Alternate Best Actor 2000: Lee Byung-hun in Joint Security Area

Lee Byung-hun did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Sgt. Lee Soo-hyuk in Joint Security Area.

Joint Security Area is a terrific expectedly off beat film from director Park Chan-Wook about the complexities that develop from a friendship that develops between North and South Korean soldiers in the demilitarized zone across the border.  

Ah let's return to Lee Byung-hun once again, one of the actors it has been a joy to discover through this little endeavor of mine. An actor if you only watched him outside of South Korean cinema you'd probably not think much of, except to a minor degree in The Magnificent Seven which was the only western film that didn't ENTIRELY waste his talent. In his home country though you have one of the most charismatic and really talented actors of his generation. Two of his previous performances that I've covered have been brilliant volcanic turns, performances based on the character holding it all in until key moments. While this performance is quite a bit different, though we also still get the expected measure of internalized intensity you'd expect from him. This particularly in the film's opening, which actually what one would probably think going into a Park film based on his later efforts, this as we initial open with an investigation in a violent excursion on the border, lead by Swiss army emissary Maj. Sophie E. Jean (Lee Young-ae). There we meet initially a largely silent Lee as Sergeant Lee, who seems hesitant to reveal anything about what happened exactly. The weight of the situation though can instantly read on Lee's face with his smouldering intensity as prevalent as ever. Lee showing a man who definitely knows much, and is holding much back, yet is also holding it all back in for now. 

Eventually we flashback into a most unexpected story for a Park Chan-wook film in particular, of Lee by chance coming across to North Korean soldiers (Song Kang-ho being one of them) who save his life during a military excursion that leads to a friendship between the men. Lee's performance really just needs to be said is pitch perfect, and really there is just something so wonderful about getting to see him in these genuinely sweet scenes of friendship. This as Lee really so naturally even creates the initial moment of coming together as natural moment, by just so bluntly making the interaction what a normal person, not necessarily soldier of an enemy nation, would do. This as he warns the men of the dangers, it is so earnest and in turn you get instantly the sense of connection that the men find as just people. We then follow him as he pursues the friendship initially through traded messages. Even these scenes of throwing the messages, Lee captures in his eyes just the strikingly sweet manner of a man just seeking friendship in a rather cold place. There is something so warm as we see each message across Lee's eyes, and he shows so much of what Lee is getting out of this relationship. This just in creating the most basic need for connection, and making it feel so real between these men, because in a way it is so basic to one's human need. 

I'll admit one might get an even greater pleasure out of Lee's performance here being knowledgeable of his later work given he would go on to play such tortured characters, where here in the flashback we get such beautiful moments of levity between the three men, and later four when Lee invites one of his South Korean comrades into the group. What we then just really get are these great genuine moments between the men just hanging out and having fun. This is totally winning, and again, seeing a bright smile on Lee's face is a particularly sweet sight to see. I especially love the moments where they get to become playful with one another in their technically serious positions. Such as a moment where Lee and one of his Northern friends trade spit and stare down on the border. Lee's overly serious expression that segues to the most earnest of smiles is just sheer perfection, and is absolutely heartwarming as well. The group creates this real investment in the friendship by making every interaction for so real between these guys, and you just feel you are often hanging out with them as they try to put aside the world when together. This against moments though of rising tensions where Lee is quite effective in showing in every interaction this growing fear in the man for all the men's safety as their meetings seem less and less safe for all of them. 

This leading to a final gathering to say their goodbyes that begins with the four at their most heartwarming in each and every interaction, but ends in tragedy as another Northern soldier walks into the gathering. It is this event that we are dissecting in the opening and as we return back to the present. This where we see Lee portraying again this very tight state of a personality, though something he slowly reveals a blistering guilt within his eyes. Again Lee is a master of the leaking of emotion with such poignancy, and this is again, when he meets up with one of his former friends again, and in his reaction we see such a palatable sadness in the man. In the flashbacks though we find the place of this guilt in an earlier interactions where Lee has a fantastic moment of just a hint of bluster in the soldier as he shows off his gun skills without actually having shot. In that moment he shows this effective arrogance of a soldier, though tempered in the moment of being challenged on it, Lee delivers this natural meekness to the moment showing this potent vulnerability related to the fear that is in the man. This coming out in the inciting incident where Lee makes some very bad instinctual reactions, and Lee wholly though makes this such a powerful moment, by playing them in showing the fear gripping the man making it this basically thoughtless reaction. This in showing the man not committing a purposeful cruelty but rather a senseless moment defined by nerves not hate. In turn, as is the case for most Lee leading performances it seems, his final moments on screen are absolutely devastating. This as his eyes wholly convey the man reliving the incident in his head, and is heartbreaking in showing the sense of shame and guilt that suddenly explode out of the man. Lee in turn giving a seemingly senseless action in the end, a moment of deeply felt personal pain wholly enveloping the man. Lee delivers yet another great performance here creating such a heartwarming depiction of a man finding friendship, but also a shattering portrait of a man facing his failure living up to this connection.