This Special Edition Blu-ray is now available from Arrow Video.
The recent success of films like Parasite (2019) has brought a lot of added attention towards South Korean cinema. One of many notable moviemakers from the country is Park Chan-wook, who has been making incredible films for decades, including Oldboy (2003), Thirst (2009), Stoker (2013) and The Handmaiden (2016). Distributor Arrow Video have secured the rights to a new Special Edition Blu-ray of one of his early titles and debuted it earlier in the week.
Unlike some of the director’s other works that have a more fantastic slant, JSA: Joint Security Area is a real-world drama that deals specifically with the tense relations between North and South Korea. After gunfire involving the deaths of multiple guards at a border station in the demilitarized zone is reported, Swiss Army Major Sophie Jean (Lee Yeong-ae) and a Swedish official (Herbert Ulrich) are sent to investigate the incident and keep the peace. Jean interviews the survivors, but is taken aback when they tell conflicting stories. Eventually, flashbacks reveal the true nature of the relationship between South Koreans Lee Soo-hyeok (Lee Byung-hun) and Private Nam Sung-shik (Kim Tae-woo) and North Koreans Oh Kyung-pil (Song Kang-ho) and Jung Woo-jin (Shin Ha-kyun). What follows is a tragic tale involving two pairs of strangers who accidentally cross paths, become friends and eventually are forced into violence by forces beyond their control.
The history of war between the two countries as their eventual armistice in 1953 is long (there’s too much to go into here) and incidents still occur on the borderline. The subject matter is of particular cultural significance in South Korea, where the movie became the highest grossing film of all time for several years. Thankfully, this tale isn’t exploitative and is a very good feature told by the director in a more reserved manner than his later productions. Cinematically, it doesn’t possess the same flash and pop that Park Chan-wook’s later works do, but then again, this is a different kind of story that would be negatively impacted by an overabundance of camera and editing tricks.
Instead, it is a performance-based film that focuses primarily on the guilt and torment of the lead characters over a mysterious, undetermined event. Admittedly, early sequences do feel a bit stiff, especially those involving the investigators awkwardly trying to deliver certain lines in English. However, once the interviews start and feature gets deep into flashback mode of the four men and their personal relationships, the story really comes to life. We see the soldier’s attitudes towards each other morph into mutual respect for one another. And as the military figures begin hanging out together, there are some excellent scenes between them as they joke about their different political ideals and share their life experiences with one another.
There’s a real humanist streak to this feature and it doesn’t take sides or go out of its way to cast any of its characters as a villain. Instead, the cast and filmmakers do an excellent job of building a sense of brotherhood between the men. They all speak the same language and are from the same part of the world, yet a violent history, tensions between the countries and the demands of their superiors offer nothing but a grim future for the individuals involved. This makes the events that follow all the sadder and more heartbreaking.
This movie is also impressively photographed. The recreation of the rigid, blue demilitarized zone outpost and stern guards are effectively contrasted with the area where the leads are stationed. They are backed by a more natural and picturesque stone bridge with overgrown brush. The cutting and transitional scenes, which occasionally switch from a quiet exchange to a louder and more jarring sounds like gunfire or military exercise are also effective and ominous.
So, while some of the wraparound elements involving officials taking among themselves aren’t always engaging, the heart of the movie involving the soldiers themselves is consistently gripping and compelling to watch. And one can certainly see the director’s stylistic editing skills and shot selection in later films being slowly honed here and there along in this production. It is easy to see the filmmaker beginning to find his own voice and narrative approach that would lead him to the next (and more well known, at least internationally) phase in his career.
Arrow have done another impressive job in bringing this feature to Blu-ray in North America. It’s a newer, popular film in its homeland and as such likely didn’t have a great deal of issues with the source materials to begin with, but it is still worth noting that the image quality on display looks wonderful and is crystal clear. The movie also sounds great, with the isolated music score and effects available to listen to on their own on a separate channel.
Naturally, the crisis between the two countries may not be as familiar to those in this part of the world and so there are numerous bonuses that are informative and provide plenty of background information. The first is a commentary track with a writer and critic who gives behind-the-scenes details about the film and its production team and cast. He does a good job of explaining some of the themes, as well as the mindset of South Koreans watching the film and how some of the movie’s ideas and messages are communicated cinematically.
The disc also contains archived featurettes on the production featuring the cast and crew (as well as some old introductions to the movie from the participants) that share more insight. Those looking for even more information on Park Chan-wook’s film career and South Korean cinema in general over the past 20 years with enjoy the lengthy discussion withAsian cinema expert Jasper Sharp. It contains clips and analysis of the director’s flicks as well as other notable South Korean titles and will most certainly leave many viewers adding some of those featured to their watch lists. There are also videos featuring behind-the-scenes footage from the movie in addition to other movie-related clips contained on the disc. All kinds of publicity material related to the feature is on Blu-ray too, including trailers and stills.
As mentioned, there’s a lot of backstory to unpack regarding the complicated situation between North and South Korea, but even without that backstory, JSA: Joint Security Area is an effective drama that attempts to help bridge the gap between the two very different sets of people. Arrow Video have done an exceptional job with this Blu-ray, giving the movie a sharp presentation and providing plenty of details about the movie and the political issues being addressed that will certainly be of interest to fans of world cinema.