar.

But then Hae-mi disappears.

And when Jong-su visits Ben’s apartment after the disappearance, he hears a noise. He asks, “what was the noise”? Ben replies that it’s a stray cat that he found nearby. Jong-su sees the cat, and then the story moves to Jong-su going to the bathroom. He opens the shelf again.

This time he finds the “pink watch” kept with the other ornaments. The same pink watch. He rushes out of the bathroom, but right then, a friend of Ben arrives and leaves the door open, the cat rushes out. Ben, Jong-su, and another new girl (possible new target), find the cat in the garage. All of them shouts, “Cat where are you”, apparently, the cat had no name. Jong-su looks behind a car slowly and finds the cat shying away and sitting quietly. He begins to go close to the cat, he calls kitty, kitty, and then whispers, “Boil”, and the cat turns to him.

It was confirmation.

Boil, the name of the girl’s cat, and the cat acted on it. It was quiet, subtle, but a chilling moment. This moment felt like a gunshot, for Jong-su and the audience. It was confirmation that Ben had access to Hae-mi’s life and possessions. That cat, which was supposedly too shy to appear, now lives in Ben’s apartment. This moment was enough to shatter any illusion of coincidence.

The Loop Begins

After Hae-mi’s disappearance, and Jong-su subtly find out about Hae-mi through the cat’s confirmation, the loop of Ben begins again. Ben shows no signs of disruption, instead, he continues life as usual. He was smiling, hosting dinner parties, and socializing like before.

During one such party, the loop begins again when Ben brought a new girl. She was cheerful, talkative, and was almost painfully reminiscent of Hae-mi.

This is the cycle restarting. As an audience, you can pick on the moment of serial killing observation, which is starting yet again. However, the film never speaks about it or explains it. It metaphorically portrays the things that you need to know. Ben brings out his makeup suitcase from the bathroom shelf, and brushes on the new girl’s lips, hinting the next preparation to burn a greenhouse.

Ben’s sophistication and wealth blinded the people behind his act, it was too subtle, like it was part of his routine. He was hidden well behind his charm.

Jong-Su’s realization comes too late, he couldn’t pick on that charm, or he could have understood that Ben never set fire to greenhouses. He sets fire to people. And the ashes were always invisible into thin air. 

Why Jong-su kill Ben: Justice or Delusion?

The final scene. It was the final act in burning. The brutal killing of Ben, which can be seen as both an attempt at justice and delusional killing on how as an audience we interpret things leading up to that moment. Let us explore these two ways:

Justice

From Jong-su’s perspective, Ben represents everything that is wrong in the world. He’s rich, detached, and devoid of any moral representations. It is confirmed that Ben has caused the destruction of Hae-mi, the one person Jong-su truly cared about. The evidence of the pink watch and the cat’s name pointed at him. The confession about burning “greenhouses” was used as a metaphor for destroying lives.

To Jong-su, Ben is not just a suspect, but the jealousy that he felt when he arrived with Hae-mi and suddenly became close to her. In this light, the situations that led up to the killing become a form of Justice.  His ability to kill can also be traced back to his father, who has assaulted or in dispute and now going to jail. Further, when he met his mother after a decade, he was not interested in her but about finding Hae-mi as he asked if she saw a well near Hae-mi’s house, and she confirmed “yes”.

This also confirmed that Hae-mi never lied.

As Jong-su in his mind is avenging Hae-mi, righting a wrong in the only way he feels possible was killing Ben like a greenhouse burning.

Delusion

The take of delusion would be that burning offers no concrete evidence that Ben actually killed Hae-mi. There are no confessions, no body, no irrefutable proof, or no mention of any details. The metaphors and symbolism worked well to portray the happenings. Jong-su’s conclusion may be based on the desire for closure rather than actual justice. His growing paranoia might have fed him the conviction that Ben is guilty. Since there has been no concrete connection or proof, the delusional mind can perceive the ending as acting on belief rather than fact.

Overall, whether Jong-su kills Ben for justice or out of delusion, it is left open to interpretation. As an audience, you can be curious to justify the ending in your creative way. It’s the film’s ambiguity that keeps us asking questions like, was it right? was it real?

Or was it just another cycle of violence, a twisted response to a world that never provided answers?