Joint Security Area

Along the partition line that divides Korea at the 38. Parallel North, a demilitarized zone has been established. With the largest number of landmines anywhere in the world, the zone is also a permanent war zone between capitalism and (in lack of a better term) communism.

JSA opens as an “incident” has occurred in the zone. The investigator who is sent to look into the matter, suspects that there has been contact, over some time, between North Korean and South Korean soldiers. Soon it is revealed that the four soldiers in question have developed a unique friendship.

A major box office hit upon its release in South Korea, JSA is a superbly acted thriller which deals intelligently with moral dilemmas, comprising reverie, suspense, humour, and politics into a beautifully and deftly composed whole.

Park Chan-wook (b. 1963) from South Korea is one of the world's foremost contemporary filmmakers. He has directed a number of visually spectacular and immersive films, and got his international breakthrough with JSA: Joint Security Area (2000) and Oldboy (for which he won the Grand Prix in Cannes in 2003). Thematically, many of his characters are motivated by revenge.