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Bookmark this pageJoint Security Area/JSA (2000)
Director: Park Chan-Wook
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
An incident in the JSA (the demilitarised zone between North and South Korea) leaves two N Korean border guards dead and one S Korean wounded. The Swiss-Korean woman officer (Lee Young-Ae) heading the neutral enquiry into the skirmish gets nowhere until she stumbles upon a history of secret fraternisation between some of the border guards on both sides. It's decently directed and acted; easy to see why it did better than Shiri in Korea, although it fudges the political questions by casting the ultra-charismatic Song Kang-Ho as the main commie soldier. But the message that all Koreans could get along fine if it wasn't for those pesky ideologies and uniforms doesn't mean a thing outside Korea, and the film is too entranced by all the male bonding to begin to function as an effective mystery.Author: TR
Cast & crew
Director: Park Chan-Wook
Producer: Lee Eun, Shim Jae-Myung
Cast: Song Kang-Ho, Lee Byung-Heon, Lee Young-Ae, Kim Tae-woo, Shin Ha-Kyun full cast
Duration: 110 mins
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