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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Joint Security Area

18:07 / 15.10.04

Has anybody seen this movie yet? IT was directed by the director who directed OLD Boy the movie that won at Cannes. It is about the North and South Korean armies and how a couple of north and south became friends but resulted in bloodshed later. It was an amazing film. I thought it was better than Old Boy. IT won a prize in Berlin. Has anybody seen it?

21:05 / 17.02.05

I wouldn't say better than Oldboy, but I did really like it. The narrative structure is interesting, and I like the way it balances the two stories, and actually makes them both interesting. Park always shoots in such a way that I find it interesting, Oldboy just pops in every single frame and this movie does too. Oldboy is definitely a movie more geared to a global audience, while JSA is something that's really tied to Korea.

Anyone seen Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, the first of his 'Vengeance Trilogy'? I've got it on order, and am pretty excited to see it.

lonely as a cloud...

07:05 / 18.02.05

J.S.A. is a *new* movie (or was a new movie last october)? Eh? I thought it was a good bit older than Oldboy. But I also thought it was bloody amazing. Let's see... J.S.A. was made in 2000, Oldboy was 2003. And IMDB reports a remake of Oldboy in the pipeline...good grief...
Anyway, back on topic... my old flatmate had a special edition VCD copy of J.S.A., which was very high quality for a VCD. I watched it about 2 years ago with a friend of mine who had just come back from Korea after a year teaching English there - she had heard of it, but never seen it. We both loved it. I thought it was very sensitively done, and the final shot totally tore me up. It had almost everything you could possibly ask for in a movie - action, humour, suspense, emotion...it was a superb film. I saw Oldboy in the cinema last year, and I must admit I'm very surprised that they were both from the same director...both excellent films - I really enjoyed Oldboy, same way I'd enjoy summat like The Ring or Audition - but very different, I felt. So, I guess that's three cheers for Mr Park's diversity...

15:08 / 22.02.05

The link between the two is of course Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, in which we see the humor and politics of JSA and brutal revenge of Oldboy in equal measure. Not to suggest that Sympathy is a transitional film - in fact, it is far and away the superior of the three. It might be my favourite film of the past five years.

There are two other Chan-Wook releases , both of the same caliber we expect from such a remarkable director: He had a short in a anti-hate collection called "If You
Were Me" and a remarkable piece in "Three Extremes" a three-short collection also offering pieces from Takashi Miike and Fruit Chan.

lonely as a cloud...

07:31 / 23.02.05

Aha! Thanks for that, Kevin. Will definitely keep an eye out for Mr Vengeance in the DVD shop, so.

07:59 / 23.02.05

Gary Oldman as Oldboy in the remake apparently.

I saw Oldboy a couple of weeks ago and loved it, I came on here to try and find a thread but there isn't one.

I need to see it again before I give anymore thoughts as I watched it late at night and it left me a little numb.

It's out on Monday (along with Sympathy) on DVD in the UK.

00:37 / 26.02.05

I watched Sympathy yesterday, and I liked it, but I didn't think it was anywhere near as good as Oldboy, but was about the same as JSA. I think one of the problems might have been, I just watched Irreversible, which has basically the same message, and I think handles it a little better.

But, I feel like it might be a rewatcher. I was expecting a much more pop movie, along the lines of Oldboy, but it was a lot more subdued, and I could see a lot of room for improvement.

Now, I'm looking forward to Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, Park's next and the end of his vengeance trilogy.

03:44 / 17.03.05

I saw Three extremes today and it seems two of the stories are commenting on how outmoded the Confucian belief in the "four relations" really are. In the Dumplings segment Fruit Chan is tackling the destruction of unwanted female babies in a society where Men are valued more than women. Also in the Cut segment Park Chan Wook is confronting the four relations where the relationship between males are valued more than between male and female husband and wife. based on the four relations the relation between father and son is more valued than husband and wife. I have to see if Miike's segment Box also confront the belief in the four confucian relations because I missed alot of it when I was cooking. I almost couldn't eat after the Dumplings segment. I think Fruit Chan's dumplings was the most horrific but Miike and Park Chan Wook did a great job. I ordered sympathy for Mr Vengence and look forward to it

02:36 / 07.10.05

Check out Korea's Shiri as well

18:37 / 12.10.05

Check out my blog at Friendster. http://sunsetsunrise.blogs.friendster.com/just_words/