RPoint DVD with Woo-seong Kam, Byung-ho Son, Tae-kyung Oh (R) +Movie Reviews

More 6th Sense and less Rambo

Miguel B. Llora | Bay Point, California USA | 06/11/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"It's the middle of the Vietnam War and a Korean base gets a desperate radio transmission seeking assistance. The message was fairly clear: "we're dying out here!" It was not that the transmission was unusual. What was unusual was that the platoon of soldiers calling in had gone missing for months. As the plot progresses they send out a rescue team to a spot called R-Point. Their mission is clear; they have five days to retrieve either the soldiers, or their dog tags.

The movie had, as most movies do, its high points and its low points. The film was more of a psychological horror film akin to something like a Sixth Sense rather than a Rambo, where all the characters fights their own demons as the rest of the platoon is not bothered by the same experience. Inevitably - someone had to get shot by mistaken identity.

Director Kong Su-chang's attempts to scare us are less than successful. Dead soldier interact with the live soldiers but they don't know it - and neither do we. It is in retrospect that we realize what is really going on - it somehow misses the mark.

No wonder it was Korea's highest grossing horror film in 2004 - the look was really great and there were some awesome shots - and arguably it struck a cultural cord. But was it really very effective to see the ghost's perspective? Kong's technique of using a different color tone to exemplify difference was crucial in giving the viewer some semblance of information on what was going on.

In the end though, 'R-Point' is a lugubrious and unimpressive thriller. It was successful on many levels but the ending left one flat.

Miguel Llora"

Solid Asian Horror

General Zombie | the West | 04/08/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Alright, here's another short one. This is another Asian ghost movie but, gasp, it doesn't follow the conventions of the subgenre to a t, like most of these films I've seen. It's set during the Vietnam war, which is a nice change of setting, I suppose, though it does make the characters a bit tough to tell apart. (As they often are in war movies, what with everyone being dressed the same and wearing helmets and so on.) This movie is fairly slow moving, and it easily could stand to have 10 or so minutes lopped off from between the time that they arrive at R-Point and when things really start moving, but it's less drawn out then plenty of ghost movies, so it's not too bad. This movie is quite genuinely creepy much of the time, with a great locale, an abandoned mansion/plantation looking building out in Vietnamese field, surrounded by jungle. The film may be a bit too scattershot for some tastes, as the supernatural manifestations often seem to lack any particular rhyme or reason, but I think it's a good way to keep you off balance. I particularly like the scene when one lone soldier encounters a platoon of ghost soldiers, seeing them only from behind until they crouch down in the underbrush and disappear, and a later scene where one guy follows a distant apparition out into the night until he stumbles in a a mysterious graveyard. And yeah, it does have some of the conventional girl-ghost stuff going on, but it's not the sole focus of the film, so it's not too tiresome and played out. (Though this element does play a big role in the climax, which is too bad as it's just not as effective as some of the other stuff.)

This film obviously isn't the most expensive thing you're gonna see, but the technical side of the film is more than competent, with some occasionally very beautiful cinematography. The acting is all fine, though they generally aren't asked to do too much. The music, however, is sometimes a concern. Usually it's just unobtrusive, but it occasionally becomes a bit wacky, and detracts from the general mood of the film.

Again, this isn't overwhelmingly original or anything, but it's still a relative breath of fresh air in the increasingly stale movement. (In fact, I would say it probably compares more closely to 'Session 9' than any particular Asian horror film that I can think of.) Worth a look.

Also, I find that 'Best Military Guys Meets Supernatural Horror flick since Dog Soldiers' quote (or something like that) very amusing, as if there were tons military horror films coming out. Though I suppose I must say I disagree with this quote, as I find 'Below' and '28 Days Later' to both be superior to either of these films, but whatever. It's still a silly quote, regardless of whether or not you agree with it.

Grade: B"

Vietnam meets Supernatural!

Steve67 | Dallas, Texas United States | 02/07/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Taking Place during the Vietnam War, the film follows a shell- shocked officer as he heads a group of men through enemy territory on a mission to find a lost platoon. The men venture to R-Point, which is the location of a bandoned mansion that was the last place the men were supposedly last at before their disappearance. With hope of finding clues to the missing men, the group of soldiers crosses into supernatural realms when a certain few begins seeing ghosts of dead men, causing paranoia and fear inthe squad. Unlike other films in the sub-genre, this film focuses more on the creepy atmosphere and does'nt play with the paranoia theme as much as others may have. The movie stays at a constant slow, but moody, pace as it revolves soley around the group of men and their encounter with the supernatural. Overall a creepy old-school ghost story that delivers the chills thanks to its sucessful use of the secluded atmosphere around them. Worth checking out."

Scary and Twisted

Andrew M. Elliott | Los Angeles, CA United States | 12/29/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I loved this movie!!! I really thought it was going to be a war movie, but it turns out to be a psychological thriller. Finally a plot that keeps you guessing! I had no idea where this film was going untill the credits rolled. I even had to watch it twice just to see all the things I missed the first time...and it was just as good the second time!

You have to watch this movie...make sure you have someone with you, cause this movie is ...scary and twisted!!!!!"

Nice idea, but weak and bewildering execution hampers payoff

Martin Wagner | Austin, TX United States | 02/22/2006

(2 out of 5 stars)

"There's a lot of promise in R-Point, but very little fulfillment of any of it. I suppose the reason we don't see too many meldings of the war and supernatural horror genres is that the reality of war is infinitely more horrific than any "boo! a ghost!" plot line any screenwriter could cook up. That doesn't mean it's impossible to make a good war/horror movie. Still, what examples I've seen in the past -- The Bunker, The Keep, Below -- have been sad disappointments, relying on the genre's clichés rather than any narrative depth to evoke horror.

R-Point wants to explore such depth, putting a platoon of men in a situation where they question their very sanity. But ultimately, it falls back on horror movie clichés -- yes, there's even a black-haired ghost woman. Still, there are several good scenes, and enough hints at what a good movie this could have been, that it's worth watching at least once for hardcore Asian-horror fans. It's the kind of movie where you sit around after it was over and talk about how awesome it would have been if only they'd done X or Y.

The first half of the movie is reasonably strong. A Korean platoon in Vietnam that vanished six months before our story starts, in a remote area designated R-Point, has suddenly started radioing in to HQ. Another platoon is whipped together to find them. Trekking out to the eerie location, they set up base camp in an abandoned mansion and begin reconning the area. Promptly weirdness starts occurring. In the best scene, one soldier gets separated from his search party, only to find them crossing a field...but is it them? In another, a late night visit from a passing American platoon divulges some of R-Point's backstory, and sets up a creepy reveal later in the film.

Up to this point, atmosphere is very disturbing and there is a lot of tension. Unfortunately it begins to weaken when little to no explanation is ever satisfactorily given for the weird goings-on. I forget where I read it, but someone once said that any genre movie can be forgiven its worst failings as long as it follows the "Awesome!" rule -- that it has at least one knockout scene that makes you say, "Okay, _that_ was awesome!" R-Point has no such scene.

The soldiers begin fighting amongst one another, but you don't really know them that well, so it's hard to understand why. Most of them are one-dimensional soldier stereotypes (the scared rookie, the guy who can't wait to get home to take his kid to the zoo so we know he's gonna die early, the gruff sarge whom many of the grunts trust more than the green lieutenant), so we don't feel any sense of personal stake in their fate. Worse still is the director's choice to throw in the occasional green-tinted ghost POV shot. It begins early in the movie and completely wrecks the mood every time, because it's such an obvious cheap horror movie device. What are we supposed to think? "Ooooo, scarrrrrry, they're being watched from behind a tree by a ghost!" Uhh, sorry, doesn't work. For one thing, if I were a ghost...why would I hide behind a tree?

Ultimately, the movie just doesn't pay off. It's a shame, because there are hints that with a few more rewrites, this could have been a really amazing combination of the real-life horror of Platoon or Apocalypse Now, and the "who can you trust?" themes of Body Snatchers or John Carpenter's The Thing. Watch it for yourself, and I bet you come up with several better ways the story could have played out.

A note about the DVD: Fine picture and sound, but the two making-of featurettes lack English subtitles. So, only if you speak Korean will you get to appreciate how the filmmakers went about recreating 1972 Vietnam. Considering how conscientious Tartan usually is about handling their Asian films, this is a baffling oversight."

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