[MEOW] Joint Security Area

[Kyle]

This is the discussion thread for the Nerd Pride Radio Movie of the Every Other Week!

This thread is only for those who have seen the movie recently. Commentary from people who haven't seen it will be deleted.

This Every Other Week’s Movie: Joint Security Area, selected by Mike

WARNING- ALL SPOILERS FOR THIS MOVIE ARE ALLOWED! For real, if you haven't seen it, don't read any further!

Discuss!

[Mike]

I loved this movie when I first saw it, and I loved it again on this viewing. I'm a big fan of Park's work, which is what brought me to J.S.A. the first time.

My initial disjointed thoughts:

It was powerful. It's about friendship and family (they constantly call each other 'brother') and what duty and nationalism can do even to people who love each other. The film was able to balance the tension of the whole powderkeg setting against the building of a genuine and believable friendship.

I am not able to relate well to the mindset that drives Nam and Lee to attempting suicide, but I get it. Nam couldn't bear the world finding out what he'd done. Lee couldnt bear knowing that he shot first and that it really was all his fault. There's more to being a soldier than just speed.

And I like the framing device of the investigation. I feel that the frame was required, narratively, because it allowed us to see incomplete and inaccurate stories and keep the truth hidden until the end. But it also felt inconsistent, because we opened up with the two competing stories being revealed by the investigation, but then jumped into an hour-long flashback that tells the whole story of their friendship. And then we go back to storytelling through the investigator. I mean, the story still worked for me, but this nagged at me both times, and I wish that middle narrative could have been revealed similar to the rest of the story.

Oh was the soul of this movie for me. He was great. The voice of wisdom. The only one who had been off the peninsula and seen other parts of the world.

When they were all goofing around in the bunker and the camera kept panning around the circle, Aidan said, "Wait, are we watching That 70's Show?" Kinda killed that part for me.

[Tahlvin]

I enjoyed it. I was initially worried the subtitles were going to detract from it, but it was a good enough plot that that didn’t happen for me with this movie.

I agree with most of Mike’s points. Loved the relationship between the characters, and how nationalism took precedence over that. The long flashback was a bit odd, but that didn’t detract too much. Oh was the best. And the reveal at the end that all 4 friends were in the photo at the border... * finger kiss *

[buckett]

Yeah some awkward English acting and exposition aside, this movie pretty much rules. The four leads do a really good job of all seeming like distinct characters but selling the underlying friendship that makes the whole thing work. Song Kang-Ho is God.

The framing as a mechanism I actually didn't mind, the investigation was a smart way to set up the idea of needing a neutral arbiter between the two Koreas that it then kinda subverts in the end. It was hampered a bit by the English acting, but I thought it worked well in general. Good movie.

[Kyle]

I liked this movie a lot, but I feel like I miss out on much of this because I think it has a different power and effect if you've been living in a divided Korea and what that means for your sense of identity and nationality.

The framing device was necessary (although I'm not sure I liked it- for reasons to be explained later) because it set out the core issue: the divisions in Korea. Oh was from the North, Lee the South and Jean was the neutral who (like her father) refused to pick a side. This whole movie was about how these artificial divisions affect identity even though, at the heart of it they are all Korean. There's a great scene that demonstrates this after Jean learns that her father was a Northern general that refused to choose, and as she contemplates this she paces on the line that divides the North and South.

And can we talk about how good Kang-ho Song (who played Oh) is in this movie? He's probably most recognizable as the lead in The Host or the more recent Parasite (which I haven't seen yet). He's so goddamn good. Almost so much that it makes the acting of the others seem amateurish. When he hulk rages on Lee to distract him from confessing-- so good.

I think the acting took me out of this. Yeong-ae Lee (who played Maj. Jean) seemed particularly weak- as did all the actors playing non-integral roles (I'm looking at you Swedish dude). It wasn't just the bad English, even when she was speaking in Korean, her performance was wooden. And even though I think the framing device was necessary to the message behind the movie, I didn't care for it for these reasons. The non-Korean actors were just not good. So the whole investigation was off-putting to me.

But let's also acknowledge that Chan Wook Park is one of the greatest directors working. I honestly think he's in my top 3 with Tarantino and Scorsese. And while this might not be his greatest work, you see the beginnings of what he will later become. The odd time jumps which are denoted by introducing scenes with "Area" "Security" and "Joint" in that order to cue you in that we're going back in time. The shot of the slow fade to the umbrella. The beautiful shots of them every time they were in the tall grain. It was masterful. If you haven't seen the Vengeance-trilogy, Stoker or the Handmaiden, go watch those- they're phenomenal. I'm such a fan I watched the limited series, The Little Drummer Girl, he did with Florence Pugh and Michael Shannon- yall... it's freaking great.

[buckett]

[Mike]

I agree with Kyle on the difference of impact on us here in the States vs people who live daily with the reality of a divided Korea. And that's part of my comment of not being able to be in a mindset where their national identity can prompt them to suicide.

When we first sat down to this, Aidan assumed this was a joke or an entry in Awesome in the 80's or something because of the English acting.

But just to comment on the mastery of storytelling that you guys mention, the entire sequence from Lee stepping on the mine to the point where all four of them are hopping around on one leg like schoolboys was just a gorgeous vignette of how a friendship springs from unlikely circumstance. By the end of the flashbacks when the violence breaks out, I was reacting so viscerally to it that Aidan finally asked, "Haven't you seen this before?" I'm like, "Yeah, but it's just that intense."

Anyway, I was glad for the rewatch and really glad I got to share it with my son. I need to convince him to start participating here. He keeps watching the movies with me, so he might as well.

[buckett]