Joint Security Area

The tragic bond between people of flesh and blood under different flags unable to associate with each other. It feels like the friendship version of enemy’s to lovers in such a heartfelt way that by the end of it all you feel torn by the tragedy that befell the characters. It’s an example of how peace can never exist when violence and hatred is considered normal. What little peace they had was ripped apart because at the end of the day, they are trained to hate, kill, and distrust their “enemies”. The ending felt so poetic to me as the one man who stood his ground and didn’t succumb to the violence in Oh Kyeong-pil, inevitably was the only one who survived showing there’s room for peace and prosperity in a world of hatred.  Park Chan-wooks breakout came from this film and I fully understand why. It’s well written and although the pacing isn’t top tier, it was still great and didn’t feel like it slowed the movie down like some of his other films sometimes do. Definitely a masterpiece in its own right and deserves the high sung praise it gets.