Joint Security Area (film)

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Movie
German title Joint Security Area
Original title 공동 경비 구역 JSA (Gongdong gyeongbi guyeok JSA)
Country of production South Korea
original language Korean
English
German
Publishing year 2000
length 110 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Park Chan-wook
script Jeong Seong-san ,
Kim Hyeon-seok ,
Lee Mu-yeong ,
Park Chan-wook ,
Park Sang-yeon (novel)
production Lee Eun Soo
music Bang Jun-seok , Jo Yeong-wook
camera Sung-bok
cut Kim Sang-beom
occupation

Joint Security Area , original title Gongdong gyeongbi guyeok JSA (공동 경비 구역 JSA) is in the demilitarized zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea playing South Korean thriller from Park Chan-wook before his international breakthrough in the year 2000 . Against the background of the conflict-ridden relationship between the two countries, there is criminal involvement in the Joint Security Area . When they are cleared up, an unusual friendship is revealed.

construction

The film is divided into 3 sections, which are titled Joint , Security and Area . The first and the last section together with the investigations of the Swiss soldier Sophie E. Jean ( Lee Yeong-ae ) form a kind of framework for the main plot of the middle section. The events are not told chronologically (the middle section is a flashback) and their connections only become apparent gradually as the film progresses. While the first part represents a kind of prehistory in which the place, circumstances and people involved are presented, the third and last part contains the criminalistic resolution of all entanglements in the events. The middle part has some humorous elements, while the beginning and end of the film are more of the thriller genre. The key scene of the film (discovery and exchange of fire, which mean the failure of friendship, see below) recurs in several sequences.

action

The "common security zone " Joint Security Area is part of the demilitarized zone (DMZ) , which runs along the border between North and South Korea and cuts through the Korean peninsula at approximately the 38th parallel. This part of the DMZ is under the supervision of the Neutral Monitoring Commission in Korea (NNSC) , which is composed of Switzerland , Sweden and Poland after the Czech Republic leaves .

One day there is an incident here. Two North Korean border guards were found shot, and a soldier from the opposing side was suspected of being a suspect. In order to avoid a diplomatic crisis, the supervisory authority of the neutral nations is sending the members of the Swiss Army Sophie E. Jean, daughter of a Swiss woman and a Korean, to investigate this case.

Little by little she reveals the real connections. The intermediate flashback finally tells the story of a secret, actually impossible and therefore doomed friendship between the South Korean soldier Lee Soo-yeok ( Lee Byung-hun ) and his friend Nam ( Kim Tae-woo ), as well as the two North Korean soldiers Oh ( Song Kang-ho ) and Jeong ( Shin Ha-kyun ). From the moment Oh and Jeong save the life of the South Korean Lee Soo-yeok, to the secret meeting of the four friends, to the tragic end of their friendship. When the four friends are surprised by a North Korean officer at a nightly meeting on the North Korean side, which is the occasion for Jeong's birthday, an exchange of fire ensues. Jeong and the officer die. Lee and Nam are able to escape across the nearby border while Oh covers their tracks.

In the last section of the film, Sophie E. Jean is able to clear up the events, but decides to keep quiet about it, as her mandate is withdrawn due to her own family history. The film ends with Lee Soo-yeok's suicide, who kills himself by being shot in the head.

criticism

The lexicon of international film judged the film to be “an excellently staged, unobtrusive humanistic parable that develops the plot both consistently and casually.” The Lektoren-Vereinigung Korea e. V. wrote: "With his cinematic work, the director Park Chan-Wook has managed to express both a taboo topic and a wishful thought within the Korean population: the division and the possible reunification."

reception

As one of the first major films about the rapprochement between the two Korean states, JSA largely dispenses with political polemics. Released in cinemas at the time when the sunshine policy of Korean President Kim Dae-jung and the historic meeting between the leaders Kim Jong-il and Kim Dae-jung (1999) led to a clear détente between North and South , the film hit the nerve of its time and spoke emotionally from the heart of the South Korean people. The director assures us that ten years earlier it was impossible to make such a film due to the censorship and the great political tensions between the two Korean states. Therefore, at the beginning of the shooting, it was not certain whether the film would find its way into the cinemas or fail to interpret Korean laws. The locations of the film (Panmunjeom, the " Bridge of No Return ") were recreated outside the demilitarized zone. The film was made with one of the largest budgets in the history of South Korean cinema.

It set a new record in its own country with 6 million moviegoers, but it only lasted for one year. It ran at 15 international festivals. More successful South Korean films were Silmido (2003), Brotherhood (2004) and The King and the Clown (2005).

Director's comment

Director Park Chan-wook on his intention with the JSA film project:

“My film starts with confusion and ends in melancholy, and that's roughly how my generation felt about the situation. I would like my film to inspire a new way of looking at the dichotomy, more from the perspective of the individual than that of political ideologies. I hope the Joint Security Area shows how ideology can drive people into disaster and reveals the dual system that tries to keep peace by hiding the truth. "

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Joint Security Area. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  2. ↑ The fantastic reunification of North and South Korea , Konstantin Kountouroyanis, in DaF-Szene Korea, No. 22, 2005