Review of Joint Security Area

Introduction

After the Second World War, the globe settled uneasily into what would come to be known as the Cold War. After the Japanese surrender, Soviet forces to the North and US forces to the south occupied Korea, with both sides setting up communist and democratic governments respectively. In 1947 when both sides withdrew, there was a failure to re-unite the two sides, and the matter was turned over to the fledgling United Nations. Setting a familiar precedent, the UN failed to resolve the situation and in 1950 at the urging of the Soviet Union, North Korea invaded the South, rapidly overwhelming them. The UN Security Council voted in emergency session to authorise a `police action` to halt the invasion. Enter General Douglas MacArthur, who cut off the lines to the North Korean forces and captured over 125,000 of them. Pushing back to the original peacetime border, most of South Korea was quickly liberated and it looked as if the allies would continue on into North Korea to reunify the country on their terms. This rattled the Chinese, who thought this would be a prelude to an attack on their territory and they immediately sent 180,000 volunteers into North Korea who pushed the UN forces back once again to the original border. And so matters remained for another three years, burning slowly as both sides fought over a border that showed no signs of shifting. By the time there was an armistice, 5 million people had died, and the pattern was set for countless ideological brush wars all over the world.

Since then, the North and South have maintained a wary watch on each other over their mutual border; one nation divided by externally imposed ideology. At the end of the eighties, with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet bloc, there seemed to be a mood of rapprochement and reconciliation sweeping the world. I think the most hopeful moment in the history of the Koreas was in the 2000 Olympic games, when the two nations entered a joint team. That hope faded with the advent of the new Century and the spectre of global terrorism. When George Bush made his speech delineating the Axis of Evil, apparently picking nations arbitrarily to add to his nemeses of the week, any possibility of unification was distant at best. Politics is never so cut and dried however, and North Korea is a nation that spends vast amounts of money on military expansion, while its populace lacks sufficient nourishment. Conversely, until quite recently anyone making a film like Joint Security Area in South Korea would have been deemed to have broken the law, and liable to be prosecuted.

The plot has been summarised above in detail, to go any further would enter spoiler territory.

Video

Joint Security Area is presented anamorphically on a Region Free disc in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio. It`s a PAL disc mastered from an NTSC source, so there is a little bit of softness and a slightly lower resolution, but for the most part the image is clear with strong colours. Oddly, I discerned some strong edge enhancement in one of the opening scenes, but as it wasn`t repeated I didn`t pay it further mind. More telling is the prevalence of print damage in the film. Scratches, flecks of dirt and even the odd black line make this film seem a lot older than it`s brief five years. It`s unfortunate really, as the cinematography in this film is truly splendid, making full use of the scope and depth of locations and sets, while capturing every nuance of character.

Audio

There is a choice of three soundtracks on this disc, DTS 5.1, DD 5.1 and DD 2.0 Korean. The surround is quite good, and gets lively for the action scenes, but as most of this film is dialogue driven, it isn`t called on a whole lot. There are subtitles in English naturally, although you`re unable to change audio or subtitle tracks on the fly. There are scenes with English dialogue in the film, but unfortunately they aren`t subtitled, something that would have been useful given some of the accents.

Features

I received the test discs, along with an Amaray sleeve (not the final sleeve) with some promotional material on it, as well as a list of the extras with a `tbc` discreetly added. The sleeve has an 18 rating, but both the discs have 15 certificates on them. Unfortunately the deleted scenes were conspicuous by their absence, a shame really as an alternate ending was mentioned in the main featurette that seemed well worth including here.

All the extras are presented on the second disc, although both discs have animated menus with scenes from the film. The menus are a little dark though and the options are obscured at times. It`s probably redundant mentioning it, but to avoid spoilers you shouldn`t watch these prior to the film itself.

Behind The Scenes contains three featurettes. The JSA Story is the longest at 37 minutes, and it is presented in 4:3 in Korean with subtitles. It is a documentary that talks about the film`s impact and relevance as well as covering the making of, with plenty of input from the cast and crew. It`s interesting how the location of JSA had to be recreated, as filming at the real site is quite obviously impossible. There are plenty of clips from the film, as well as behind the scenes footage.

There`s a lot more behind the scenes footage in Making The Film, which has 15 minutes of b-roll footage. There`s no commentary or voice-over but the footage speaks for itself.

Finally in this section is the Behind The Scenes Montage. 4 minutes of footage set to Take The Power Back by Rage Against The Machine.

There are three trailers on this disc; the theatrical trailer, the Japanese trailer and the TV spot.

A Letter From A Private is a 5-minute music video taken from the film`s soundtrack.

Finally there are Profile Clips for the director and stars. These are 1-minute rolling filmographies, with footage of the people, information regarding them as well as their characters in the film. These are subtitled with partial translations of the scrolling Korean text in the pieces.

Conclusion

War is abhorrent in all its forms, but there is something particularly heart-rending about civil wars. In all such conflicts through history, brothers have been pitted against one another over matters of ideology and belief, yet when it comes to culture and ethnicity, there is nothing to distinguish them. In that situation, it is far easier to empathise, to imagine oneself in the enemy`s place. In contrast, the feelings that separate both sides will be far more intense, hatreds more personal. It`s ideal material for a film, and done well can entertain as well as challenge preconceptions. Joint Security Area captures the ironies and tragedies of a divided nation, like no other film I have seen. It`s no surprise that Joint Security Area was well received at the Berlin Film Festival, a city that not too long ago was as bitterly divided as Korea is today.

Chan-Wook Park`s (Oldboy) direction is excellent. This is a film that relies on the traditional device of the flashback to tell its story, but does so assuredly and without hint of cliché. We are presented with the incident at face value, two dead North Korean officers, one survivor, and a South Korean Sergeant who has confessed. The stories told by both sides differ, but as investigator Sophie Jean picks at the inconsistencies, the truth begins to be uncovered. But Jean is no simple narrative device to solve the mystery, as she herself is half Korean, and trying to stay neutral as she learns of her divided heritage causes problems. Where JSA could be an opportunity for bombast and a political statement or two, Park avoids this by focusing on the characters involved. It makes the film intensely personal, as we get to know the people involved on both sides, people who have so much in common they could be friends, but are separated by a few yards of bridge. I was drawn into the personal dramas and the characters involved, and found that the message took care of itself.

JSA has flaws though, most prominent being the English language dialogue. Of course this wouldn`t be a problem for Korean audiences, but Western audiences would be a little thrown by the English language scenes, necessary when the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission, under the auspices of the UN have been called in to mediate. Fortunately this is mostly exposition and dramatic scenes are few, but that doesn`t stop the English dialogue from being quite bad, and the delivery worse.

These are minor nitpicks though, in a powerful film that entertains, challenges and thrills. The characters that drive the narrative are well rounded and richly observed. The cast performances contribute mightily to this. It`s the feelings that the film evokes that carry a strong hopeful message, despite the bloody incident and the aftermath that is at the narrative heart of the film. A good picture and a wide selection of soundtracks are supplemented by a moderate selection of extras. A must see movie.