Joint Security Area (Korean)

8/10. This is an excellent movie, seen at one of those Hale Manoa movie screenings. I suppose this is a reminder that living at the East-West center has the good side-effect of exposure to East Asian cultures about which I know little.

The title refers to the most forward posts of the UN command and North Korean forces that meet in an area known as the "Joint Security Zone" on the North-South border. It is also known as Panmunjom or the "truce village". The boundary runs right through this zone, and the armies are so close it has been the scene of some bloody skirmishes even after the 1953 ceasefire. As one would expect, it still remains at hyper-alert.

Nominally, the story is a murder mystery: a skirmish appears to have taken place one night at one of the border posts resulting in two North Korean soldiers killed and one wounded each among the two forces. However during a neutral Swiss investigation, an extra bullet is found at the scene which could not have come from any of the four soldiers. The question is who is the unknown party in the incident.

The investigator is unusually enough a Swiss-born Korean girl whose father served in the Northern army during the Korean war, but left for Switzerland after the ceasefire. What she unexpectedly discovers is a secret fellowship between opposing soldiers on the frontline, similar to that shown in movies like "No man's land", "All quiet on the western front" etc. As it turns out, this began with a South Korean soldier who accidentally got stuck on top of a landmine which would explode if he moves. He was saved by a couple of North Koreans who happened to be patrolling the same area. Of course they speak the same language, have the same ethos and are the same people which underscores the absurdity of the dividing line. Thereafter, the South Korean and a friend of his secretly begin crossing the dividing line regularly to visit the two Northerners and they become fast friends. They share pictures of girlfriends, play Korean dice games with bullets and offer quality cigarettes/cakes to the Northerners deprived by their communist regime. The dialogue is really funny, but you can feel the impending doom. Things are just too good to last given the military precipice on which these guys are sitting. Sure enough, one day they are discovered by a senior Northern officer and the little world implodes in suspicion and gunshots. I won't give the whole game away here, because people should see this movie. However I will say there is no happy ending here, which is as it should be in the non-hollywood world.

I guess the main point of the film is the naivette of young soldiers who are pushed into ideological wars, when what they really want is to make friends and hang out - very simply put. Worth remembering when the next dumb fuck begins talking about the honor in dying for a cause.

All the actors give awesome performances in this movie. The investigator girl came off a bit weaker than others though but I think it's the scriptwriter's fault. I don't know much about Korean cinema so I have no idea of the actor's names or past performances, but I will be watching out for them...