Burning ending explained

What happens

Convinced Ben has killed Hae-mi, Jong-su meets him near the farm and stabs him to death. He burns the body in Ben's Porsche, then drives away. The film never confirms that his certainty was right.

The last image

Naked and crying, Jong-su drives away from the burning car.

Three readings

1 · Ben was guiltyThe watch, the drawer of accessories and the cat suggest Ben really did harm Hae-mi.

2 · Jong-su imagined itNothing is proven, so his certainty may be a story he wrote to end his doubt.

3 · Rage found a targetWhatever Ben did, Jong-su's long-buried anger at his own powerlessness finally had somewhere to go.

What it says

The film ends on action because doubt is hard to live with. It asks whether certainty is knowledge or only the need to stop wondering, and it makes you share that need, so you stay uncomfortable with your own judgment.