Start the week with a film: ‘Joint Security Area’ turns hyper-nationalism on its head

Joint Security Area presents itself as a whodunit wrapped in olive green. A South Korean soldier patrol stationed in the demilitarised zone between his country and North Korea is accused of killing two North Korean soldiers.

Although the act threatens the delicate peace between the neighbours, the soldier’s superior officer is proud of him. Why then don’t all the pieces in the soldier’s story fit? Why is he so shifty?

This being a Park Chan-wook movie, there’s more going on than is apparent. Park’s breakthrough from 2000 follows the conventions of a murder investigation before revealing its aim to turn hyper-nationalism on its head.

The Korean-language film can be rented from Prime Video’s Channel K subscription service.

Joint Security Area stars several eminent South Korean actors. Lee Byung-hun plays Soo-hyeok, the soldier who has confessed to the murders but is unable to support his claims. Lee Young-ae is Sophie, an officer with the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission, set up to keep the peace between the Koreas.

Initially treated as an airhead by her colleagues, Sophie displays Sherlockian instincts that rattle both Soo-hyeok and Kyeong-pil (Song Kang-ho), the North Korean survivor of the incident. The two versions don’t match, for reasons that upend stories that have a military backdrop and involve historical...

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