''Joint Security Area'' () is a 2000 South Korean

mystery Mystery, The Mystery, Mysteries or The Mysteries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters *Mystery, a cat character in ''Emily the Strange'' Films * ''Mystery'' (2012 film), a 2012 Chinese drama film * ''Mystery'' ( ...

thriller film starring Lee Young-ae, Lee Byung-hun and Song Kang-ho. It was directed by

Park Chan-wook Park Chan-wook ( ; born 23 August 1963) is a South Korean film director, screenwriter, producer, and former film critic. He is considered as one of the most prominent filmmakers of South Korean cinema as well as world cinema in 21st century. ...

and is based on the novel ''DMZ'' by Park Sang-yeon. The film, which was shot on location in South Korea, concerns an investigation into the circumstances surrounding a fatal shooting incident within the DMZ, the heavily fortified border that separates

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north ...

and South Korea. It was the highest-grossing film in Korean film history at the time and won Best Film at the 2000 Blue Dragon Film Awards and the 2001 Grand Bell Awards.

Plot

Two

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...

n soldiers are killed in the DMZ in the Joint Security Area at a North Korean border house just across the

Bridge of No Return Located in the Joint Security Area (JSA), the so-called "Bridge of No Return" crosses the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) between North Korea and South Korea. History It was used for prisoner exchanges at the end of the Korean Armistice in 1953. ...

, before Sergeant Lee Soo-hyeok ( Lee Byung-hun), a wounded South Korean soldier on border duties, attempts to flee back to the South Korean side. The southern troops rescue him while gunfire erupts and, two days later, the fragile relationship between the two Koreas depends on a special investigation conducted by Swiss Army Major Sophie E. Jean ( Lee Young-ae) on behalf of the

Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission The Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission (NNSC) was established by the Korean Armistice Agreement signed 27 July 1953, declaring an armistice in the Korean War. It is, with the Military Armistice Commission, part of the mechanism regulating the r ...

. As Sergeant Lee Soo-hyeok has confessed to the shootings, Sophie investigates why the two Koreas have contradicting accounts of events; Soo-hyeok's states he was knocked out and kidnapped while relieving himself and, waking tied up in the North Korean border house, secretly freed himself and shot three North Korean soldiers, leaving two dead. The North Korean survivor Sergeant Oh Kyeong-pil ( Song Kang-ho) states to Sophie that Soo-hyeok barged into the border house and shot everyone before retreating when the wounded Kyeong-pil returned fire. The autopsy report shows that one North Korean soldier, Jeong Woo-jin ( Shin Ha-kyun), was shot eight times repeatedly, indicating a grudge was held; additionally, a single bullet is not accounted for. Over the course of the investigation, witness Private First Class Nam Sung-shik ( Kim Tae-woo) attempts suicide by jumping out of the window of the interrogation room and a strange emotional reaction between Kyeong-pil and Soo-hyeok during a meeting causes Sophie to confirm her suspicions that the surviving soldiers and Woo-jin held a mutual friendship and were attempting to protect one another. Through flashbacks it is shown that Soo-hyeok had previously been on patrol with other soldiers, only to get lost on the North Korean side and to partially trip a mine; found by Kyeong-pil and Woo-jin, the two deactivate the mine, which later prompts Soo-hyeok to throw written messages over the border at the Bridge of No Return to maintain contact over the next several weeks. Eventually inviting Soo-hyeok across the border, the three become a group of friends that soon includes Sung-shik, with the four agreeing to leave politics out of their friendship so to remain loyal to their own countries. As tensions rise between the North and South, Soo-hyeok and Sung-shik return to the North guard house one night to say goodbye and celebrate Woo-jin's birthday, only to be discovered by a commanding officer from the North and resulting in a Mexican standoff. Despite Woo-jin panicking and betraying his friends, Kyeong-pil convinces Woo-jin, Soo-hyeok and the officer to lower their weapons, only for Sung-shik to panic and shoot the commanding officer when he reaches for his radio; when Woo-jin draws his gun again, Sung-shik shoots him, and in a daze, shoots his corpse several times. Earlier in their friendship when Soo-hyeok is joking around with his gun, Kyeong-pil asked Soo-hyeok if he'd ever had to kill a man like he's had to, implying that Soo-hyeok doesn't know what it's like. Kyeong-pil slaps Sung-shik out of his daze, takes the gun from him and kills the still-alive officer, then persuades Soo-hyeok and Sung-shik to flee with a false alibi of being kidnapped, before throwing away the evidence that he and Woo-jin were fraternizing with Southern soldiers. After shooting Kyeong-pil in the shoulder to complete the alibi, Soo-hyeok and Sung-shik flee across the border, with the latter getting past unseen; as Soo-hyeok's wounded leg from the firefight prevents him from running, he is the only soldier seen and picked up by the South Korean soldiers. Back in the present, Sophie is eventually removed from the case when it's discovered that her father, a former POW, had North Korean ties during the

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

, thus technically making her a non-neutral. Before leaving Korea, she attempts to informally learn of the true events first with Kyeong-pil and then Soo-hyeok. Having asked Kyeong-pil if he had a message for Soo-hyeok, Sophie gives Soo-hyeok the lighter he first gave to Kyeong-pil. Before saying goodbye and wishing him well, she reveals that Kyeong-pil told her that he saw Soo-hyeok's gun actually shot Woo-jin first during the chaos before Sung-shik shot him. On his way out, Soo-hyeok steals an officer's pistol and commits suicide out of guilt for Woo-jin's death and Sung-shik's suicide attempt. The film concludes with an American tourist's photograph of the joint security area that accidentally contains all four soldiers prior to the incident.

Cast

* Lee Young-ae as Maj. Sophie E. Jean * Lee Byung-hun as Sgt. Lee Soo-hyuk (

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...

: 이수혁) * Song Kang-ho as Sgt. Oh Kyeong-pil (

: 오경필) * Kim Tae-woo as Pvt. Nam Sung-sik (

: 남성식) * Shin Ha-kyun as Pvt. Jung Woo-jin (

: 정우진) * Christoph Hofrichter as

Maj. Gen. Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...

Bruno Botta * Herbert Ulrich as Capt. Persson.

Production

The

Korean Demilitarized Zone The Korean Demilitarized Zone ( Korean: ; Hanbando Bimujang Jidae) is a strip of land running across the Korean Peninsula near the 38th parallel north. The demilitarized zone (DMZ) is a border barrier that divides the peninsula roughly in ...

depicted in the movie were sets that were made for the film, which was constructed at about 8000-

Pyeong A ''pyeong'' (abbreviationpy) is a Korean unit of area and floorspace, equal to a square '' kan'' or 36square Korean feet. The ''ping'' and ''tsubo'' are its equivalent Taiwanese and Japanese units, similarly based on a square '' bu'' ( ja:� ...

area in a film studio in

Namyangju Namyangju () is a city in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. To the east is Gapyeong County, to the west is Guri City, and to the north is Pocheon City. Namyangju-si was originally a southern part of Yangju-gun, but was separated into Namyangju-gu ...

with a budget of 900 million won.

Reception

The film drew nearly half a million viewers in Seoul alone in its first week. Within 15 days of its release the film reached one million admissions and by early 2001 ''Joint Security Area'' had become the

highest-grossing film Films generate income from several revenue streams, including theatrical exhibition, home video, television broadcast rights, and merchandising. However, theatrical box-office earnings are the primary metric for trade publications in assess ...

in Korean film history.Darcy Paquet's review at koreanfilm.org
/ref> It was later passed by the films ''

Friend Friendship is a relationship of mutual affection between people. It is a stronger form of interpersonal bond than an "acquaintance" or an "association", such as a classmate, neighbor, coworker, or colleague. In some cultures, the concept of ...

'', '' Silmido'' and '' Taegukgi: The Brotherhood of War''. Overall, ''JSA'' had 2,499,400 admissions in Seoul over its 20 weeks in the cinemas and an estimated 5.8 million admissions nationwide. The film was also very successful in Japan where it grossed ¥1,160,000,000 becoming one of the top grossing foreign productions of 2001. A DVD of the movie was presented to North Korea's leader Kim Jong-il by South Korea's President

Roh Moo-hyun Roh Moo-hyun (; ; 1 September 1946 – 23 May 2009) was a South Korean politician and lawyer who served as the ninth president of South Korea between 2003 and 2008. Roh's pre-presidential political career was focused on human rights advocacy for ...

during the Korean summit in October 2007. In 2009, director Quentin Tarantino named the film as one of his twenty favorite films since 1992.

Awards and nominations

2000 Blue Dragon Film Awards * Best Film * Best Director –

* Best Supporting Actor – Shin Ha-kyun * Best Cinematography – Kim Seong-bok 2000 Busan Film Critics Awards * Best Actor – Lee Byung-hun, Song Kang-ho 2000 Director's Cut Awards * Best Director –

* Best Actor – Song Kang-ho * Best New Actor – Shin Ha-kyun * Best Producer – Shim Jae-myung 2001 Deauville Asian Film Festival * Lotus d'Or (Prix du Jury) ("Jury Prize") * Lotus du Public (Prix du Public) ("Popular Choice") * Lotus du Meilleur Acteur ("Best Actor") – Song Kang-ho 2001

Seattle International Film Festival The Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF), held annually in Seattle, Washington since 1976, is among the top film festivals in North America. Audiences have grown steadily; the 2006 festival had 160,000 attendees. The SIFF runs for more th ...

* New Director's Showcase Special Jury Prize 2001

Berlin International Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the fest ...

* Nomination – Golden Berlin Bear 2001

Baeksang Arts Awards The Baeksang Arts Awards (), also known as the Paeksang Arts Awards, are awards for excellence in film, television and theatre in South Korea. The awards were first introduced in 1965 by Chang Key-young, the founder of the Hankook Ilbo newspap ...

* Best Director –

2001 Grand Bell Awards * Best Film * Best Actor – Song Kang-ho * Best Sound – Kim Seok-weon, Kim Won-yong * Best Art Direction * Nomination – Best Supporting Actor – Shin Ha-kyun 2001 Fantasia Festival * Nomination – Best Film 2002

Blue Ribbon Awards The are film-specific prizes awarded solely by movie critics and writers in Tokyo, Japan. The awards were established in 1950 by which is composed of film correspondents from seven Tokyo-based sports newspapers. In 1961, the six major Japanes ...

* Best Foreign Language Film 2003

Hong Kong Film Awards The Hong Kong Film Awards (HKFA; ), founded in 1982, is an annual film awards ceremony in Hong Kong. The ceremonies are typically in April. The awards recognise achievement in various aspects of filmmaking, such as directing, screenwriting, ...

* Nomination – Best Asian Film

Adaptations

stage musical Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movement ...

titled ''JSA: the Musical'' opened in April 2014 at the Dongsoong Art Center in

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 of ...

's theater district of

Daehangno Daehangno (Hangul:대학로 Hanja:, lit. "college street") is a neighborhood in Seoul north of the Han River within Jongno-gu and Seodaemun-gu. Formerly known as Sunggyobang (Hangul:숭교방 Hanja:), meaning "high respect for teaching", its c ...

. While the musical heavily borrows from

's film, the script more closely resembles ''DMZ'', the novel by Park Sang-yeon that inspired the movie. An eight-episode television miniseries also adapted from the novel ''DMZ'' will be produced by KBS, to be aired in September 2014 as part of the ''

Drama Special ''KBS Drama Special'' () is a South Korean anthology series created and broadcast by KBS2, with each episode having a different story, cast, director and scriptwriter. The format is based on its predecessor '' Drama City'' and MBC's Best Theater ...

Series''.

References

Notes

Sources

Bibliography

External links

* * * * * *
Review
at koreanfilm.org {{DEFAULTSORT:Joint Security Area (Film) 2000 films 2000s mystery drama films 2000s thriller drama films 2000s mystery thriller films South Korean mystery thriller films South Korean mystery drama films South Korean detective films South Korean nonlinear narrative films Films set in North Korea Films set in South Korea Films shot in South Korea Films based on South Korean novels Films based on military novels Films based on mystery novels Films based on thriller novels Films directed by Park Chan-wook Best Picture Blue Dragon Film Award winners Best Picture Grand Bell Award winners 2000s Korean-language films Korean Demilitarized Zone in fiction Myung Films films CJ Entertainment films Panmunjom Films about North Korea–South Korea relations 2000 drama films Films about the Republic of Korea Armed Forces 2000s South Korean films