MovieChat Forums > Gongdong gyeongbi guyeok JSA (2000) Discussion > Jules et Jim

Jules et Jim

posted 15 years ago by amoresperros_
1 reply | jump to latest

First of all, this movie was absolutely brilliant. The only thing that detracted from it was the B-grade English-speaking actors, but that's more of a problem with the cost of decent English-speaking actors due to Hollywood's monopoly, and has been discussed in other threads. The Korean actors were perfect, and every film I see with Song Kang-ho and Lee Byung-hun just makes me a bigger fan of them.

Anyway, was anyone else reminded a little of François Truffaut's 'Jules and Jim' while watching this movie? Although it wasn't a huge part of the film, when Jules and Jim are sent off to fight on opposite sides of the war, we see that their friendship is far above the conflicts and ideas of their separate countries. That was always one of the things I remember most about the movie.

It was almost as if JSA was a film centered completely around this idea in Jules et Jim, and done so very well I might add!

[–] MugattuHasGotchu 13 years ago

I saw Jules & Jim about a month ago but I didn't think of it consciously while watching JSA. However the idea of not wanting to kill your "enemy" because he's your friend definitely felt familiar while I watched it. The title of your thread certainly made the source of that familiarity clear.

Jules and Jim were lucky enough to have been able to avoid this outcome as there were so many fronts during that war. Plus the protracted duration of their story allowed the episode surrounding that sentiment to brief. I think you're right about JSA being an illustration of that predicament, as if you were able to zoom in on the episode with a microscope and see every fine detail. It's just unfortunate however that the world wasn't able to shift for the four friends in JSA.

There's an interesting difference though. While the idea of friends being divided by external conflict is fairly common territory in stories about civil war, what transpires here, with enemies becoming friends in spite of what their nations expect of them, is really quite novel. And not only is it novel, it's incredibly compelling to see such human grace on display.

edit: haha, novel that is, barring the example of Romeo and Juliet of course.

Would you happen to have any... flan?
http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=194240