ACF 591: Heads Up - free screening of "JSA" courtesy of Korean Cultural Service

Korean Cultural Service's next free screening in its Korean Movie Nights Epic Action series will be:

JSA: JOINT SECURITY AREA
Directed by Park Chan-Wook
South Korea, 2000, 110 minutes
Screening: Tuesday, June 29th, 2010 @ 7:00 PM
Doors open at 6:30 PM

This free screening will be held at Tribeca Cinemas, 54 Varick Street, on the corner of Canal Street, one block from the A, C, Eand 1 train Canal Street stops.

A special screening to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of the Korean War, Park Chan-Wook's JSA: JOINT SECURITY AREA is one of the most moving Korean films ever made, and the hit that put Director Park (OLDBOY) on the map. Starring Song Kang-Ho (THE HOST), Lee Young-Ae (LADY VENGEANCE), Lee Byung-Hun (GI JOE; THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE WEIRD) and Shin Ha-Kyun (SAVE THE GREEN PLANET, THIRST) it is the APOCALYPSE NOW of the Korean War, a shimmering, hyper-real epic that charts the spiritual fallout of international politics.

JSA uses the partition, the arbitrary line drawn through the middle of Korea and manned by international oversight, as a door into the psychological wreckage of the Korean War. It starts with a present-day incident on the border that leaves a group of North and South Korean soldiers alternately wounded or dead. The Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission (NNSC) swoops in to investigate, led by Korean-Swiss Major Sophie Jean (Lee Young-Ae) and the stark, echnocratic investigation becomes the frame for a series of extended flashbacks that depict the events leading up to the shooting.

In every sense of the word, JSA is a tragedy, but at the same time, it's a testament to human nature. Not the cheap, sentimental Hallmark card version of human nature, but the human nature where, in the teeth of global politics, even in the face of extinction, like reaches out to like, and friendships are formed because we're humans, not ideologues. One of the most popular Korean movies of all time, both at home and overseas, JSA is a movie that takes Korea's national tragedy of partition and manages to find within it something as fragile and precious as hope.