JOINT SECURITY AREA

Today was our first night show at the academy. The movie that was screened was Joint security area. Its a south korean movie, directed by Park Chan wook.

ONE LINER - The movie is about a shooting incident in DMZ between North and South Korea and subsequent investigation that takes place.

THE PERFORMANCES - Though this is the first korean movie i'v watched, i'v heard a lot about park chan wook, especially his vengeance trilogy -one of the parts from which the bollywood flick Zinda was remade (oldboy).Even though Park chan wook has treaded along the regular screenplay of a crime thriller - incident- followed by arrival of investigation team - followed by recovery of evidences - followed by a flashback - then finally the climax , he has packaged the content very well and has been shrewd enough not to show all scenes at full length , cutting a few in the interim and letting us infer the plot. Initially all the koreans looked the same to me and i took some time recognizing them. All the four who played soldiers did a decent job but the guy who played lee hyeok impressed me the most. He looked more in control than the others in all scenes. major sophie's character is that of a stereotype investigating officer who plays darts while figuring out the truth. The most brilliant performance of the movie i felt was the cinematography. As much as there was very limited scope for it, there was as much a performance - it indeed gave a typical "colour" to the whole movie.

YAWNS - Music was really good, but there was a feeling that it was underplayed a bit. Also after watching some real rippers of hollywood war action, action sequences in this movie were found wanting.

To sum it up, the packaging of the movie was really commendable, thanks to some really gripping scenes like the one where lee steps onto the mine, the gun pointing scene preceding the shooting incident etc.And having chosen a very relevant , live theme naturally helps in taking the movie forward. Its also one of those movies where human emotions are portrayed brilliantly - The angels, the demons in people and how they come out differently at different times. The climax is really touching. So touching that it made me write the review immediately after coming back to my room in utterly cold conditions :)