JSA: Joint Security Area Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

JSA: Joint Security Area Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 21, 2021

There’s a running joke between a certain substratum of theater geeks who are interested in musicals, whereby completely inappropriate properties are proffered as possible candidates for songs and dances, with the titles of these pretend pieces being whittled down to one word, typically with an exclamation point added for extra emphasis. In that regard, while JSA rather incredibly did become fodder for a musical (albeit one that reportedly stuck closer to the original novel from which this film is derived, rather than the movie itself), from what I’ve been able to glean from data posted online there was (sadly?) no exclamation point after its title. Joint Security Area, the full title of the film which is often abbreviated with the above acronym, would seem to be a very peculiar basis for a musical, since it deals with the tensions between North and South Korea, features a cast largely comprised of soldiers (on both sides of the 38th parallel), and, as commentator Simon Ward mentions (at least about the film version), with only two speaking parts for women. Ward also gets into how this film might be perceived as kin to both Rashomon and A Few Good Men, which in and of itself might further elucidate how weird a musical based on the film might have been.

The Rashomon aspect might be subliminally at least the first referent to emerge, since the film begins with a kind of discursive illusion to some kind of violence, with a bullet hole suddenly ripping through a barricade. Things segue fairly quickly to what Ward describes as a kind of quasi-procedural aspect, one involving the militaries of both North and South Korea, which is where the A Few Good Men aspects kick in. The upshot (no pun intended) of the opening few seconds is the fact that several North Korean soldiers have been shot to death, ostensibly by a kidnapped South Korean soldier named Lee Soo-hyeok (Lee Byung-hun), who, wounded himself, manages to limp back close to the border as more general hostilities break out between the neighboring nations. There's some "history" injected that may be relatively unknown to Westerners in particular, in the form of a supervisory group known as Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission (which exists in real life), which is called in to investigate the shootings and figure out what actually happened.

In that regard, there's the fascinating character (one of the only women in the film) of Army Major Sophie E. Jean (Lee Young-ae), who is ostensibly Swiss, but whose parents are/were Korean, giving her whole side of the story some important subtext (and in fact text toward the end of the film). Jean is upbraided by a superior to stay entirely neutral, but she soon finds herself ensconced in two radically different stories being told by either North Korean survivors and/or witnesses and Soo-hyeok, who slowly but surely snaps out of a near catatonic state to deliver his version of events. While Soo-hyeok maintains he was kidnapped, others paint a different story, one seemingly even more random in its violence, but some forensic evidence Jean and her team uncover seem to point to other hidden elements which are not being freely disclosed to the investigators.

Considering what (to quote the late, great announcer Paul Harvey) "the rest of the story" turns out to be, I only kind of half jokingly recommend a perhaps unexpected double feature to accompany this film, a kind of sweetly appealing animated outing from South Korea which I relatively recently reviewed called A Dog's Courage (also released as The Underdog). That film, like this one, may suggest that the DMZ is almost a haven of sorts.

JSA: Joint Security Area Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

JSA: Joint Security Area is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. Arrow's insert booklet contains only the following pretty generic verbiage about the restoration:

Joint Security Area / Gongdong gyeongbi guyeok JSA is presented in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio [sic] with original 5.1 surround and stereo audio. The High Definition master was provided by Little Big Pictures.

This evidently got a 4K restoration in Korea a while back, and it strikes me as maybe a little curious that this release doesn't reference that. One way or the other, while if taken as a whole this is a generally fine looking transfer, there are occasional issues that crop up. Some of the darkest material features an almost pixellated blue looking appearance (see screenshot 19, especially toward the top of the frame), and there are occasional other artifacts that can briefly show up, including macroblocking and some noticeable banding (pay attention during the sudden light changes during the title sequence). All of this said, a lot of the presentation pops very well, with a nicely suffused palette and generally very commendable detail levels. Fine detail on things like costumes can be quite good, especially in close-ups (see screenshot 11). Grain does fluctuate in thickness at times, and can get pretty chunky and yellowish in some of the nighttime scenes.

JSA: Joint Security Area Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

JSA: Joint Security Area features DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 tracks which are listed as ostensibly being in Korean, but which actually do offer swaths in (often heavily accented) English. In that regard, it should probably be pointed out that the optional English subtitles translate only the Korean language moments, and there is nothing providing subtitle support for the spoken English. The surround track offers some good, if at times subtle, immersion, not necessarily relegated to outdoor environments, but it definitely provides more energy to the mid and low range in (admittedly brief) sequences like the gunfire that breaks out early in the film. A kind of elegiac sounding score also provides good support and is nicely spacious in the surround rendering. Aside from the accent issues, dialogue is presented cleanly and clearly.

JSA: Joint Security Area Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary by Simon Ward offers good information presented in an enjoyably conversational way.


• Isolated Music and Effects Track is presented i DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0.


• Stepping Over Boundaries (1080p; 35:14) is an appreciation by Jasper Sharp which covers Park Chan-wook's filmography in general and this outing in particular. As usual with Sharp's presentations (whether written or oral), there's a glut of really interesting information he imparts.


• Archival Special Features

  The JSA Story (1080i; 36:47) provides some background of the plot. In Korean with English subtitles.

  
  

  Making the Film (1080i; 14:00) offers some good interviews. In Korean with English subtitles.

  
  

  About JSA (1080i; 2:18) features brief introductions from the cast. In Korean with English subtitles.

  Behind the Scenes Montage (1080i; 14:35)

  Opening Ceremony (1080i; 3:04)

• Music Videos

  Letter from a Private (1080i; 4:50)

  
  

  Take the Power ack (1080i; 4:01)

• Promotional Materials

  Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:13)

  
  

  TV Spot (1080i; 00:33)

  
  

  Image Gallery (1080p; 2:30)

Additionally this first pressing offers Arrow's typically well appointed insert booklet.

JSA: Joint Security Area Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

My late father was a Major General in the United States Army, and sometime during my childhood he was tasked with visiting South Korea to review American troops stationed there. Knowing what was already my interest in musical theater, he brought me home a double LP (remember those?) of some modern Korean opera which featured incredibly strident atonal music, and which had all the text including the libretto printed in Korean (of course), so I had absolutely no idea what it was about. The timing of this memory takes the musical version of JSA out of the running for what I was gifted with (subjected to?) so long ago, but I have to say I am more than a little bit curious to track down any recordings of the musicalization of this film (or at least its source novel) to see what was done with it. The film is often quite provocative in a surprisingly understated way, and it succeeds as both an almost harrowing mystery story and a really interesting set of character studies. Video encounters some hurdles, but audio is fine, and as usual with Arrow releases, the supplemental package is very enjoyable. Recommended.