Joint Security Area

Title: Joint Security Area (JSA)
Rating: 4.5/5
Genre: Drama, Thriller, Mystery (War)
Starring: Yeong-ae Lee (Lady Vengeance), Byung-hun Lee (The Good the Bad and the Weird, Bittersweet Life), Tae-woo Kim, Kang-ho Song (The Host, Thirst)
Director: Chan-Wook Park
Language: Korean

“People with constipation should seize the chance when it comes.”

The debut from this now notable director currently most likely to have garnered the most recognition outside of his Korean home and the last of his films yet to have received a review. It is always with debut efforts that I become apprehensive, the twin issue of a low budget and the inexperience of the man in question played against the lack of time constraint, allowed as much as required to perfect the script. This was certainly not a film I should have had this apprehension for as the result is probably one of his strongest to date; almost unlike his other works, his trademark glorification of violence demonstrated later works notably absent – perhaps due to the aforementioned budget – but whilst his distinctive stamp on many works, it is never really at the heart of the film and is certainly not missed here.

The Korean Civil War had ended in a stalemate more than 50 years prior to the events here; the result of the conflict a division between the communist north and the capitalist south that has remained in existence to this day. A minefield plagues the no-mans land between the two sides with only ‘the bridge of no return’ allowing safe access between the two sides; heavily guarded by both sides, the punishment for crossing this border: the inevitable execution at the hands of the enemy. Caught behind enemy lines, a wounded South Korean soldier stumbles back across injured leaving two North Korean soldiers dead in his wake. Praised by the South as a hero, wanted by the North as a murderer; it is the job of the neutral investigator to uncover the truth behind the incident to prevent escalation, but what she discovers is a tale more tragic than she could have expected.

Told through a combination of flashbacks – each time alluding as to more of the events that occurred – and the detective’s enquiries and questioning of the suspects involved in the incident, it is perhaps disappointing that the role of Yeong-ae Lee feels miscast. A supposed Swiss-Korean military official fluent in both Korean and English but having learnt the former prior to arriving in her fathers homeland, with a thick Korean accent to her speech this aspect could be easily overlooked as a unavoidable situation, but she simply doesn’t feel suited to the part. She looks thoroughly unsuited to physical exercise which is only part down to her own abilities, but the role simply was miscast.

Of those that remain, it is the relationship between Byung-hun Lee’s character (Sgt. Lee of South Korea) and Kang-ho Song’s (Sgt. Oh of North Korea) that forms the integral bond and the main strength of the film; the two actors demonstrating their potential early in their career forming a believable and likable kinship that never feels forced, the script allowing for it to slowly and shakily emerge out of a country incapable of doing the same. It’s fascinating to observe the difference in attitudes between the very cut and dry political governmental advocates on both sides – “There are two kinds of people in this world; Commie bastards…and the Commie bastards' enemies.” – compared to the actual soldiers themselves, the main protagonists holding little or no respect for the regime they find themselves under, mocking the divide by playfully spitting at each other over the line; the supposed tension between the two sides a fabrication of those with authority not felt by those on the front line.

The story itself is in essence marvellously simple, making clever use of camera angles to make his point without become melodramatic of self-indulgent, the soundtrack following suit with a limited range of nonetheless effective classical scores to accentuate the impact of the scene in question. This is so much more than a simple war story preaching its horrors; its more powerful, haunting and moving than such a film could be; a tale about brothers at arms capable of setting aside differences that have split their nation for half a century; a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions, with the constant knowledge of the inevitable outcome at the back of your mind, ingratiating each scene with additional meaning as you hurtle towards the horrific conclusion. To call this a film about war simply seems inadequate; this is a story about estranged brothers, and thanks to the horrors of the manipulations of the feuding governing bodies, made all the more heart-wrenching as a result.