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Song Kang-ho, Byung-hun Lee, Lee Yeong-ae, Ha-kyun Shin, Tae-woo Kim ... see more see more... , Byung Heon Lee , Kang-ho Song , Yeong-ae Lee

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 th... read more read more...e 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

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12 critics

Unrated, 1 hr. 47 min.

Directed by: Chan Wook Park, Park Chan-wook

Release Date: December 31, 2000

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DVD Release Date: July 30, 2002

Stats: 645 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (645)

  • axadntpron
    August 30, 2011
    axadntpron
    Kind of hard to believe that this is Park Chan-Wook. While an engaging film, it is a bit overly sentimental in parts. I understand that subject matter dealing with the reunification of a country torn in two would be replete with emotion, but some scenes felt like they were create... read mored for a TV movie on Korea's own Lifetime network. None the less, it is still an engaging who done it and an interesting glimpse into the psyche of a nation divided.
  • garyX
    June 22, 2011
    garyX
    When two North Korean soldiers are killed in a shooting incident in the demilitarized zone of the border between the North and South, an independent investigator is called in to prevent it from becoming a full-blown international incident. Without wanting to give too much away, C... read morehan Wook Park's story of unofficial detente is a classy "hands across the border" tale which shows how it is lot harder to make enemies of people than just drawing a line on a map. The politics of the situation almost come in for some ridicule in this warm-hearted but tragic tale that shows how mutual distrust and hate-breeding propaganda can lead to nothing but death and misery for all involved. The investigation itself is actually the least interesting part of the film, coming across as a little dry and contrived and the performances by the English speaking cast are easily the least engaging, but the flashbacks that show the truth behind the events that unfolded are handled brilliantly. Park hasn't quite perfected his trademark style yet, but all the night time scenes are really nicely shot and there is a lot of humour and pathos in the relationship between these soldiers who find they have far more in common than the politicians would have them believe. Not perfect, but it's lacking in the kind of saccharine and flag waving you'd expect from Hollywood and makes for a compelling thriller with a very human message.
  • bbcfloridabound
    November 21, 2009
    bbcfloridabound
    What kills this movie is the Dubbed Voices. After rewatching it with English Subtitles and Korean Language, I found it to be more enjoyable and realistic. About 2 sets of soldiers one from each side of the Korean Border ( North and South Korea) who are station at and out post, go... read mored forsaken duty that would drive the best man nuts, but these four form a bond, until discovered. Which sets the stage for murder and suspense. A great story. 4 Stars
  • arashxak
    April 13, 2009
    arashxak
    Park Chan Wook's wonderful debut that has a lot to say & not only about its main subject, Smart,moving & well-crafted without falling into trite sentimentalism & with a great soundtrack specially the song The Unsent Letter by Kim Kwang Seok , There are so many great things about ... read morethis that make its flaws forgettable, oh & what a brilliant closing
  • skactopus
    December 6, 2008
    skactopus
    Director Chan-wook Park comes through with an antiwar picture that revolves around the conflict between North and South Korea.

    The pacing of this 1 hour 45 minute flick is pretty slow, but the story is so intriguing that it never is a bore. It also effectively uses the flashba

    ... read moreck technique to tell the back story.

    The first 30 minutes is all about the character of Sophie Jean investigating a shooting incident between the 2 regions of Korea. During this time the film uses quick repetitive flashback scenes that differ by how a certain character's story pans out. Instead of having Sophie investigate for the whole film with flashbacks here and there to explain things, JSA decides to switch gears and tell 90% of the back story for the next 30 minutes, which almost makes you forget about Sophie herself. Eventually the film switches back to investigative mode for the next 30 minutes before going back to unfold the finale of the back story. The writing is nicely done.

    The directing isn't as stylized as other Chan-wook Park films like Oldboy and I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK, but there is still some good cinematography at times.

    It is pretty amazing how 3 of the bigger actors in Korea can all co-exist in this film without overpowering one another. The beautiful Yeong-ae Lee, of Sympathy for Lady Vengeance fame, plays Sophie the investigator and she carries her parts of the picture. She also speaks some pretty decent English, which there is quiet a bunch of throughout the film. The 2 male leads of Byung-hun Lee and Kang-ho Song carry the back story segments nicely.

    JSA may lack the action, but the story, characters, and the directing make this a worthwhile film.
  • DragonEyeMorrison
    September 10, 2007
    DragonEyeMorrison
    An early effort from Park Chan Wook, before his vengeance trilogy, where he already showed a great control of both camera and story. That combined with the excellent performances by both Kang Ho Song and Lee Byun Hung help to give a serious tone to the film, and to avoid any chea... read morep melodrama that any other director would had used.
  • SarahG1988
    June 29, 2007
    SarahG1988
    In the DMZ separating North and South Korea, two North Korean soldiers have been killed, supposedly by one South Korean soldier. But the 11 bullets found in the bodies, together with the 5 remaining bullets in the assassin's magazine clip, amount to 16 bullets for a gun that shou... read moreld normally hold 15 bullets. The investigating Swiss/Swedish team from the neutral countries overseeing the DMZ suspects that another, unknown party was involved - all of which points to some sort of cover up. The truth is much simpler and much more tragic.

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    A brilliant film by Chan Wook-Park. Perhaps not as good as Oldboy but still a very good film and worth the watch. Also, a film that contains politics that I am not aware of at all, which I learnt about through watching this.

    The film depicts the ridiculous, yet tragic consequences that an imposed barrier can have on its people. This was done beautifully, with one shot in particular. We see the shot aimed specifically at the protagonists feet and the emotions that one character felt through going over to the North. Brilliant! We also see that the 4 main characters, from the North and the South have more in common than they think. All of this, makes Joint Security Area a teriific film to watch. Keeping you on the edge of your seat.

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    While the plot feels very familar, ie many American films have used this idea of hositliies between two rival nations, JSA by the end of the film remains orginal for me. I begin to understand why Korea is mentioned so often in the news. There are also referances to the Americans and hostilities between the Koreans and them.

    One flaw that JSA has is the poor English that is spoken between some of the foreign actors. Luckily one of them, a Swedish soldier has very little presence so he's ok, but the investigators chief commander a Swiss general is not worthy of any screen time what so ever. Yeong-ae Lee's(Lady Vengeance)command of English for someone who is suppose to have learned Korean second hand in Switzerland, is awkward and fake. It's obvious she doesn't have command of the English language in this film and makes for some bad dialogue, and doesn't make her character believable. A particularly unnecessary scene comes toward the end of the film when the Swiss general explains why he chose her to lead the investigation. The acting and exchange is bad, and there should have been a better place used to describe the situation probably in Korean with one of the other Korean actors. Or it should have just been flat out cut from the film all-together.

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    Asides that, the film is a brilliant portrayal of 4 friends from rival nations, who are united through their friendship. I loved the final scene, where it's revealed how they knew each other. Brilliant!

    Overall, a brilliant film which I recomend to all.
  • binky013
    November 10, 2006
    binky013
    Gongdong gyeongbi guyeok JSA

    Just as a reminder, photography is not authorized in this area.

    If you may be curious about how I would distinguish between a "bittersweet" ending such as the one in Dalkomhan insaeng (A Bittersweet Life) and the deeply tragic e

    ... read morending of a moivie such as this one, I would in turn ask you to consider the possibility, in your own life, of having to kill a best friend in a horriffic moment of mind-numbing intensity. Joint Security Area is indeed a full-blown tragedy centered around the fact that the two Koreas are currently divided by the 38th Parallel (aka the DMZ). To say that director and co-writer Chan-wook Park here makes a devastatingly powerful artistic statement about his problem with this political barrier might seem hyperbolic if you have not actually experienced this film, but once you see JSA I believe you will agree with me.

    The movie is perhaps even more moving for me since my paternal grandfather and grandmother came from what would become North Korea and South Korea, respectively. They actually met on a ship when they were immigrating to Hawai`i, fell in love and eventually married, and, well, here I am : ) Obviously I have a deeply personal stake in this whole idea of a very real yet seemingly artificial division. No matter which side of the 38th Parallel you come from, you are still a Korean at heart, body and soul. I have never been to Korea, so I can't vouch for the accuracy of Park's depiction of how amazingly easy it is to simply step over that division line. It is incredible.

    The acting of the four principal friends, two from the North, two from the South, is outstanding. This is my second experience of Byung-hun Lee (Sergeant Lee) in less than a week, but I am here making the bold statement that he will eventually do a movie or two in Hollywood, and this will expose him to a wider audience who will absolutely love him. Kang-ho Song, as Sergeant Oh, is killer good as the most matured and strongest binding personality is this movie about friendship. Tae-woo Kim (Private Nam) and Ha-kyun Shin (Private Jeong) are excellent as well.

    Please, I don't want to turn you off to giving this film a chance by suggesting it is a tragic downhill run into the pit of despair:

    But don't you have any female singers down there?

    This is just one of the funny lines. I particulary love it when the four friends get together and, even though they are all adults, play childhood games. Their friendship is a beautiful sight to behold.

    If you are looking for a movie which will make you think about the issues of politics and the bonds of friendship, this is a good one to see, flixster friends. Again, I must offer the disclaimer that this might be more deeply moving for me because of my personal stake in the whole issue. In the Olympics, the two Koreas march together under a flag especially designed for the Olympics. It's a simple blue and white design with an outline of the entire country. Google it if you don't know the flag I mean; it's easy to find on the web. If only the two Koreas could come together like that again.

    The opening quote up at the very top refers to a photograph taken right on the 38th Parallel in the course of the movie. We do not see it until the very end. It is a chillingly tragic picture of the four friends. I'm getting goosebumps just typiing about this. What I definitely want to say, flixsters, is that you will want to watch this movie at least twice in order to understand everything which transpires.

    Third viewing: To give you an example of a "bittersweet" scene in this film, I would point you to the exchange of girlfriend pictures among the four firiends. When Tae-woo Kim (Private Nam) throws them his wallet and they see how beautiful his girlfriend is, the admiring reaction of the other three is very funny. The two North Koreans would not know this, but the further reaction of Lee, Kim's fellow South Korean, leads me to believe that the photo Kim offers is of a South Korean movie star, the kind that comes with the wallet when you buy it. This further amplifies the suggestion of Kim's sexual attraction to and love for his childhood friend Lee ("Sergeant Lee . . . you are very handsome"). This love for Lee would go a long way toward the audience's understanding of Kim's multiple shooting of Shin (Private Jeong) in the end, the man whom he had moments before honored with a birthday present of art materials. While we do find out that it was in fact Lee who fired the initial shot ("They all say you are fast with a gun"), it is Kim who puts the additional eight shots into Shin. To further explain this killing, and to further expand on the angle of Kim's love for Lee, it is only after Shin shoots Lee that Kim fires all those additional shots in retaliation, a reaction motivated by grief.

    I just have to add that the time transitions are superior. This editing artistry is a tribute to Sang-beom Kim.
  • gator681
    April 21, 2010
    gator681
    [font=Century Gothic]In "Joint Security Area", investigators from the neutral countries of Sweden and Switzerland have been sent to Korea to investigate the shooting deaths of two North Korean soldiers in the demilitarized zone, dividing South and North.(The investigator from Swi... read moretzerland, Sophie Jang(Yeong-ae Lee) was born in Switzerland of Korean parentage. This is her first visit to Korea.) The South Koreans claim it was an attempted kidnapping of the South Korean Sergeant Lee Soo-hyeok(Byung-hun Lee). The North Koreans claim it was a preemptive strike. So, what did happen?[/font]
    [font=Century Gothic][/font]
    [font=Century Gothic]"Joint Security Area" takes an unexpected path after the first half hour.(The film's structure is a little awkward. It would have been better to have revealed fragments throughout the film, instead of all at once.) It is still a political and allegorical film but it also takes a very personal direction. The movie uses the demilitarized zone between the North and the South as a symbol for borders everywhere which keep people of all nations and ideologies from conversing, and possibly uniting in a single struggle.(I was also thinking of the Jamie Anderson song, "Borders.") It is an important detail that most of the soldiers involved are enlisted men. [/font]
  • lesleyanorton
    November 25, 2010
    lesleyanorton
    Korean political thriller about a handful of Korean solders on both sides of the north-south border. Meticulously made, coering such big subjects as loyalty and patriotism and with the current state of Korea, still topical ten years on. It sounds dry and worthy but it isn't. It's... read more a murder mystery with a lot of charm in the unravelling and a truly poignant ending just as the final credits roll. A great watch

View All JSA: Joint Security Area (Gongdong gyeongbi guyeok JSA) Reviews

Critic Reviews

V.A. Musetto
June 15, 2005
V.A. Musetto, New York Post

I can't be as enthusiastic.

A.O. Scott
June 15, 2005
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. Full Review

Chuck Stephens
June 14, 2005
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 char... Full Review

Dennis Schwartz
September 25, 2007
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. Full Review

Pablo Villaca
May 7, 2006
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.

David Cornelius
July 16, 2005
David Cornelius, eFilmCritic.com

It's another triumph from one of the world's best new filmmakers, and it is not to be missed. Full Review

David Sterritt
June 16, 2005
David Sterritt, Christian Science Monitor

Suspenseful and psychologically rich. Full Review

Maitland McDonagh
June 15, 2005
Maitland McDonagh, TV Guide's Movie Guide

A beguiling mix of the generic and the unfamiliar, and it ends on a shot that's nothing short of heartbreaking. Full Review

Joshua Tanzer
March 11, 2003
Joshua Tanzer, Offoffoff

An intelligent murder mystery set at the only meeting point between North and South Korea, whose tragic solution reveals the war zone's tension between hate and humanity. Full Review

Derek Elley
October 18, 2008
Derek Elley, Variety

Click to read the article Full Review

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