JSA: Joint Security Area [Blu-ray]

Director: Chan-wook Park Chan-wook Park

Overview

The long-standing tension between North and South Korea threatens to boil over into an international incident in this thriller, which was a major box office success in its native South Korea. A North Korean soldier (Shin Ha-kyun) is shot while manning his guard station near the demilitarized zone along the border of the two Koreas. Maj. Sophie Jang (Lee Yeong-ae), a member of the DMZ Neutral Supervisory Committee who was raised by Swiss and Korean parents, is brought in to investigate the incident. Sgt. Lee Soo-hyeok (Lee Byung-heon), a member of the South Korean army, is considered the prime suspect in the attack, but Jang soon finds that getting to the truth is no easy task. Lee refuses to answer questions about the incident, and the investigator, in a territory considered a "trouble spot" since the killing of two United Nations soldiers 25 years earlier, faces anger and suspicion from both North and South Korean military representatives. Gongdong Gyeongbi Guyeok Jsa is based on the novel DMZ by Korean author Park Sang-yeon.

Product Details

Release Date:	01/19/2021
UPC:	0760137446989
Original Release:	2000
Rating:	NR
Source:	Arrow Video
Region Code:	A
Sound:	[stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, Dolby Digital Stereo]
Language:	English
Time:	1:49:00
Sales rank:	16,450

Special Features

High-Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation; Original lossless Korean (DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and PCM 2.0 stereo soundtracks; Optional English Subtitles; New Audio Commentary by Writer and critic Simon Ward; Isolated Music and effects track; Newly recorded video interview with Asian cinema expert Jasper Sharp; The JSA Story and Making the Film, two archival featurettes on the film's production; About JSA, a series of archival introductions to the film by members of the cast; Behind the scenes montage; Opening ceremony footage; Two music videos: Letter from a Private and Take the Power Back; Theatrical Trailer; TV spot; Image Gallery; Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Colin Murdoch

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Yeong-ae Lee	Maj. Sophie E. Jean,Sgt. Lee Soo-hyeok
Tae-woo Kim	Nam Sung-shik,Actor,Actor
Ha-kyun Shin	Jeong Woo-jin
Christoph Hofrichter	Maj. Gen. Bruno Botta
Herbert Ulrich	Swedish soldier
Song Kang-ho	Sgt. Oh Kyeong-pil
Kim Tae-woo	Actor
Kang-Ho Song	Actor
Cho Young-Wook	Composer

Technical Credits

Chan-wook Park

Eun Soo Lee

Seong-san Jeong

Hyeon-seok Kim

Chan-wook Park	Director,Screenwriter
Eun Soo Lee	Producer,Screenwriter
Seong-san Jeong	Screenwriter
Hyeon-seok Kim	Screenwriter
Lee Eun	Producer
Seok Dong-Jun	Executive Producer

Editorial Reviews

Sometimes referred to as Korea's answer to Apocalypse Now, Park Chan-wook's Joint Security Area is a murder mystery/war movie hybrid that ultimately transcends both genres to become a powerful anti-war statement. The narrative jumps back and forth in time, depicting events -- true and false -- told to investigator Sophie Jean (Li Yeong-Ae) by the survivors of a shooting incident on the DMZ involving soldiers from both sides of the border. As more and more details become clear, the incident becomes both more mysterious and more tragic. The question that emerges is not whodunit, but how could a group of men who had become improbable but very close friends end up shooting one another? The film's answer is an implicit critique of the decades-long conflict between the two countries, and the toll it takes on the young men trained to carry it out. The point is brought home with great impact in the film's brilliant final shot, which explores a seemingly innocuous tourist snapshot taken at a border checkpoint that, in light of everything that has happened, suddenly takes on a new, deeply tragic meaning.