R-Point

This is being sold as a Korean version of Apocalypse Now. Its not. Other than the plot device of investigating mysterious radio signals there is no similarities at all. Do not believe the hype.

The plot concerns a group of soldiers sent to R-Point to investigate a group radio signals from a group of supposedly dead men. Once they cross the line into the area all sorts of strange things begin to happen and they slowly begin to dwindle in number. Yes, you've probably seen it before in other films, you know the drill a group of men cut off in a strange place where they are hunted by a seemingly supernatural force. Recent films such as the Bunker, or Deathwatch cover similar territory to varying degrees of success.

For most of the running time R-Point works, as a good but not great thriller. There is a slowly building sense of dread as it goes on that thankfully never becomes overwhelming. It's not perfect as most of the men blend together and you really have no idea who is who. The real problem is that around an hour or so in the film starts to not make sense. Events become disjointed and there are some turns that seems out of left field. Granted this is a film that asks you to pay attention as little things early on show up later or give clues to whats going on, so if you look away you may feel lost. I did look away and did feel lost.

I also have reservations about the reasons for events toward the end, they don't seem natural, I suspect this is due to the director attempting to add more weight to the story than a straight horror film could carry. I think the attempts at allegory weaken the film and prevent it from being either a horror film or allegory.

Still I do recommend the film for those people who want to see something creepy but not too scary, and who don't mind it doesn't completely work to the end.

The motif of this movie is similar to that of "apocalypse now". Like this classic movies about Vietnam, R point described the horror which the soldiers confronted at the battle field. Although this movie adopted many things from 'apocalypse now', it shows another type of the horror- in the oriental meaning- "punitive justice". no one would return home if he committed bloody thing. What the soldiers felt as original sin is what they committed in Vietnam. And the curse was cast on them as Chinese troop, french troop, and US troop (they were all the invaders to Vietnam) were "punished".

The director said that he wanted to make this movie as antiwar movie. I think that he oscillated between "horror movie" and "antiwar movie". The plot is monotonous and solders' mental state and personal history were so much omitted that it hard to understand without further information. However, I think that his attempt is relatively successful. I thought much about the deployment of Korean troop to Iraq, after I saw this movie.

Six months prior to the beginning of the film, a group of recon soldiers are sent to "R-Point", a strategically significant island south of Saigon. Radio contact is lost, and they're presumed dead, until six months later ("present day" in the film's sense) radio transmissions are received claiming that the soldiers are alive and in grave danger. A squad of 9 soldiers, led by hardened veteran Lt. Choi, are dispatched to find them and bring them home.

What follows isn't an action-heavy horror movie, but a more tense, atmospheric exploration of the lines between the supernatural and reality. Surrounded by miles of jungle and rumours of ghosts, the soldiers begin to crack under the pressures of their situation and begin to turn on one another. It's difficult to describe what they encounter without making it sound trite or clichéd (R-Point is neither), but the physical pressures of the jungle combined with the psychological pressures of the legends of R-Point are captured brilliantly both by the camera-work and the actors portraying their private descents into madness.

Atmospheric and full of suspense, R-Point is tense, very creepy, and definitely worth watching. It never goes over the top and remains tight and controlled. Horror movies and war movies cross over well, it seems. After is, war is hell, and in R-Point, each soldier certainly goes through that.

1972, what happened there?

'R-Point' - refers to a once strategically important region in an island 150 km south of HO Chi Minh city. French soldiers were fascinated by the beauty of the island, upon which a leisure facility and a military hospital were built. But the area has a secret past, a haunting curse untold for 30 years.

1st Vietnamese War -1949- 12 French soldiers who were in battle with communist guerrillas went mysteriously missing. A total of 650 people have been reported missing there without any explanation.

2nd Vietnamese War -1972- 9 Korean soldiers went missing in the area. There are accounts of unexplainable radio transmissions sent by the group for 6 months requesting to be rescued.

Are these freak occurrences real or not? The fact is that a gravestone which says 'No return' still stands, marking the entrance of the area. In addition, to this day, there are reported sightings by local people of the girl who was slaughtered mercilessly a long time ago.

The premise of this film is based on a story that has been passed on by oral tradition. Both French and Korean soldiers have gone missing in the area known as R-Point. In 1972, when American forces were being withdrawn from Vietnam, Korean troops eager to go home, dreaming of returning to their family and friends baring American made gifts and earned money from their service, were unexpectedly sent to R-Point on a mission which would prove fatal. Although their desire to return home was everything to them, once they entered the haunted jungles of R-Point, all hopes of coming back alive were lost. It was the living dead in the jungle that would not let them go. To this day, the cursed spirits of dead Korean soldiers roam R-Point, continuing to search for a way out.

On 07 January 2007, the South Korean base in Nah-Trang, Vietnam, receives a radio transmission from a missing platoon presumed dead. The high-command assigns the veteran and decorated Lieutenant Choi Tae-in (Woo-seong Kam) to lead a squad with eight other soldiers and rescue the missing soldiers from the R-Point. When they arrive in the location, they have a shooting and defeat a Vietnamese woman with a machine gun in a trench. Later, they find a tombstone telling that one hundred years ago, Chinese killed Vietnamese, dropped them in a lake and built a temple over the place, being a sacred location to the Vietnamese. While chasing the missing soldiers, weird things happen with the rescue team.

"R-Point" is an original, scary and ambiguous journey to hell of the innermost fear of a group of soldiers. This horror movie explores the supernatural, but its ambiguity allows the logical interpretation that nothing happened but the madness process of a group of stressed soldiers, alone in a creepy and sacred location, affected by the dark atmosphere of the spot and killing each other. An Asian horror movie is my favorite genre due to this type of intelligent screenplay that leaves the interpretation open to the viewers. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Fantasmas da Guerra" ("Ghosts of War")