Search - Joint Security Area on DVD

"JSA" stands for "Just Simply Awesome!" (Believe the Hype!)

Ace-of-Stars | Honolulu, Hawaii | 06/15/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

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Spotlighted as one of the most expensive & highest grossing domestic Korean films to date (ranking third in overall audience attendance in Korea for a domestic film, just behind "Chingu" ["Friend"] and "Shiri" [or "Swiri"], and just ahead of the quirky romantic comedy "Yeopgijeogin Geunyeo" [aka "My Sassy Girl"], "JOINT SECURITY AREA" -- (Korean title: "Gongdong Kyeongbi Kuyeok - JSA") -- is one of those stories which starts off confusingly, but by the end ties everything together neatly and beautifully with some of the most sincere and genuine raw emotion ever experienced in a feature film.



"JSA" begins with a couple of contradictory flashbacks of an assassination-type event which takes place in a guardshack North of the DMZ (demilitarized zone) in the Joint Security Area, each based on the 'official version' of the story as propogated by North and South. As the film progresses, we are pulled along by a third and equally contradictory flashback, this one apparently revealing the truth not only of that fateful night's event which nearly ignited a small war between the two Koreas, but also giving us insight as to what led up to that point, and does so very tenderly and emotionally.



The story revolves around an 'illegal' friendship forged between two pairs of soldiers stationed on opposite sides of the DMZ in the Joint Security Area, which began as a result of a nighttime border patrol team in the South getting disoriented and venturing too far north, accidently venturing into Kim Jung-Il's Communist state where one of the soldiers gets separated from the rest of the group and becomes stranded under frightening and dire circumstances in what is one of the most tense and dramatic moments of the film.



A secret correspondence is later initiated by the prodigal Southern soldier with the two Northern soldiers he encountered on that harrowing night. Before long, he receives an invitation to 'cross over the bridge which divides the two Koreas'-- literally and figuratively --and almost without hesitation accepts the offer to drop in for an "unauthorized (to say the least) visit."



No 'sensative secrets' are ever revealed or exchanged during these illegal meetings (as one of the Southern soldiers declares, "We don't know anything, anyway"); What 'secrets' ARE exchanged, though, are those which come from the heart: stories of friends, family, homelife, personal goals, and hopes for a reunified nation of "brothers" fractured by ideological differences. It was also a nice touch that never at any time-- except in a moment of genuine curiousity or as a gesture of offered protection --does anyone of either side try to entice any of the others to defect to the other side.



But as with all beautifully and honestly executed thought-provoking cinematic masterpieces, something goes terribly wrong during one of the illegal visits, which results in "murder" (quote/unquote), cover-up, and threatened outbreak of war. It is left to a neutral investgative board to uncover the truth of what took place on that dark rainy night, and the case is assigned to a Korean native raised in Switzerland who carries with her a secret of her own which could raise questions about her 'objectivity' and very likely jeopardize her investigation even as the truth gradually unfolds .



Why this film never saw nationwide theatrical release in the U.S., apart from a few sporadic "film festival" venues, is completely beyond my comprehension. Perhaps seeing how well made this movie was, and how it held its own in its homeland by practically putting "Titanic's" Korean box office recepts to shame, maybe Hollywood got scared that its ego would get bruised even further if American audiences (already apathetic and dissatisfied with the declining quality of Hollywood films and their self-eroding committment to excellence) had wide access to this "foreign" film and responded favorably, as they surely would have.



Unlike many foreign films, which sometimes require a considerable amount of knowledge of the native culture to be genuinely appreciated and/or enjoyable, "Joint Security Area" is truly an "international" film, one to which anyone anywhere can easily relate. If allowed, this one movie could probably do a much more effective job of moving Korean reunification talks forward than all of the bureaucratic 'diplomacy' of the past decade.



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