#joint security area

[jeon6yeon]

Joint Security Area (2000) Dir. Park Chan-wook

#joint security area #park chan wook #song kang ho #lee byung hun #filmedit #filmgifs #dailyflicks #asian cinema #gif

[flanaganfilm]

I saw this last week and absolutely adored it. Park Chan-wook is, in my opinion, the best filmmaker working today. 

Every single film in his filmography is exceptional, unique, and worthy of study. If you aren’t familiar with his work, I’m actually jealous of you - if you decide to pursue it, what a journey you’ll have. 

Here are some of his titles, in the order he made them:

JOINT SECURITY AREA

SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE

OLDBOY

SYMPATHY FOR LADY VENGEANCE

THIRST

STOKER

THE HANDMAIDEN

#park chan-wook #decision to leave #joint security area #sympathy for mr. vengeance #oldboy #sympathy for lady vengeance #thirst #stoker #the handmaiden #perhaps the greatest living filmmaker

[sloshed-cinema]

Joint Security Area [공동경비구역 JSA] (2000)

A picture really does say a thousand words. The final image of Park Chan-wook’s DMZ character study perfectly sums up the relationship between its four central characters as well as the overall tone that it sets in examining the human consequences of such a specific and thoroughly enforced piece of diplomatic work. The monochrome photograph captures Sgt Oh’s wry expression, Pvt Jeong grinning as he marches in the background, Pvt Nam against the wall and Sgt Lee moving to block the lens. There’s an irreverence hiding in plain sight here, a secret pact which Park teases out over the course of this military thriller. But even more brilliantly, the taking of the image itself served as a character beat earlier in the film. While it’s not the first time we meet Sgt Oh, this is his first true reveal, making the choice to hand a tourist’s hat which has blown over into the DPRK back over to the ROK. He’s stiff and militaristic, but capable of making humanistic gestures, we see here. Throughout the rest of the film, he is perhaps the levelest mind in the room. Though fervent in his dedication to the DPRK in his words, Oh seems to value the lives of those he cares about more when things get tense. He uses this zealotry to purposefully, perhaps, sabotage a cross-examination when Lee looks about to break and perhaps damage his future, and as we come to learn about the confrontation which sparked the investigation and film, Oh works to protect his brethren on the southern side of the border even after his comrade is shot. He’s a good man. They’re all good men, on some level. The central idyll is like a warm blanket were it not for the knowledge that this is doomed to fail violently, nightly gatherings of camaraderie. But we come as an audience to enjoy their time together goofing off and swapping cigarettes and stories. It’s a connection not seen anywhere else in this world of strict and arbitrary ceremony and custom. Even the woman investigating the incident, Swiss negotiator Maj Jean, is separated from her intimate connections, her father’s past as a North Korean general weaponized and herself distant from him. Everything is defined by this line in the sand, and yet four men found a way to step across it. If only for a moment. Neither Lee nor Nam escape the fallout, and Oh can only find the release of discharge. It’s a moment in time, a snapshot.

Director Park uses flashbacks and perspective to spool out the different potential truths at hand before revealing the full facts of the matter. It’s well-executed, but not exactly anything novel. What is more interesting is his effortless as usual command of visual storytelling through editing and motifs. Borders are at once very important and completely frivolous, as exemplified by the concrete band defining the split between the two territories. ROK soldiers line up in drills to shoot moving targets from a model version of this setup, but those same soldiers from both sides will in other instances line up to swap cigarettes and hunt rabbit in a whole different kind of war-game. Our secret friends become increasingly juvenile during their duties, early on making threats about shadows crossing the border, which escalates to a spitting contest. They can’t even maintain a straight face when on duty facing off against one another, which makes their later face-to-face encounter at deposition, when there can be no falsehood, all the more heartbreaking. Later, mulling her options, Jean walks back and forth on that line like it’s a tightrope, balancing geopolitical consequences. Park is never twee or kumbahyah, we should all just get along about it: klaxons warn of imminent invasion and the ROK border defense react, our central quartet mull the consequences of invasion and how they would have to shoot each other in such a scenario. He's not naive, but Park does arch his brow at the theatrics of it all.

Underneath all of this is a heavy layer of queer subtext. It’s almost full-on text, just have an orgy! The one thing holding this film back. Nothing’s perfect. But there’s a definite longing between these four, especially Nam and Jeong. The secrecy of night can hide these normal interactions which the outer world condemns. Further overtures are made and blissfully received as Nam witnesses a mirror being flashed from across the border and practically exits this plane of existence. Jeong enjoys the arts and receives his birthday gift rhapsodically. Coded messages—the passing of a Yankee lighter, whistling—take the place of conventional conversation. The memento of the landmine fuse intertwines intimacy of that first meeting with danger, a Very Queer Thing. Nam paints a dark line under his eye akin to Oh’s scar in homage to him. That’s right, I’m going full tinfoil here, this will DEFINITELY fit into my Grand Unified Gay Theory come hell or high water.

THE RULES

SIP

Someone says 'Commie' or 'bullet'.

A car with a diplomat flag on its hood appears in a scene.

Someone names a nation.

BIG DRINK

A flashback begins.

CGI(?) birds? Are birds real?

Song Kang-ho whistles.

#drinking games #jsa #park chan-wook #song kang-ho #lee young-ae #lee byung-hun #shin ha-kyun #kim tae-woo #korean cinema #drama #joint security area

[vampirecorleone]

365 Movies Challenge #226; Joint Security Area (2000) dir. Park Chan-Wook: “You haven't learned much about Panmunjom yet. Here, the peace is preserved by hiding the truth. What they both really want is that this investigation proves nothing after all.“

#365 movies challenge #365 movie challenge #joint security area #park chan wook #gif #mine #made by me #photoset #gifs #gifset #moviegifs

[nomilkinmyteaplease]

I was sure someone did this, but looked high and low and didn't find it, so here is THE scene from JSA.

#lee byung hun #song kang ho #joint security area #JSA #korean cinema #world cinema #shin ha kyun #park chan wook #my stuff #best director in Cannes this year!

[where-starsland]

Joint Security Area (2000)

공동경비구역 JSA (Joint Security Area, 2000) directed by Park Chan-wook

#movie #film #asian cinema #korean movie #korean film #korean cinema #공동경비구역 JSA #joint security area #lee byunghun #song kangho #shin hakyun #kim taewoo #lee young ae #park chan wook

[soo-hyuki]

JSA is a cinematic masterpiece, yet not a lot of people talk about it anymore. Strange since it has actually gone down in history as the most successful Korean movies of it's time.

I see a bittersweet irony with it's importance being forgotten and the question of unification between the north and south slowly fading into the background.

Once the war is finally over and the 2 sides have been unified, praise for the movie JSA will circulate again, calling it ahead of its time.

The impactful beauty of cinema will never cease to amaze me.

#jsa #joint security area #dmz #korea #north korea #south korea #north and south #history #park chan wook #cinema #soo hyuki thoughts

[moviemosaics]

Joint Security Area

directed by Park Chan-wook, 2000

#Joint Security Area #Park Chan-wook #movie mosaics #Song Kang-ho #Lee Byung-hun #Lee Young-ae #Shin Ha-kyun #Kim Tae-woo

[joyland2022]

park chan-wook's joint security area is one of the most effective military movies in the 21st century and probably my pick for fav park chan wook movie. even though the premise seems a bit trite, soldiers from north and south korea forced to form friendships at the border. and it is an empathetic story that errs towards romantic by the end, as you can imagine. but more impressively, it's a plea for reunification not just because these individuals have a bond, the movie is about a whole that's been split into two and you get the feeling that the peninsula just wants to be together irrespective of government and politics.

#watch it to cry over song kang ho and lee byung hun anyway #joint security area #park chan wook

[moviesinpaint]

Here, the peace is preserved by hiding the truth. What they both really want is that this investigation proves nothing after all. #MSPaint #MSPaintArt #ParkChanWook #SongKangHo #KoreanCinema #JointSecurityArea

#MS Paint #MS Paint Art #Park Chan Wook #Song Kang Ho #Korean Cinema #Joint Security Area

[kashilascorner]

Park Chan Wook really said "someone is benefiting from the North-South divide but it sure as hell is not the Korean people" huh...

#that's the subtext to jsa methinks. the text is bros will be bros no matter frontiers but the subtext 👀 #laura watches stuff #joint security area

[tubbietommo]

“The two sides seem closer to each other than I thought” “Oh yeah. You could even hear them fart.”

is probably the funniest dialogue used as a hint for what is to come later in the movie.

#Joint Security Area #I'm re-reading my school report about this movie and ughh I love this movie so much

[tinyreviews]

The premise is contrived, that two soldiers could be absent from their post for so long and so often. But the heartwarming story more than makes up for it.

And wow, that last photograph shot... hits you right in the feels. And makes you think and wonder. About circumstances, friendship, loyalty and human nature.

Joint Security Area (Korean: 공동경비구역 JSA) is a 2000 South Korean mystery thriller film starring Lee Young-ae, Lee Byung-hun and Song Kang-ho. It was directed by Park Chan-wook and is based on the novel DMZ by Park Sang-yeon.

#joint security area #south korea #dmz #jsa #lee young ae #lee byung-hun #song kang-ho #mystery #thriller #movie review #2000 #must watch

[kamsspice]

this movie ripped my heart out, spat on it and all i could say is thank you

#joint security area #park chan wook

[pablolf]

Film Journal

"Joint Security Area (JSA)" by Park Chan-wook

#joint security area #jsa #film journal #Gongdong gyeongbi guyeok JSA

[touslesfilmsquejaivu]

#jsa #joint security area