The
fight or flight response triggers instinctual reflexes with incredible speed,
and in the case of four Korean men, can spell disaster for a relationship
forbidden by society. Park Chan-wook’s film, JSA: Joint Security Area depicts the tragic reality of nationalist
ideology as it applies to the tension between North and South Korea. The film essentially
inundates the audience in this tension to wrap them up in unfortunate global
political turmoil while providing a small token of hope through a taboo
friendship that transcends political and physical boundaries. This is achieved
through a deafening lack of music, a mild, earthy color palette, dim lighting,
and rigid camera movements. With these devices in place, Park tells this whole
tragedy through Major Sophie Jean of the Swiss Army and a member of the Neutral
Nations Supervisory Committee, tasked with investigating the events that
precipitated the deaths of two North Korean soldiers within a guardhouse on the
northern side of the demilitarized zone.
To
begin her investigation and become familiar with the individuals involved,
Major Jean delves into the depositions of Sergeant Lee and Sergeant Oh of South
and North Korea, respectively. Unsurprisingly, the two official statements
contradict each other in almost every way, however, Major Jean is shocked to
discover that none of the men involved are willing to actually speak about the event.
Jean’s reading of the depositions provokes two memory sequences, one for each official
witness. Lee’s claim is that, while wandering outside of his station to relieve
himself, he was captured and taken to the guardhouse across the border. There
he managed to escape his bindings and shoot at his three captors. Private Jung
and Lieutenant Choi are killed and Sergeant Oh is shot in the arm and Lee
sustains an injury to his leg as he flees. Oh’s interpretation of the events
claims that Lee kicked in the door to the guardhouse in a surprise attack, resulting
in the same deaths and injuries. Though these accounts vary in their retelling
of the events, both memory sequences share cinematographic devices. First,
their roles as memories or recollections serve to punctuate the flow of the
investigation and bring the audience into the thought process of Major Jean as
she discovers new information. Second, they are a few of the rare moments in
this film when dramatic, non-diegetic music plays. Loud, frantic strings and
deep drum lines flood these scenes with the intensity they would likely
produce. The rest of film is almost entirely quiet in terms of music; scenes either
rely on ambient noise or soft music that imitates the ambient noise or is played
from a cassette tape. This is probably intentional, as these two sequences are
also the only ones that turn out to be fabrications of the involved parties.
Next, the lighting follows a similar pattern to the rest of the film. The faces
of the men are well lit compared to the rest of the scene, either by key lights
when an individual is in frame or fill lights when the frame is a two- or
three-shot. This is a stark contrast to the bright, well-lit scenes involving
Major Jean’s arrival and her direct actions in the investigation, such as the
interviews. This lighting also plays an important role in later sequences, when
the audience becomes privy to the truth before Major Jean does. Finally, most
of the shots in these sequences involve static camera placement with rigid
movement. That is, most movement is panning or tracking that is smooth. On rare
occasions, the camera becomes free from its tethers and moves as if it is the perspective
of someone physically in that space. These devices return throughout the film,
to bring an anxious and disheartening tone to the atmosphere.
The
less tense mood resurfaces when the sequences end, and Jean continues her
investigation by viewing the deceased in the morgue. The discoveries Jean makes
here lead here to interview Lee and Nam once again. During Lee’s interview,
Jean confronts him about the firearms and the number of rounds fired. As he
responds, the room changes from brightly lit by the mid-day sun to dim, as if
the moon forced the sun away. Nam attempts to commit suicide when Jean suggests
the use of a polygraph test, prompting another flashback. While on patrol,
Sergeant Lee mistakenly steps into a trap just enough that it has not triggered
but will if he moves at all. Sergeant Oh and Private Jung come across the trapped
South Korean soldier and nearly leave him for dead before deciding to save his
life. Again, through this nerve-wracking sequence, the only noise other than
the dialogue between the three men is the low howl of the wind and the only
light is the dim moon. After this moment, Lee expresses gratitude by throwing messages
across the bridge to the men who spared him, and they return the gesture. Soon
Lee makes the bold move of crossing the bridge and meeting the others within
their shack. Despite the cards being stacked against them, the men quickly bond
and soon bring in Private Nam as well, giving way to several sequences in which
the men play childhood games and bond. All of this fun, however, is stippled
with politically charged tension as the men meet in the dead of night and try
to avoid their national ideals, with one instance of each pair suggesting the
other defect. These nightly meetings are either only filled with dialogue or
are only slightly intruded upon by quiet music being played from the South
Korean tapes, a cinematographic device to emphasize the covert and dangerous
game these men are playing with fate.
After
this sequence, Jean, Lee, and Oh meet in a conference building on the border to
discuss the events together. Using props set upon the table, Jean comes to the
conclusion that a fifth man must have been involved, suspecting it to be Private
Nam as a result of his suicide attempt. To test this theory, Jean plays a short
clip of Nam during her interview with him and his attempt on his own life.
While Oh seems rather unphased by this and the discussion in general, Lee
becomes emotionally overwhelmed and begins to cry, at which point Oh brings the
whole meeting to an end by lunging at his companion. This is clear to the
audience to be a way of silencing Lee and protecting the three surviving
friends. Jean likely sees past this ruse, but a revelation regarding her ancestry
reveals that her father was a North Korean commanding officer, effecting her
removal from the investigative committee. Jean, intrigued by this situation and
confident in her conclusion, seeks the truth unofficially and draws it out from
Lee after proving she deduced exactly that. Lee recalls the events that exact
night in one final flashback.
Somber
folk music plays without a source as an extreme, eye-level closeup of Private
Nam’s eyes is revealed. A key light illuminates the side of his face near the
right side of the frame and then moves to illuminate his whole face. The camera
then zooms out slightly to display the shock on his face. Very little back and
fill lighting give him the appearance of standing alone in a void. There is a
cut to a eye-level shot of Jung from the shoulders up, leaning over a desk
against the wall. As he turns his head toward the camera his smile fades. Like
Nam, his face and torso stand out starkly, even with dim fill lighting, against
the dark background. Another cut takes the camera to and eye-level, closeup
shot of Oh smiling at the table in the center of the room. His smile also fades
as he turns to the camera, lit by the dim ceiling light above him. Behind him
the wall is lit, giving him a physical place in this scene, rather than the
voids in which Nam and Jung find themselves. The window on this wall is out of
focus, but still shows the intensity of rain pouring down outside. The camera
now cuts to a medium two-shot of Nam standing in the doorway and Lieutenant
Choi standing in the rain, his back to the camera. This shot observes the 180-degree
convention and nearly the shot/reverse-shot pattern as a cut takes the camera
to the back of the room presenting a master shot of the whole shack. From left to
right are Oh and Lee sitting in the center of the room, Nam and Choi at the door,
and Jung on the far, right side of the frame. The ceiling light fills the room
with a dull glow. The camera tracks forward slightly as Choi shuts the door
behind him, drops his flashlight, and quickly draws his sidearm on Nam. As quickly
as the Lieutenant draws, so does the music stop entirely. Only the sound of the
rain can be heard behind Nam’s panicked gasps and the shuffling of the other
men. At this point, the camera becomes free, as if it has become an active
participant in the scene, panning to whomever is speaking and shaking as if
nervous. The camera even recoils when Choi hits Oh in the face for fraternizing
with the enemy. The shots that follow utilize shifting between different fields
of focus to keep the audience looking around or carefully pan and track on
motivated movements. The motivation for these movements is usually a character
speaking; the camera focuses on a closeup of Lee as he states he will not put
down his gun, then tracks back and pans right into a two-shot of Lee and Oh as Oh
tries to convince his friend to give up for everyone’s sake. This whole sequence
is the tipping point of the film as the audience finally learns what they
believe to be the full, unfiltered series of events. It is the culmination of
the tensions between the close friends and brings to light a harsh reality
about their companionship; As soldiers in enemy states, they have been so indoctrinated
with nationalist ideals that even their bond cannot withstand it perfectly. Despite
saving Lee’s life in the minefield, Oh and Jung do not have his unwavering
trust as he is unwilling to put down his gun. Even Jung is convinced that his
best option is to turn on his friends to save himself. This tension that has
been building up during their entire relationship finally reaches a breaking
point. Nam shoots Choi on pure instinct and fear and Jung goes to shoot Nam for
the same reason before being gunned down by both South Koreans. Lee then turns
his gun on Oh but a miraculous gun jam saves him from the shellshocked soldier.
Everything the men have built and been so careful to protect falls apart in
seconds. Even worse is how each nation essentially sweeps this story under the
rug as the nature of the large-scale politics outweigh the interactions between
pawns such as these men. As General Major Botta of the Swiss Army says, “Here
the peace is preserved by hiding the truth. What they both really want is that
this investigation proves nothing.” And thus, the defiant friends become
nothing more than another handful of soldiers proud of their duty to their
country, even if it means gunning down another human.
