Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #43103 in DVD
• Brand: Uni
• Released on: 2005-07-12
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: Korean
• Subtitled in: Chinese, Korean
• Dubbed in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 109 minutes

Customer Reviews

Hope and Reconciliation
The story begins with a single shot. As it turns out, two North Korean soldiers are dead in what is called the Joint Security Area. A "Neutral Nations Officer" is asked to find out why and to figure out a way to do damage control - what she finds is that there is more than meets the eye. The scope of the movie is huge. It tackles a very difficult issue - especially since those who sow the seed of hate are all too eager to maintain the status quo. When all the layers are shed - it all comes down to our humanity - and that is why this movie will stand the test of time. The first time we get to tackle this issue of the breaks between the Koreas (at least in any serious fashion was SHIRI (also available on Amazon.com). What begins as a political thriller is actually about the relationships built between friends from different sides of the line and how the relationship quickly disintegrated by blind adherence to ideologies, we quickly find out, never really had any efficacy to begin with. Four soldiers divided by socially constructed borders (as all borders are), share and enjoy each others company. One fatal night, on the North Korean side, something very interesting happens (you will need to watch the movie to figure out what that is). The movie jumps between the present to the past and vice versa. The focal point of the story switching from the soldiers involved their investigator. The movie reminds one of a very elaborate JAG episode. Park Chan-wook weaves a very interesting tale as he moves from one character to another. Part of the fascination of this movie is the tension of the nations affected, the reactions of the various people involved, the possible alternative outcomes if people simply learned to get along, examining how in such a cinder box - how the soldiers overcome artificial hostilities. The movie is tragic, on the one hand but inspiring on the other hand as we see the break down of political differences in an effort to develop their friendship. In a sense the movie serves as a metaphor of possibility - as individuals break down the barriers they represent their people. Hope and reconciliation keep the audience interested. Few films combine great cinematography, good acting, a wonderful storyline, wicked editing, eye candy, and a sense of hope that if we understand our past we need not be fated to repeat it.

Miguel Llora

Incredible film
This is an incredible movie that tells a story of friendship against a political backdrop. One night shots break out at the JSA leaving 2 North Korean soldiers dead, one south korean soldier in a catatonic shock, and another southern soldier suicidal. A Korean-Swiss soldier is assigned to the case to find out what happened, all the while maintaining her neutrality.
What unfolds is the story of a complex friendship between a pair of northern soldiers with a pair of southern soldiers. Chan Wook Park is gaining fame for his Revenge Trilogy as well as his part in Three... Extremes, but out of all his work it is JSA that stands out for me.
He handles the friendship between the soldiers masterfully; they form a strong bond, looking at each other as brothers, but at the same time there is a sense that the bond will be easily broken.
At the end, when we see that a throw away scene actually has a meaning, it is enough to bring a person to tears.

"JSA" stands for "Just Simply Awesome!" (Believe the Hype!)
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[[NOTE: This is an unedited reproduction of my original Amazon review of the "Import" edition of this DVD, post dated June 15, 2002; hence some of the information presented herein may be in need of a few minor 'update' tweaks]]
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Spotlighted as one of the most expensive & highest grossing domestic Korean films to date (ranking third in overall audience attendance in Korea for a domestic film, just behind "Chingu" ["Friend"] and "Shiri" [or "Swiri"], and just ahead of the quirky romantic comedy "Yeopgijeogin Geunyeo" [aka "My Sassy Girl"], "JOINT SECURITY AREA" -- (Korean title: "Gongdong Kyeongbi Kuyeok - JSA") -- is one of those stories which starts off confusingly, but by the end ties everything together neatly and beautifully with some of the most sincere and genuine raw emotion ever experienced in a feature film.

"JSA" begins with a couple of contradictory flashbacks of an assassination-type event which takes place in a guardshack North of the DMZ (demilitarized zone) in the Joint Security Area, each based on the 'official version' of the story as propogated by North and South. As the film progresses, we are pulled along by a third and equally contradictory flashback, this one apparently revealing the truth not only of that fateful night's event which nearly ignited a small war between the two Koreas, but also giving us insight as to what led up to that point, and does so very tenderly and emotionally.

The story revolves around an 'illegal' friendship forged between two pairs of soldiers stationed on opposite sides of the DMZ in the Joint Security Area, which began as a result of a nighttime border patrol team in the South getting disoriented and venturing too far north, accidently venturing into Kim Jung-Il's Communist state where one of the soldiers gets separated from the rest of the group and becomes stranded under frightening and dire circumstances in what is one of the most tense and dramatic moments of the film.

A secret correspondence is later initiated by the prodigal Southern soldier with the two Northern soldiers he encountered on that harrowing night. Before long, he receives an invitation to 'cross over the bridge which divides the two Koreas'-- literally and figuratively --and almost without hesitation accepts the offer to drop in for an "unauthorized (to say the least) visit."

No 'sensative secrets' are ever revealed or exchanged during these illegal meetings (as one of the Southern soldiers declares, "We don't know anything, anyway"); What 'secrets' ARE exchanged, though, are those which come from the heart: stories of friends, family, homelife, personal goals, and hopes for a reunified nation of "brothers" fractured by ideological differences. It was also a nice touch that never at any time-- except in a moment of genuine curiousity or as a gesture of offered protection --does anyone of either side try to entice any of the others to defect to the other side.

But as with all beautifully and honestly executed thought-provoking cinematic masterpieces, something goes terribly wrong during one of the illegal visits, which results in "murder" (quote/unquote), cover-up, and threatened outbreak of war. It is left to a neutral investgative board to uncover the truth of what took place on that dark rainy night, and the case is assigned to a Korean native raised in Switzerland who carries with her a secret of her own which could raise questions about her 'objectivity' and very likely jeopardize her investigation even as the truth gradually unfolds .

Why this film never saw nationwide theatrical release in the U.S., apart from a few sporadic "film festival" venues, is completely beyond my comprehension. Perhaps seeing how well made this movie was, and how it held its own in its homeland by practically putting "Titanic's" Korean box office recepts to shame, maybe Hollywood got scared that its ego would get bruised even further if American audiences (already apathetic and dissatisfied with the declining quality of Hollywood films and their self-eroding committment to excellence) had wide access to this "foreign" film and responded favorably, as they surely would have.

Unlike many foreign films, which sometimes require a considerable amount of knowledge of the native culture to be genuinely appreciated and/or enjoyable, "Joint Security Area" is truly an "international" film, one to which anyone anywhere can easily relate. If allowed, this one movie could probably do a much more effective job of moving Korean reunification talks forward than all of the bureaucratic 'diplomacy' of the past decade.