- Title: SOUTH KOREA: NEW FILM 'JSA' MAKES BOX OFFICE RECORDS IN SEOUL
- Date: 13th November 2000
- Summary: SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA (RECENT) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Korean) 27-YEAR-OLD HONG SEOK-WON SAYING: "Movies are fiction. It is nonsense to criticise the movie."
- Embargoed: 28th November 2000 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: SEOUL AND VARIOUS LOCATIONS, SOUTH KOREA
- Country: South Korea
- Reuters ID: LVA93Q0V4QLHYB6R838BODM79XF8
- Story Text: 'JSA' a remarkable new South Korean movie focusing on life along the world's last Cold War frontier is breaking box office records in Seoul. The extraordinary real-life 'Joint Security Area' at Panmunjom is practically the last vestige of the old Cold War - an Asian Check-Point Charlie where North and South Korean sentries try to face one another down across their border - a white line on the ground - which even shadows musn't cross. But all divisions can be crossed with friendship.
A South Korean movie - "Joint Security Area" or JSA - looks well on its way to becoming the nation's top-grossing movie of all time.
In just 47 days, 4.7 million movie-goers have flocked to see the home-grown movie which focuses on a familiar theme - the division between North and South Korea.
But while the theme may be familiar, JSA is a movie with a difference - for the first time it portrays friendship between opposing troops along the world's last Cold War frontier - albeit an ill-fated friendship - in the truce village of Panmunjom.
The opening of the movie makes its theme clear: If birds can fly over the border line freely, they why not human beings? Then the sound of gun-shots breaks the silence.
The timing of the film couldn't have been better, coming on the heels of the historic June summit between North and South which has radically improved relations between the two nations, raising hopes that the 50 year division of the Korean peninsula may finally come to an end.
For Director Park Chan-wook, the very existence of the Cold War frontier is something of a joke.
"From my point of view, Panmunjom is a very comical place. Soldiers stand opposite each other in ridiculous postures, very close on opposite sides of the Military Demarcation Line, ready to draw their guns at any moment."
In the film, two North Korean soldiers are killed and one South Korean sentry is wounded in a fire-fight. A Swiss General and Swiss-Korean Major are assigned to investigate the incident.
The investigation reveals an illicit friendship between four young soldiers - two from the North and two from the South that flourishes despite the tensions after North Korean soldier 'Oh' (correect) saves the life of his South Korean counterpart 'Lee' by warning him about a landmine.
The friendship is sealed when the two exchange alcohol and cigarettes.
In reality, any form of social contact between the two sides is strictly forbidden.
Film critics say the movie is a tragi-comedy, reflecting the reality of the division of the Korean peninsula.
"North and South Korean soldiers in JSA look aggressive without understanding each other. But in their minds, they wish to communicate with each other as human beings. So JSA is a doubly tragic place," film critic Sym Young-seop said.
In the movie South's Lee and North's Oh start exchanging letters and finally Lee pays a secret visit to the to the North Korean check point - where he is welcomed like a brother.
From then on, North Koreans Oh and Jung, and South Koreans Lee and Nam meet up each night - until tragedy strikes when another North Korean officer puts an end to the meetings.
Director Park Chan-wook said he wanted his film to highlight the bizarre aspect of the division of Korea.
"I wanted to describe how unreasonable and unnatural the division is, which makes them (North and South Korean soldiers) feel pain and anguish -- and also show the wider meaning, portraying the clash and struggle between human beings and (political) systems, which suppress individuals,"
37-year-old director Park said.
Actors from the movie said the film was an important step in rebuilding relations between the people of North and South, who for five decades have regarded each other with suspicion and enmity.
"I think they (North and South Korean soldiers) discovered that they were the same underneath, one race and not simply enemies," said Song Kang-ho who played the role of a North Korean soldier.
"Just draw a line -- then, this part is North and the other part is South, and staring at each other, the situation is a comedy," said actor Lee Byung-heon who played a South Korean soldier.
After the four soldiers exchange home addresses and take souvenir pictures, gunshots pierce the air and so begins the investigation.
Who killed whom? And why? What is unique about the movie is its portrayal of the North Korean soldiers - in JSA, they are shown as funny and vulnerable, rather than cold-hearted killers, the stereotype in most South Korean movies.
The only actress in the movie says she can explain the movie's success: "What matters is not ideology but human beings as one race -- If (moviegoers) can feel that way, then the movie is a successful one," said Lee Young-ae, who plays the role of the investigator Sophie in the movie.
But not everybody is happy about the movie.
On September 26, about 20 people barged into the office of Myung Film, the maker of "JSA" to condemn the movie.
Calling themselves the "JSA Fellowship", the group, made of veterans who served on the DMZ, said the film besmirched the reputation of former border guards.
As a compromise, Myung Film agreed to add a statement to the end of the film - saying that the film was fiction and apologising for tarnishing the image of soldiers who had served at the border.
But moviegoers said the film shouldn't be taken too seriously.
"Movies are fiction. It is nonsense to criticise the movie," 27-year-old Hong Seok-won said.
While in reality North and South Korea remain technically at war, since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice not a peace treaty, at least one South Korean firm has other ideas.
Hoping to ride on the movie's popularity, an Internet portal company has put a TV ad, using the theme of JSA in a bid to urge customers from either side of the border to join together in cyberspace - even if they can't shake hands across the border.
JSA was two years in production at a cost of 2.8 million U.S. dollars, the bulk of which was used to make a set representing the DMZ. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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