J.S.A.: Joint Security Area (2000)
"Gongdong gyeongbi guyeok JSA" (original title)

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 ... See full summary »

Director:

Chan-wook Park

Writers:

Seong-san Jeong, Hyun-seok Kim,

Stars:

Yeong-ae Lee, Byung-hun Lee, Kang-ho Song

11 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Credited 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

Storyline

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 should 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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Plot Keywords:

soldier | dmz | korea | friendship | south korea | 

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Genres:

Drama | Thriller | War

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Details

Official Sites:

Myung Film

Country:

South Korea

Language:

Korean English German

Release Date:

9 September 2000 (South Korea)

Also Known As:

J.S.A.: Joint Security Area

Filming Locations:

Asan, Choongchungnamdo, South Korea

Company Credits

Production Co:

CJ Entertainment, Intz.com, KTB Network

Technical Specs

Runtime:

110 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

When Maj. Sophie Jean (Yeong-ae Lee) and her Swedish liaison walk across the infamous "bridge of no return," they make a reference to an axe murdering incident which took place on the morning of August 18, 1976, when a group of United Nations personnel attempted to trim the branches of a poplar tree in the DMZ that were obstructing the view from a U.N. guard post. North Korean soldiers attempted to block the operation then attacked the U.N. personnel with axes. Capt. Arthur G. Bonifas (honored as Major postmortem), Lieutenant Mark T. Barrett, and four Korean soldiers were killed, and as many US soldiers were wounded. Present day, the camp that houses JSA personnel is called "Camp Bonifas" in honor of Arthur Bonifas who was killed that day.

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Goofs

The moment before Sgt. Lee shoots Sgt. Oh in the shoulder you can clearly see the squib device underneath his uniform.

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Quotes

Sgt. Oh Kyeong-pil: Your shadow is over the line. Watch it!

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Connections

References Rashomon (1950)

User Reviews

Well done!

Expecting an Asian remake of A few good men, I was pleasantly surprised to find a well acted movie with a different storyline. It expressed the feeling of absurdity that exist in such places as a DMZ, with nice attention to details. Anyone who has been in places or situations like these will recognize the cigarette rituals and so on.

I think the movie excellently describes the stupidity and rigidity of war and the military life - just like in the movie, all it ultimately leads to is friends killing each other for no good reason.

The people who are complaining about the bad English in the movie obviously never heard Swiss and Swedish people speak English - none of the "foreigners" are supposed to be native English speakers, so it makes perfect sense for them to speak as they do!

All in all, a visually beautiful movie with a nice but slightly over-obvious script, nice acting from the four main Korean characters, some very funny scenes that gives comic relief to fend off the impending doom of the inevitable end, and actually quite realistic, in my opinion.

Now I am going to check out Sympathy for Mr Vengeance and Old Boy!