Gongdong gyeongbi guyeok JSA (2000)'s comments

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allisoncm

If you get the US DVD, it might automatically give you the English language dub. The Swiss/Korean woman's voice that is dubbed into English is pretty horrible. Please know that there is the original Korean track and English subtitles. There is really no other way to watch it with this particular DVD release.

8 years 8 months ago

sushantv10

Must Watch anti war movie

13 years 4 months ago

rehimmel

Currently on TUBI

1 year 11 months ago

Siskoid

The frame isn't as precious in Joint Security Area as it is in later Park Chan-wook material, even if there are at least SOME beautiful and clever shots, but perhaps that just wasn't called for. His drama/mystery set in at the North and South Korean border is too immediate and mobile for that kind of posing. It seems something happened at the border resulting in the deaths of two North Korean soldiers and a Swiss national played by Lee Young-ae (Lady Vengeance) is called in to investigate and keep war from breaking out. But none of the survivors on either side are talking. What secret might they be hiding? The procedural detective story and realpolitik are absorbing, but it's when we go back almost a year to see how these events were set up and ultimately played out that we get at the meat of things. I'm loathe to say much more since I am recommending "JSA", but it gets to the heart of the Korean divide, a people with the same blood, history and culture who have been rent apart by political forces. Worth watching for the look at one of the most famous borders today, but it's got much more than that to offer.

3 years 1 month ago

DanielRoffle

Not more melodramatic than, say, "Saving Private Ryan", "Platoon" or "Sgt.York"; who goes to war films for understatedness, anyway? This movie has a fair bit of sentiment, but manages to make this reinforce its main conceit - average guys on both sides being dehumanized and destroyed by the powers they serve - instead of trivializing it. A very atypical debut for Chan-woo Park, but his visual flair and humanist perspective are present and correct. A very impressive movie.

10 years 9 months ago

der Zorn Gottes

What a marvel of a movie this is! It manages to persevere even though about 5% of it is absolute garbo due to filthy westerners doing their very best to try and ruin everything. All the scenes with Byung-Hun, Kang-Ho, Mr. Vengeance and uhm... the fourth one are so great, that you don't even care about the classic uninterest the western actors bring to the table.

Knowledge of Korean history comes in handy with this one, it adds a layer of intrigue to the whole film and without it, one can think that this is just another "anti-war"-movie, God I hate that whole "anti-war"-concept... Having this film higher than giants like Seppuku and The Sword of Doom on my top 10 list feels kinda filthy, but I just can't help it, it's the absurdity of the situation in Korea that I find so intresting, and the way the movie shows the two nations as equals instead of going the basic South Korean route of demonizing the Northerners that really makes this movie great.

I don't think I've ever had such a strong emotional connection to the characters of a movie than I had with the two pairs of soldiers in this film. A lot of it comes from the immaculate work of Byung-Hun Lee and especially Kang-Ho Song, but it's also the way the story is told that really tugs at my heartstrings. At the start of the movie, you can't even dare to expect what an emotional journey you're about to embark on. The lightheartedness of some of the scenes only amplifies the devastation of the ending.

God bless Kim-Kwang Seok and God bless Chan-Wook Park for using two of his greatest songs in this film. The music in this film is some of the best I've ever heard in cinema all together. If it wasn't for the God awful shite by the westerners, this would be the best movie ever, but it still has the best ending I've ever seen, the music, the picture... The feels.

quote:
Your shadow is over the line. Watch it!

7 years 5 months ago