Is it human nature or the system that casts the cruelty?

Eugenia 2022-01-12 08:02:08

"JSA, Joint Security Area" tells how four soldiers stationed on the border between South and North Korea tried to get rid of hostile thinking and gradually developed into friends, and then ended the friendship between the four with a cruel tragedy. Behind the scenes The performance to be conveyed is really thought-provoking. As for the two compatriot countries that have been hostile for many years, the film uses taboo subjects to express the cruelty and various unnecessary historical obstacles intertwined between individual human nature and the state system. Throughout the film, the way of flashbacks in time and space creates a suspenseful plot, which makes people see the details. Use a gentle black style to expose the huge impact of ideological political positions on human nature, and human nature tries to get rid of those damn political systems under the huge and heavy historical burden. The cruelty behind it is ultimately under the ideological system. It looks unusually small.

I believe that the people of South and North Korea (it is known that this is the first South Korean film to be screened in North Korea) felt extremely great when watching this film. I’m even more convinced that when they saw the four friends in the play who had already gotten rid of the damn ideological system, and in the end they were drawn by the hostile suspicion that had been instilled in their hearts for a long time, there were still two armies for that book. In the absence of a crisis, shooting at each other will inevitably feel painful, and feel heartbroken because of the mutual killing of compatriots.

I like movies to use the guard zone boundary just one meter apart to show the absurdity of human nature in reality. Everything is only a fine line apart, which will cause huge differences. Is it human nature or system? Should we calmly let go of the smile in our minds, or should we cling to the guns and stick to the historical burden of being in a state of meaningless hostility for a long time? For life, from the perspective of life, and for compatriots from the same blood, isn't this the biggest absurdity in reality?

The director deliberately strengthened the simplicity and innocence of his humanity in expressing the friendship between the four friends. Originally, they were all soldiers stationed on the border who were always on alert and serious and not ridiculous. When the four gathered together at night, they played with each other happily and without shy. The friendship between them had already forgotten the burden of ideology. But the cruel reality eventually forced the four to separate them by death. Is it human nature or the system that made the big mistake?

At the end of the film, turning that photo into black and white and inserting four people into the same space at the same time can be said to be a clever ending. This picture is not only a memory of the friendship between the four people, but the broader interweaving implies that the identities of the compatriots that have been opposed to each other for more than 40 years should be viewed from a positive human perspective, and everything should not be burdened by the historical burden of time and space. Constraint, just like if the three of them in the photo are not dead, when they appear at the same time like a photo, standing in the common security zone, but in their hearts are no longer hostility under the system, but in their hearts there is a friendship of compatriots. , Then what is more important than this in the world?





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Extended Reading
  • Domenica 2022-03-28 09:01:08

    Park Chan-wook directed his second feature film, and he became famous, and then began to devote himself to the revenge trilogy that made him internationally famous. Compared with the movies that I have seen before that also discussed the issue of North Korea and South Korea (such as "고지전" and "풍산개"), the film focuses on the friendship and helplessness of the soldiers on both sides. cruelty suffered. I love every scene!

  • Reagan 2022-03-20 09:02:27

    Fortunately, it was a work more than ten years ago. This is to be put aside now. It is definitely a perfect annotation for the rotten girl to save the universe.

Joint Security Area quotes

  • Sgt. Lee Soo-hyeok: Hey Assholes! You just gonna leave me here?

    Sgt. Oh Kyeong-pil: You told us to go.

    Sgt. Lee Soo-hyeok: I said don't come closer, when did I say to leave, you fuckers!

  • Maj. Gen. Bruno Botta: You haven't learned much about Panmunjom yet. Here, the peace is preserved by hiding the truth. What they both really want is that this investigation proves nothing after all.