JSA: Joint Security Area (Gongdong gyeongbi guyeok JSA) (2002)
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75% of critics liked it
(12 reviews) -
90% of users liked it
(8,080 ratings)
Riding the trend of Korean action blockbusters after the phenomenally popular Swiri, Park Chan Wook directs this murder mystery thriller about death on the DMZ. The film opens with a shooting along the heavy militarized border between North and South Korea, which leaves a North Korean soldier (Shin… More Riding the trend of Korean action blockbusters after the phenomenally popular Swiri, Park Chan Wook directs this murder mystery thriller about death on the DMZ. The film opens with a shooting along the heavy militarized border between North and South Korea, which leaves a North Korean soldier (Shin Ha- Kyun) dead and a South Korean soldier injured. Hoping to reduce the potentially explosive political fallout by solving the crime quickly, both countries agree to an investigator of Korean-Swiss descent named Sophie Jean (Lee Yeong-Ae). As she methodically sifts through the evidence, Sophie learns that the testimony of two other soldiers -- North Korean Oh Kyeong Pil (Song Kang-Ho) and South Korean Lee Soo Hyeok (Lee Byung-Hun) -- are completely contradictory. Another witness (Kim Tae-Woo) tries to commit suicide rather than divulge information. Sophie soon concludes that a group of guards from the North and South, after years of eyeing each other, started meeting in the North Korean guard house to chat, fawn over porn, and to play cards. Why this informal détente dissolved into bloodshed is a thornier question. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
- Directed By
- Chan Wook Park, Park Chan-wook
- Written By
- Seong-san Jeong, Hyeon-seok Kim
- Genres
- Art House & International, Drama
- In Theaters
- Dec 31, 2000 Wide
Critic Reviews
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V.A. Musetto, New York Post
I can't be as enthusiastic.
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A.O. Scott, New York Times
Park Chan-Wook's Joint Security Area is a fairly straightforward whodunit with a pointedly political theme and an unapologetically humanist message.
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Chuck Stephens, Village Voice
Park's film reveals its double agency by swinging between emotion-charged flashbacks of weepie male bonding and the investigative longueurs of the icy, half-Korean, half-Swedish female officer in charge of mopping up the brotherly bloodbath.
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Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
Park tries to make us believe that the men soldiers on both sides would have no trouble bonding if ideologies and uniforms didn't get in the way of things.
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Pablo Villaca, Cinema em Cena
Além do impecável senso estético de Park e de seu imenso talento para a narrativa, o filme traz uma bela mensagem humanitária e anti-bélica.
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Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)
Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)
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Cast
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Song Kang-ho
as Sgt. Oh Kyeong-pil
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Byung-hun Lee
as Lee Soo Hyeok
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Lee Yeong-ae
as Sophie Jean
- Ha-kyun Shin
- Tae-woo Kim
- Byung Heon Lee
- Kang-ho Song
- Yeong-ae Lee