JSA(Joint Security Area)
Tuesday, June 29, 2010 at 7 PM
Tribeca Cinemas
(54 Varick Street, NYC)
Park Chan-Wook, War/Drama, Grade 15, 2000, 110 minutes
"A special screening to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of the Korean War"
A firefight occurs at the "Bridge of No Return" in the DMZ (De-Militarized Zone), and two North Korean soldiers are killed. The North claims that the incident was a flagrant attack by the South Koreans, while the South claims that one of their soldiers was kidnapped.In order to solve the dispute, the NNSC (Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission)dispatches half-Korean half-Swiss Army Intelligence Bureau officer, Major Sophie E. Jean.With no cooperation from either side, the case appears to be unsolvable. However, Major Jean discovers that the number of bullets fired from the pistols and the number found at the scene differ by one, and she begins to dig deeper into the backgrounds of the soldiers involved. Subsequently she finds out about an encounter previous to the firefight when North Korean soldiers saved a South Korean soldier from a mine. The story unravels to reveal a friendship developing among the soldiers. On the night of the firefight...
A special screening to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of the Korean War, Park Chan-Wook’s JSA: JOINT SECURITY AREA is one of the most moving Korean films ever made, and the hit that put Director Park (OLDBOY) on the map. Starring Song Kang-Ho (THE HOST), Lee Young-Ae (LADY VENGEANCE), Lee Byung-Hun (GI JOE; THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE WEIRD) and Shin Ha-Kyun (SAVE THE GREEN PLANET, THIRST), it is a shimmering, hyper-real epic that charts the spiritual fallout of international politics.
JSA uses the partition, the arbitrary line drawn through the middle of Korea and manned by international oversight, as a door into the psychological wreckage of the Korean War. It starts with a present-day incident on the border that leaves a group of North and South Korean soldiers wounded or dead. The Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission (NNSC) swoops in to investigate, led by Korean-Swiss Major Sophie Jean (Lee Young-Ae) and the stark, technocratic investigation becomes the frame for a series of extended flashbacks that depict the events leading up to the shooting.
In every sense of the word, JSA is a tragedy, but at the same time, it's a testament to human nature. One of the most popular Korean movies of all time, both at home and overseas, JSA is a movie that takes Korea’s national tragedy of partition and manages to find within it something as fragile and precious as hope.
Tribeca Cinemas (54 Varick Street, NYC)
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