(aka "Joint Security Area" or "Gongdong gyeongbi guyeok")

directed by Park Chan-wook
South Korea 2000

In a remote part of Korea, there runs a small river. A beautiful stretch of land, picturesque one would say, surrounded by woods. Across the river is a simple bridge. It all would make a beautiful postcard. However, the river divides Korea into capitalistic South and communistic North – and the bridge is Joint Security Area.

At 2:16am, October 28, in a recent year, a South Korean soldier is attempting to cross the bridge from the North. After an exchange of fire, the wounded soldier is rescued. In the military investigation that follows, three dead soldiers are found in the North Korea border post: One South Korean, Two North Korean. North Korea accuses him of being a spy, having attacking the post with a fellow soldier, South Korea accuses the North of having kidnapped the two soldiers and “interrogated” them. As if the political climate wasn’t tense enough, this incident puts both sides on alert.

Two military investigators, a Swede and a Korean born Swiss, arrive at the border to investigate the incident. This is the set-up for “JSA”, one of the best Korean films to date, directed by Park Chan-wook, who also made “Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance” and the critical acclaimed “Old Boy”.

Park is a philosophy major, who during collage got fascinated with film and who went on to be assistant director on Gwak Jae-young’ “A Sketch of a Rainy Day” (1988). He got his breakthrough with “JSA”, after two poorly received films, which went on to be the highest grossing Korean film to date.

At the centre of Park’s films are ordinary humans, who are driven to extremes, but also a social aware motif, of ordinary humans fighting against an irrational force. In “Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance” its need for 10 million won, in “Old Boy” it’s the prisoner and in “JSA” it’s the division of Korea.

But while “JSA” is very political, the characters are not. Where it begins as a politic thriller, it soon, by the investigation, turns into a story about four friends, caught up in the conflict between North and South Korea. None were spies, none were kidnapped and when we, towards the end of the film, are shown the actual events, its basically anticlimactic in its simplicity.

Throughout the film, Park underlines the two faces of the conflict: On one side, we have the political, military apparatus, on the other side, we have ordinary human beings, who can reason and who have a heart. This is beautifully stressed in the sequences, where two border patrols meet each other and the captains walk towards each other and have a cigarette together.

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Theatrical Release: September 9, 2000

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DVD Review: Modern Audio - Region 3 - NTSC

Big thanks to Henrik Sylow for the Review!

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