Review: Joint Security Area (2000)
The stunning final image
Joint Security Area (2000)
8/10
Humanizing conflicts is something that film tends to do very well. The medium gives an opportunity to highlight that, in the end, we are all people. It may sound like a corny sentiment but it is nevertheless an important one and film has the capacity to ground the after-school special feel of the statement in a very touching and brutal way. Joint Security Area or JSA takes the division between North and South Korea and bridges the gap between the two with a tragic story of connection, friendship and ultimately tragedy.
JSA starts out as a procedural drama but the majority of the film is shown through flashbacks, emerging as a story of forbidden friendship. The DMZ is the Korean Demilitarized Zone, the neutral stretch of land between North and South Korea which is heavily guarded from both sides. The Joint Security Area is the part of the DMZ where officers from both sides actually face each other. When two North Korean officers are killed at one of their border houses, this leads to gunfire on both sides being exchanged and Swiss Army Major Sophie Jang (Lee Young Ae) is brought in to launch an investigation and to make sure the small conflict does not escalate into full scale war. A South Korean, Sergeant Lee Soo-hyeok (Lee Byung-hun) sustained a leg injury and has confessed to the shootings but his account of events contradicts with North Korean Sergeant Oh Kyeong-Pil’s (Song Kang-Ho) account of events. The film then transforms, through a flashback segment that takes up most of the film, what really happened in the months leading up to the shooting.
It turns out that for months, Lee Soo-hyeok and Oh Kyeong-Pil had been meeting up for months in the boarder house along with Private Jeong Woo-jin (Shin Ha-kyun) from the North and Private Nam Sung-Shik (Kim Tae Woo) from the South. We see the beginning of their friendship when Kyeong-Pil helps Soo-hyeok out of a land mine. All four of them eventually strike up a distinctly touching friendship as they do things from simply hanging out to having discussions to playing games normally associated with children. They push everything else aside when they are with each other and refuse to let things get too serious. They think of themselves as being the unification of the two Koreas in a way. From there, the friendship takes a turn on the night of the shootings as we find out what actually happened.
The film’s best scenes are of course the ones that deal with the friendship between the four soldiers. Director Park Chan-Wook puts in little moments that further humanize the situation and make them sort of childlike figures in the presence of one another. The standout example of this, which may be my favorite scene in the film, is when Soo-hyeok and Kyeong-Pil stand across from each other during the day at their posts. They begin to smile at each other and they soon start spitting across the border line and stifling their laughter. It is not only a genuinely funny scene but it shows them striving to make their connections with one another outside of their border house meetings. The border line is made irrelevant because of the mere spit from two friends. It is pretty amazing and beautifully simple.The growth and specificity of the friendship and dynamic within a very prevalent conflict makes the film notable both in dealing with current history and as successfully highlighting male friendship and the act of connection.
Lee Byung-hun and Song Kang-ho in JSA
The actors are essential pieces to this film and it certainly helps that Song Kang-ho and Lee Byung-hun are my two favorite South Korean actors. This was Lee Byung-hun’s breakout role and he makes Soo-hyeok a troubled figure in a great performance. His connection with these fellow officers might mean more to him than the others in that he seems lost in the world. This safe haven means a lot to him and while we never quite get into his past or his feelings the way I would have liked, Byung-hun makes him someone that is in a transitional stage and is finding out who he is which makes his scenes with Kyeong-Pil especially poignant as he looks to him as a sort of mentor figure. Song Kang-ho; what is there to say about him at this point? The man is a master and he is consistently fascinating to watch. We learn a bit more about Kyeong-Pil in that he has been abroad as an officer and yet works at the DMZ. He needs this as much as Soo-hyeok and Song Kang-ho makes the character one of with some layers of false confidence but in a very subtle way. He is a man who is trying to make the most of where he is. While I would have liked a bit more information about the characters, an important aspect of the film is to emphasize the group dynamic and their existence as a unit so it is almost necessary for the haracters to function this way.
Park Chan-Wook is one of the most captivating filmmakers working today. Something truly great about him is that while he has certain thematic and technical stylistics that are present in some way, each film of his feels individually distinct. Instead of trying to make the stories fit his directing aesthetic, Park molds his technique to the story, letting it guide him and his choices. He is more relaxed as a director. He is working somewhere in between the minimalist approach of Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and the kinetic energy of Oldboy. The procedural bookends of the film are shot in a static way that fits the subgenre. He does a lot of great panning shots during the scenes in the border house to link the friends together by not cutting to each of them when they speak but keeping fluidity between the four officers. Something else that the film succeeds wonderfully in is that both the North Korean and South Korean officers are depicted as human beings and neither is in any way shaped as characters based on which side they come from.
It is frightening how relevant JSA is ten years after its release. The film’s success means more than having done a good job in the medium. While the conflict should certainly not be simplified by using the film as a blanket example for the people or situation at hand, it has the power to bring a genuine humanity to it that moves people and makes them think. If people can find their way to JSA, they should really make a point to see it as it takes the two divisive sides of Korea and unifies them with four characters that are just looking for a friend.
Screen Adventure
I love it, Chan Wook Park is one of my favourite film makers and the restraint he shows in this films is really impressive. I know that in South Korea they consider this their greatest film - I assume north Korea just sees it as propaganda.
Also Lee Byung-hun and Song Kang-ho are the two best asian actors working in film today!
20/20 Filmsight
Screen Fanatic
Screen Adventure
Park is probably my favourite director working today. Matt, you should add this one to the front of your 'I want to see this ASAP list', Old Boy was awesome but JSA is actually moving
Cinema Enthusiast
Thoughts from a Cinephile
Thoughts from a TV Watcher
Matt Shea - Definitely see it soon!
David - I would probably place this slightly above Thirst but I actually really loved both films. Thirst was plodding in its second half and he seemed to completely lose focus after a while but overall I thought it was great and it was a blast to watch. Thanks for reading!