Gongdong gyeongbi guyeok JSA (2000)

Director:

Chan-wook Park

Writers:

Seong-san Jeong (writer)
Hyeon-seok Kim (writer)

Release Date:

9 September 2000 (South Korea)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller | War

Plot:

In the DMZ separating North and South Korea, two North Korean soldiers have been killed, supposedly by one South Korean soldier...

Plot Keywords:

North South Korea Divide | Investigation | Dmz | Korean Soldier | International Tensions

Awards:

9 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Yeong-ae Lee	...	Maj. Sophie E. Jean
Byung-hun Lee	...	Sgt. Lee Soo-hyeok
Kang-ho Song	...	Sgt. Oh Kyeong-pil
Tae-woo Kim	...	Nam Sung-shik
Ha-kyun Shin	...	Jeong Woo-jin
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ju-bong Gi
Christoph Hofrichter	...	Maj. Gen. Bruno Botta
Myoeng-su Kim
Tae-hyeon Kim
Herbert Ulrich	...	Swedish soldier

Also Known As:

J.S.A.: Joint Security Area (USA)
JSA: Joint Security Area (UK)
Joint Security Area (International: English title)

Runtime:

110 min

Country:

South Korea

Language:

English | Korean

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

Singapore:NC-16 | Australia:MA (TV rating) | Argentina:16 | Finland:K-15 | Germany:16 | Hong Kong:IIB | Ireland:15 | South Korea:15 | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Asan, Choongchungnamdo, South Korea

Company:

CJ Entertainment

Trivia:

Since filming at the real JSA is impossible, an exact replica was built at the studio, which still stands.

Movie Connections:

References Reservoir Dogs (1992)

Little more about the film and the director

Absolutely I loved this film. In 1999 and 2000, there were two huge hits in Korean box office, both of which were based upon the theme of 'division and reunification of two Koreas'. The first one is Swiri(aka. Suiri). The other is JSA.

I really loathed the first one since it just imitated Hollywood action movies based on 'the cold war ideology'(kind of SWAT) while I loved the latter.

Apart from my comments on this film, what I really want to mention is about the director, Chanwook Park, who won the Grand-prize of Jury at the Cannes Film festival just a few days ago with his film, "oldboy".

IMHO, Chanwook Park is one of the most promising directors in Korea along with Changdong Lee(Oasis, and Peppermint Candy). However, in his early days, he was not quite commercially successful with his two films though they were stylistically unique. ('trio' and 'the moon is a dream of the sun')

For several years, the director Park could not start his own film (probably) because of lack of funding. During the time, he worked as a film reviewer in film magazines.

JSA is, as many mentioned, based on a novel with the same title. But the film was not the director's project. Simply speaking, Park was hired by a film-making company which valued his talents as a director.

This film, JSA, is not a film which really shows the director's own directing style though he did a great job in this film.

After the success of JSA, he has made two films on the theme of 'revenge', both of which are what Park really wanted to make. If you are really interested with the director's other works, I highly recommend "Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance" and "Oldboy". He is remarkable as a director in them. He will finish triology of the 'revenge' films probably next year (Sympathy for Lady vengeance).