JSA: JOINT SECURITY AREA
[공동경비구역 JSA]
One of the first films to expose international audiences to what became known as the Korean New Wave, JSA: JOINT SECURITY AREA is a prime example of Park Chan-wook's ability to balance genre thrills with intellectual and emotional depth. Structured as a classic whodunit, it begins with a Swiss UN investigator of Korean ancestry traveling to the DMZ to investigate the killing of two North Korean troops by a South Korean soldier. Through an extended series of flashbacks, it's revealed that conflicting accounts from both sides conceal the surprising truth that the soldiers involved had developed a secret cross-border friendship. The film's power — which is brought home with an emotional wallop in its brilliant final image — derives both from its artfully constructed suspenseful narrative and its tragic depiction of young men whose bonds of friendship can be destroyed in an instant by their military indoctrination. DIR/SCR Park Chan-wook; SCR Jeong Seong-san, Kim Hyun-seok, Lee Mu-yeong, from the novel by Park Sang-yeon; PROD Lee Eun Soo, Shim Jae-Myung. South Korea, 2000, color, 110 min. In Korean with English subtitles. NOT RATED
AFI Member passes accepted.
Run Time: 110 Minutes
Opening Date: Sunday, July 02, 2023
Genre: Thriller, drama