Joint Security Area (2000)

Joint Security Area (2000) is a South Korean film directed by Park Chan-wook. Its plot revolves around efforts to unravel the truth behind an illegal shooting at the politically and militarily sensitive North-South Korean border. 

Plot
The film begins when two North Korean soldiers are killed in the DMZ at a North Korean border house. Alarms sound on both sides, and North and South Korean soldiers are quickly deployed at the scene, resulting in an exchange of gunfire. Sgt. Lee Soo-hyeok (Lee Byung-Hun) despite an injured leg runs from the North Korean side and attempts to reach the South Korean side. He is shortly rescued while the gunfire continues.

Two days later, the fragile relationship between the two Koreas now relies on a special investigation conducted by Swedish and Swiss investigators from the NNSC to ensure that this incident does not erupt into a serious conflict. The mission is led by Major Sophie (Lee Young Ae), her mother being from Switzerland and her father Korean; however, this is her first time in Korea.

As Sgt. Lee Soo-hyeok (a South Korean soldier on border duties) has confessed to the shootings, it is up to Sophie to investigate why the two Koreas have contradicting accounts of events. Sophie proceeds to read the story of Soo-hyeok's experience which tell of him being knocked out and kidnapped while defecating. He then wakes up tied up in the North Korean border house, before proceeding to secretly free himself and shoot three North Korean soldiers, leaving two dead. However, Soo-hyeok is totally unresponsive to Sophie and will not answer any of her questions. On asking Soo-hyeok's comrades about him, she receives stories praising his courage defusing a mine he stepped on, or of throwing rocks at the North Korean house; however this gets her nowhere. Sophie then visits North Korea whose sole survivor of the shooting Sgt. Oh Kyeong-pil (Song Kang-ho) tells a different story: one in which Soo-Hyeok barges into the border house and shoots everyone before retreating when the wounded Kyeong-pil fights back.

The autopsy report shows that one soldier was shot first in the chest and then in the head, while the other, Jeong Woo-jin, was shot eight times repeatedly, more indicative of a grudge than an attempt at escape. The events that led to the killing of two North Korean soldiers are then shown throughout the film in a series of flashbacks. First, the depositions of each surviving soldier are shown, providing conflicting versions on that night's events. Major Sophie looks further into the case and discovers that things are not quite as they seem.

Reception
By early 2001 Joint Security Area had become the highest grossing film in Korean film history, remaining so until eclipsed by Friend, Silmido and Taegukgi. This success allowed Park Chan-wook to get the financial leeway to make his subsequent movies.

Within two weeks of its release the film had taken in one million admissions.[citation needed] A DVD of the movie was presented to North Korea's leader Kim Jong-II by South Korea's President Roh Moo-Hyun during the Korean summit in October 2007.

Awards and Nominations
•   Best film and best director, Blue Dragon Film Awards 2000
•   Best Actor (won jointly by Lee Byeong-heon and Song Kang-ho) at the Pusan Film Critics Awards 2000
•   Jury Prize, Audience Prize and Best Actor (Song Kang-ho) at Deauville Asian Film Festival 2001
•   Nominated for best Asian film at the Hong Kong Film Awards 2002
•   Best Film Grand Bell Awards 2001
•   Runner up, Golden Space Needle Audience Award for Best Film, and Special Jury Prize at the 27th Seattle International Film Festival, 2001
•   Nominated, Berlin International Film Festival, 2001

Main Cast
•   Lee Young Ae - Major Sophie E. Jean
•   Lee Byung-Hun - Sgt. Lee Soo-hyeok
•   Song Kang-ho - Sgt. Oh Kyeong-pil
•   Kim Tae Woo - Nam Sung-shik
•   Shin Ha-kyun - Jeong Woo-jin
•   Herbert Ulrich - Swedish soldier

Source wikipedia.org