JSA

Brief movie review. Just watched Korean movie "Joint Security Area". From the box art I was expecting an action movie for some reason, but although this does contain short scenes of graphic violence and gun fighting, the story is told with a lot of humour and the characters share some very warm and touching scenes.

Set on the border of the two Korea's, the story is based on a true story where two North Korean border guards were killed. Investigating what happened is a member of the verbosely titled "Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission" , who is a woman, and very cute (Lee Young Ae).

The characters are utterly convincing, the cinematography is quite arty in places, but never indulgent. The story is told in a typical Tarantino (start at the end and then flashback to figure it out) style, and unsurprisingly is supposed to be one of his favourite movies.

Definitely worth watching, although I did find it a little hard to follow in places. You can probably blame that on my inattention, or the subtitle quality of the version I watched.