R-Point (2004) User Reviews

An Original, Scary and Ambiguous Journey to Hell of the Innermost Fear

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 30 September 2007]

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")

Nice idea, weak and confusing execution

[mw_director · 5/10 · 21 February 2006]

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.

Eery and enjoyable

[jade-mail · 7/10 · 6 August 2006]

I enjoyed this movie. Confusion and uncertainty exist in war, so I felt it gave a taste to the viewer of what the troops were going through. If anything, it added to the nightmarish quality. Strange place, scared sh*tless, etc.

Very creepy, lots of tension, great location. I agree with earlier posts, it was reminiscent of The Shining (evil location induces madness and murder).

It won't appeal to everyone (as we all have different tastes) but I find this type of thoughtful horror far more terrifying and disturbing than the usual 'obvious' Hollywood horror - mainly because it invites you to use your imagination (a scary unlimited place!) instead of spelling it all out and tying up the loose ends.

Korean version of Apocalypse Now

[junghoonlee21 · 31 August 2004]

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.

Do not believe the hype this is not a Korean or supernatural Apocalypse Now

[dbborroughs · 6/10 · 6 February 2005]

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.

Nice horror film from Korea

[udar55 · 7/10 · 27 August 2005]

This Korean horror film is set towards the end of the Vietnam conflict. I was really impressed by this. The basic plot is that a platoon of Korean soldiers went missing at R-Point, a former French plantation in Vietnam. A new group of soldiers is sent to investigate the disappearance after a radio message is received from the missing squad claiming they are still alive. There are two amazingly creepy scenes in it and, although it owes a lot to John Carpenter's THE THING when it gets down to a few guys left, it keeps up the intensity. The film is also impressive because it is an Asian horror film that made it to Korean theaters and no one has purchased the US remake rights.

Better Than Average Asian Ghost Film

[EVOL666 · 7/10 · 3 September 2006]

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a big fan of Asian ghost films. Most of them tend to be derivative of each other and/or dull, but R-POINT has a somewhat original story-line for a ghost film, and it works on most levels.

A group of soldiers have disappeared from the supposedly demilitarized Romeo-Point, and another group is sent in to find out what happened. The requisite "strange happenings" begin, and we watch as the new team is picked off by a strange force that possesses the men...

Not an entirely original concept, but the story behind R-POINT at least mostly shys away from the typical "scary-girl-with-long-black-hair" trappings that many Asian ghost films have fallen into since the success of RINGU and JU-ON. The story-line was relatively engaging in this one and held my interest. A relatively strong entry in a tired genre...7.5/10

O.K., but seemingly would never end..

[kwhp · 5/10 · 20 March 2007]

A number of the negative reviews nailed it on this movie. It was nothing really special and -- while I don't particularly enjoy horror films (particularly with a lot of gratuitous gore, Al or otherwise) -- I had to watch this one in installments because it got somewhat repetitive and predictable.

Not speaking Korean, I relied on subtitles but was surprised at how pedestrian the dialog was. The members of the lost squad of Korean soldiers spent the better part of the movie calling each other "assholes" and dropping the F-bomb on each other. Now, I know these are soldiers and all that, but the writers (translators) could have made it just a little more interesting..

..recommended only if desperate and there's really *nothing* decent to watch.

Frighteningly effective psychological Korean horror tale set in Vietnam War

[joebloggscity · 8/10 · 26 May 2006]

War films are usually ten a penny, with similar plots or ideas, but R-Point bucks the trend. The film centres round a mission by a Korean unit during the Vietnam who find themselves haunted by forces they don't know, and progressively end up going mad and self-destructing.

The film blends together what the many things that have been great about Korean cinema. Sharp intelligent written story, beautiful settings and perfect acting are the crux of the movie. The setting could hardly have been any better done, whilst the tone of the movie is well paced to avoid this following into the same trap that many a horror film follow. An original film in many ways, but really it is taking various genres and blending them in them together finely.

I don't want to say too much else I will give too much away, but this is a film to watch, and is the best horror movie I have seen for a while. Shows again why Korean cinema is the best anywhere in the world at the moment. Top notch!

Decent Supernatural Elements and Intriguing Locations but Thin Characters and Plot as Well as an Absence of Scary Scenes

[kluseba · 6/10 · 6 January 2022]

All the movies released by legendary label Tartan Asia Extreme are at least average and in most cases great or even brilliant. R-Point is however one of the more ordinary releases and only qualifies as plain average movie. This Korean military drama with supernatural elements is only for the most faithful fans of Asian cinema.

The story takes places in Vietnam in the early seventies. Several people among the military personnel are preparing themselves for returning home after an arduous tour in hotsile territory. However, the South Korean base then receives a mysterious radio transmission from a platoon that disappearaed without a trace half a year ago. The high-command assigns a decorated lieutenant to lead a squad with eight soldiers to search and rescue the missing soldiers whose last transmissions came from a location described as Romeo Point. Upon arriving at the isolated location, the military personnel is ambushed by a mysterious Vietnamese woman who doesn't speak a single word. Up next, they discover an old temple with mysterious warning signs. Then, they discover a dilapidated mansion in the middle of the fog where they decide to set up camp. The military personnel is then contacted by American military personnel who also warn them and tell them that this location is haunted. While the South Koreans are still unable to find members of the missing platoon, they receive strange radio transmissions by a French soldier who is looking for his twin brother. The different events become more and more mysterious and the rescue mission soon becomes a fight for sanity and survival.

This military drama with supernatural elements convinces on a few levels. First of all, there aren't too many movies about South Korean involvement in the Vietnam War, so it's interesting to discover such an unusual perspective of that dreadful conflict. Some of the locations are quite diversified, intriguing and unique. Especially the old temple and the dilapidated mansion ooze with atmosphere. The movie includes a few interesting events that keep viewers watching until the very end. Especially the mysterious Vietnamese woman who keeps appearing around the soldiers and the gloomy meeting with the American soldiers are quite memorable in that regard.

This film however also has several downsides. First of all, the plot is quite thin and especially the outcome of this movie is underwhelming and ends the movie on an unsatisfactorily low note. Up next, the different characters are barely fleshed out. Including nine characters among the rescue mission for a movie of only one hundred seven minutes is too ambitious. It would have been a much better option to focus on five strong characters and develop significant ties between one another. Another issue is that this movie has been marketed as a horror movie. However, the film might be mysterious but certainly not scary. Yelling loud menaces with foul vocabulary doesn't make for an ominous atmosphere.

At the end of the day, R-Point is an average military drama with decent supernatural elements and a few intriguing locations but weak characters and plot as well as an absence of scary scenes. The movie is only recommended to the most faithful fans of Asian cinema but can be ignored by anyone who isn't an adamant collector of Tartan Asia Extreme releases.

Unsatisfying and formulaic horror film squanders initial promise

[droctagon · 4/10 · 19 March 2007]

PLOT: A squad of Korean soldiers is deployed on a search & rescue mission after a radio transmission is received from a missing team, killed by unknown forces.

REVIEW: R-Point does well in establishing an ominous atmosphere at the beginning of the film. The initial reconnaissance by the team unfolds with foreboding and tension, and the viewer is both eager and frightened to see what they will discover. Unfortunately, this tension quickly morphs into boredom. Little happens for much of the film, and the mood set by the introduction is lost. It doesn't help that the characters are unengaging and for the most part interchangeable. The performances quickly become annoying: everyone seems to be constantly hysterical, with characters grabbing each others' lapels and shaking them, or dropping to their knees and sobbing, every other minute. Most frustrating is that for all the buildup, the tale turns out to be a pretty generic ghost story, and not a very exciting or scary one. R-Point starts with an intriguing premise, but wholly fails to deliver.

scary but never o-t-t

[snow0r · 8/10 · 19 August 2007]

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.

You can't kill the dead, but they can kill you.

[Cinema_Fan · 7/10 · 7 May 2006]

Written and directed by Su-chang Kong, his first at directorship, he has delivered a very atmospheric ghost story based around War, as more in the way of a good frightener than a fighting movie. R-Point delivers the goods in a slow, intentional and methodical way, to evolve the viewer in the character and his environment, and then shoot them down with terrifying results.

As with most good ghost stories, a musical score is what is also needed; this is done by the work of Pa-lan Dal. His interpretation of the unsettling atmosphere delivers a chilling tingle down the spine. Even to the point of winning the Grand Bell Award in 2005 for Best Sound Effects.

Based around the early 1970s, and using the Vietnam War as a backdrop, a nine-man team has been pulled together to locate missing comrades, missing on a remote island that uses the military name R-Point. They arrive with the intention that an enemy attack will be non-existent. Being a job that should only take nine days, nine days is all that most will have to remain alive.

The perils of War do not stop when all is dead and buried here, nor are they absent in a zone that was once a massacre site and now a Holly ground, all is not at rest, and the restless are once again being disturbed, and with both bloody and violent consequence.

The beautiful and extremely deadly and devious marshes, woods, caves and Cambodian landscapes are a Cinematographers dream; Hyeong-jing Seok has done a courageous job. This impressive arena not only alienates the Soldiers, but also draws us in to each nightmare scenario that unfolds as we see for ourselves that some can not, and will not, rest in peace.

"Man your radios, I think I can hear some…thing".

Avoid at all costs, in fact, pay not to see!

[Enchorde · 2/10 · 9 November 2005]

Recap: Suddenly, a Korean platoon that went missing at R-Point, an island(?), suddenly starts to send radio messages requesting help. But the message also hints of a fateful end to the mission. A new mission is planned, a new platoon formed. And off they go to find out whatever happened at R-Point. The area should be clear of enemies, Vietcong, but the platoon takes fire on their way in. The ambusher turns out to be a lone girl, now fatally wounded, and a few long dead corpses. Soon thereafter the platoon encounters an inscription that tells the history of the place. Supposedly this is the site of an ancient massacre, on the inscription promises, that those who enters and has blood on their hands, will never leave. The platoon goes on though, and starts the search for the lost soldiers. But something is horribly wrong. And when one of the privates in the platoon turn up dead, and turns out to be one of the members of the lost platoon, all is horribly wrong.

Comments: The movie is clearly built up as horror-movie set in war. Yet there are no enemies. And even if the movie uses sound and music in an attempt to be scary, it fails miserably. First and foremost, there is a huge flaw in the story, In fact, the story is one enormous flaw in itself. It is extremely inconsistent, the whats and whys, if there ever was any (or if the director just wanted to play with some effects and thought that would be scary enough, this is my guess), is never told or revealed in the movie. In fact, there are strong hints that the officers know more than we or the privates do. My guess is that director hopes this will add to the mystery, but its just annoying as no new facts are ever revealed. The entire story seems to be a more or less random series of unexplained events.

Second greatest flaw. My experience from the military is not big. But how those soldiers, those officers got through kindergarten is beyond me. I've never seen a collection of so stupid, thick and dumb people on a movie before. A few examples; a) No one, including the officers, has any idea of how many or who is in their platoon. This is shown when no one reacts when people get lost and go missing, or when an extra soldier suddenly appears. In fact, the commanding officer orders a soldier that is not in his platoon, a soldier that is his mission to find, to stand guard! b) The soldiers are fighting among themselves all the time. A reason for a fight (when you stand guard) is that the other guard has a picture. c) The soldiers do not tell anyone when they notice someone go missing. This happens when the extra soldier disappears, and when one of the real soldiers run off into the forest at night. The guards only reaction, a shrug and a comment "well, there he goes." d) When searching for a missing soldier, some of them refuse because they don't "feel like" searching for a companion. Conclusion, those must be the worst soldiers ever.

In fact, the unexplained random effects, and the extremely stupid squad, stops any attempt of the movie at being scary. Mostly I felt annoyed at the bad story and the stupid squad, but sometimes one of them died, and I felt a little happy, because I knew the movie was closer to its end. Because in addition to being inconsistent, it is totally predictable. It is just a matter when they die.

The movie had one last chance at redeeming itself at the end, if it had presented some smart end, some twist that had explained what happened, and made the events understandable. But the movie showed, a little surprisingly, some consistency at last. Like all other parts, the end failed miserably as well.

To complete the failure, the movie shows some good footage, actually, but is poorly edited, and the characters show no development. The actors also contribute with a lot of bad acting.

Conclusion: An extremely bad, not scary, failed horror-movie full with questions and contradictions. Do not see. It is a complete waste of time.

2/10

Just a horror movie in the end

[simon_booth · 9 January 2005]

I'm not a big fan of horror movies, and I'm not a big fan of war movies... but the idea of a "horror war movie" was rather appealing. I had thought "why's nobody done that before?", but I guess Predator and Dog Soldiers sort of fit the description, though they're both about a small group of soldiers in a non-war situation. That's more or less the case with R-Point too, it turns out, so I'd say it's really a "horror movie with soldiers".

During the Vietnam war, the Korean base receives a radio transmission claiming to be from a platoon of soldiers that went missing some months ago, and were presumed dead. The transmission says "we're dying out here", which suggests that the presumption was not yet correct. Another group are sent to the area where they went missing, the titular "R-Point", with 5 days to locate the soldiers or their dog tags.

It's not long before the soldiers suss that R-Point is a bit strange, and a carved message informs them that the site is basically a mass grave where hundreds of Vietnamese were killed and buried by the Chinese many years earlier. Strange things start happening, and the soldiers begin to worry that their lives may be in danger, not from the Viet Cong, but from something altogether scarier.

Well, to cut a long story short, they're not wrong :p As observed before, I'm not really big on horror movies - I don't like to be scared, and I don't like to play along with them when they do the tired camera/audio tricks to make you jump or raise the hairs on your neck. I especially don't like horror movies that never bother trying to engage your intellect and explain why all these horrible things are happening, which seems to me to be the flaw in many of the recent Asian horror films. There's ghosts, and they have a grudge against the living, and we're just meant to accept that's the way things are. Sorry, but I need a little more than that. R-Point is one of those films that doesn't feel the need to give me it. Well, that's it's right I guess.

There's definitely potential in the idea of a war film with supernatural horror elements, but R-Point in no way concerns itself with the natural horror of war, or the use of traditional horror techniques to convey or explore it. There's only one scene at the start where they're faced with a living enemy, the exact significance of which escaped me to be honest - it might tie in with the end of the film, but I'm not sure. The band of soldiers act little different from the average group of college kids in a slasher film in the face of the supernatural, despite the fact they've presumably been in equally horrific situations where their enemies were other humans. It might have been interesting if the film had played it as a straight war film until the midpoint, when the soldiers suddenly realised the enemy they were fighting had shuffled of its mortal coil... but they come to the ghost conclusion pretty much from the start.

Listening to my criticisms, it seems that it might just be that R-Point was not the film I wanted or expected it to be, and my disappointment is therefore not a fair reflection on the film itself (claiming a film is a failure when you don't even understand what it was trying to do is a review feature that always bugs me). I'm sure a horror film fan would have enjoyed it a lot more than I did, though I still don't think it's very well made even on those terms - though perhaps above average. Not being a fan of the genre, "above average" still isn't enough for me to enjoy the experience of watching a horror film though.

Long-horned Beetle, do not abandon us.

[lastliberal-853-253708 · 7/10 · 18 March 2011]

Su-chang Kong, who was also a writer on Tell Me Something, wrote and directed this Vietnam War film. Based upon what I have seen, he shows much promise as a director.

The film is supposedly based upon legend about the area. Soldiers - Korean, Vietnames, American, and French - enter the area and never return. Maybe they are paying for their sins.

A Korean unit is sent into the area after us. radio messages are received. Nothing is as it seems. How can the dead send radio messages Will the soldiers end up like all the rest? It is a film of terror and fear. No FX, little gore, and no nudity, It is a cerebral exercise in horror - the horror of war.

Creepy war horror from Korea

[Leofwine_draca · 7/10 · 4 November 2016]

R-POINT is one of the recent wake of films that cross the barriers between warfare and horror to deliver a kind of startling, in-your-face type of movie in which unlucky soldiers find themselves dealing with both enemy gunfire and spirits of the dead. DEATHWATCH and THE BUNKER are two of the best-known examples, although as a film, R-POINT ably holds its own with those two and offers a highly atmospheric film with just a few flaws that stop it being perfect. I'll list the flaws first; the script, for instance, is very much mundane and repetitive, consisting of the main characters shouting at each other a lot and calling each other expletives. In fact there isn't a great deal of characterisation in the movie as a whole, with only one or two unique characters among a lot of other interchangeable ones. The main other flaw is that the film is too darn mysterious for its own good; the ghostly horror is never really fully explained, and there'll be a lot of confusion if you don't pay the utmost attention to every scene throughout the film.

Now for the good stuff: R-POINT is a film that makes full use of the spooky, isolated locations. The creepy jungles are interspersed with creepy bush scenes, haunted graveyards, and a rotting Chinese temple. Best of all is an old hospital, by the looks of it, which recalls the kind of 'evil derelict building' seen in low budget US horrors like SESSION 9 and THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT. Fill most of these locations with rotted corpses and weird goings-on and you have a truly spooky film that, while never reaching terrifying heights, packs more than a few scares into the running time. Much is made of superstition, glimpses of people who really shouldn't be there, and one or two great shocks, such as the scene with the guy sitting on the steps who gets a literal and unexpected bloodbath. The main menace in the film is a girl in a long white dress with long black hair; yep, the cliché stock character of many an Asian horror flick in the wake of RING.

The war elements of the film feel as realistic as other recent entries into the genre and there's a fair amount of bloodshed to add to the gritty appeal. The best scene by far is the finale, a bloody shoot-out on the level of RESERVOIR DOGS, in which the heroic lieutenant separates the wheat from the chaff by ordering his men to identify themselves; those who can't are clearly possessed. It's a sequence which recalls the infamous blood-test interlude in John Carpenter's THE THING, and while not as knuckle-whitening as in that particular film, it still packs an undeniable punch and ends the film on a high. Unsurprisingly, a Hollywood remake is on the horizon

Ethereal, sometimes confusing, but with some genuine chills...

[thewordwasaphex · 7/10 · 13 November 2008]

I really enjoyed R-Point, actually. The Korean War really worked as a setting for a horror film and the locations were just the right side of spooky, even in full sunlight.

I won't go into too much detail, but there are some moments that did unnerve me a little. I don't spook easily, but when the lagging soldier takes the wrong fork in the trail and comes up behind 'his' platoon, I was far more chilled by the lack of anything really happening than some hackneyed 'boo' moment. Like Ringu, The Eye or several other Eastern horror films, R-Point relied more on creating an atmosphere than on gore or 'jumpy' bits.

Acting was very good, and each soldier was believable in their own right - no stupid caricatures here, as are found in many films that place a bunch of squaddies somewhere they don't want to be (often aping, yet never bettering the 'Predator' lineup).

The last section of the film was a little muddled, although there were plenty of things I did like there too. The Americans, for example (again, I won't spoil it).

Really, the only reason this film doesn't score an 8 or a 9 from me is the culture clash prevalent in many Far East films when watched by a Western viewer; some of the plotting/exposition made little sense to me, not having been immersed in the culture at any point in reality.

Well worth a watch, particularly if you like films with atmosphere and a healthy 'creep-factor'.

Good, but not scary

[yojimbo999 · 1/10 · 11 November 2004]

I've heard people comparing this film to APOCALYPSE NOW. Puh-leeze. It's a good little psychological thriller, but it's not scary at all, or very deep for that matter. PRetty straight forward, in fact. I liked the lead, but the rest of the soldiers basically crumbled into little pieces when the sh*t hit the fan. I mean, these guys are supposed to be hardened soldiers that have been in Vietnam for years? They act more like little girls! Also, the filmmakers wanted to have it both ways -- make it a horror movie, but also as a psychological horror (i.e. is it real or not?) Etc. But he kept showing things that undermine his own point. Why did we keep seeing things from the ghost's point of view? That ghost girl? Then at the end, he tried to give us a twist ending. This movie reminded me of THE BUNKER, which was pretty good, and had almost exactly the same story as R-POINT. Except THE BUNKER came first, so who stole from who? I give it 6 out of 10.

A new genre of horror film

[info-2513 · 10/10 · 19 October 2004]

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.

Another great horror from the Koreans

[DanLives1980 · 6/10 · 28 March 2011]

R-Point is essentially a small horror film that pays homage to such Japanese horrors as The Grudge or The Ring, but then also to classics such as Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket, and is a film I rate highly as an enjoyable and effective wartime ghost story.

A disgraced Lieutenant, a stone cold Sergeant and a literal Dirty Dozen of the South Korean army's VD infected. You can tell that the brass doesn't care whether these men come back or not. They're expendable and the mission is damned from the start anyway. The only reason they're there is the incentive that if they complete the mission, they get to go home.

Their mission is to enter R-Point, a strategic vantage point on an island between South Korea and Vietnam and find the missing men sent there and having disappeared after sending a very strange distress call back to HQ.

R-Point is a cheap little horror film that makes the very most of what it does have to offer, and that is atmosphere and suspense. The visuals are beautiful, the location is beautiful and even if the dialogue is a bit silly at times, the actors do a damn fine job considering I don't know any of them.

From start to finish, R-Point subtly builds tension and atmosphere and plays on the imagination using the power of suggestion, allowing for multiple agendas and outcomes to come of what happens throughout.

Conventionally it doesn't do anything new but admirably improves an old and exploited genre that has seen a small comeback with the likes of Deathwatch and Outpost, relying on human drama, intrigue and multiple strand narratives to keep the audience guessing as to how the end will happen rather than what the outcome will most typically be.

Untypically, its characters are all very different people with complex pasts and concerns in their lives. No one is typically maddened or emotionally disturbed by the war. In fact it is highly suggested that the toughest of the platoon's soldiers are liars who have barely even seen combat and are terrified by the prospect.

Having said all that, I feel that the climax is a bit of a let down, in the sense that so much tension built is spent on revealing the not so clever conclusion. It saves itself by being kind of creepy and I suppose by giving a nod to classic Asian ghost stories. But it seemed like it was going to be different and it gave no real surprises.

Still a fantastic film and very well made but don't hold your breath... if you can help it!

big letdown

[Mike23132 · 4/10 · 11 March 2006]

This movie had a lot of potential, but it never delivered the kind of scare i was looking for. It started getting pretty f-ing awesome towards the end when the ghost was actually taking over everyone, but the rest of the movie was a big tease that had a lack of violence/deaths. I know that violence isn't everything with a horror movie, but something needed to be added to make up for the horrible acting (especially the American). I was looking for an "Oldboy" quality in this movie, but there was absolutely nothing that shocked or made me say "damn, thats really f-ed up!" Good cinematography can't always save a movie, and terrible editing definitely keeps this movie at the level of being a great concept gone to waste.

Oh, and by the way. Did anyone else notice the DHL delivery guy in the movie? Was DHL around during the Vietnam war?!? Yeah...i didn't think so...

A genuinely creepy movie....

[clouddead-1 · 10/10 · 14 April 2007]

The plot of R Point revolves around a Korean platoon operating near the end of the Vietnam war. They are sent out to investigate the disappearance of some allied soldiers in/near a ruined fort in Vietnam. Upon arrival it is obvious that the location to which they have been sent is somehow menacing and that the area might be haunted.

This is by no means a Hollywood style, all out horror flick, and for myself this was its strength: The film starts in a fairly relaxed way, but subtly becomes more and more eerie as it progresses. There is no 'turning point' as such in the story, where things go from bad to worse. Instead we have a sense of growing menace and foreboding. The subtlety with which this is achieved is excellent.

The characters are well developed and have distinct personalities of their own rather than behaving like generic 'movie soldiers'. This helps add to the realism as collectively the platoon starts off just fine but gradually descends into a nightmare.

Whilst not especially gory, R point is a genuinely scary flick. There are a number of strange plot twists which keep the viewer wondering exactly where this whole thing is headed. The camera work is also good and the location has been chosen well. The area in which the story unfolds is dark, deserted, seemingly miles from civilisation and has an air of isolation and evil hanging over it.

All in all this goes down as one of my favourite horror films, a sort of blend of Apocalypse Now and Ring with an originality of its own. The film is intelligent, haunting and the characters believable. All in all, definitely worth watching =)

Creepy Asian horror

[siderite · 7/10 · 23 June 2012]

The movie does have its faults, but not being creepy scary is not one of them. A military group is sent to investigate a missing company that mysteriously vanished and now is sending radio signals. They go there and nasty stuff begins to happen.

The reason the film is so effective is because it doesn't skimp away on the character development. Each person has a name, a way they react to one another and are plausible characters. It adds to the viewer's compassion that everyone except the lieutenant are poor uneducated saps trying to get home to their families and villages. Then they die.

The feeling of hopelessness is both a strong and weak part of the movie. On one hand, if you are in the middle of things you can hardly just give up, but on the other hand, if you see there is nothing you can do, why bother? And if the characters are obviously ill equipped to deal with the situation, the details are irrelevant for some viewers.

As usual in the latest Asian horror, the ghosts are hardly interested in the logic of things. There is no right or wrong, they just need to separate people from their lives and they do it in the most creepy way. I believe R-Point is pretty scary and would have a maximum effect while watched at night with no lights on.

an ok horror

[killercharm · 5/10 · 10 March 2022]

S. Korean soldiers fighting in Vietnam in 1972 are sent out to find six of their own who have gone missing at R-Point. As they approach the Point they come to find out it is a sacred place and they have a curse on them because of their profession. If you have blood on your hands you cannot leave R-Point, sayeth the curse. This flick starts out gangbusters. It has great tension and the terrain is presented as terrifying if it chooses. The story starts to lose its way in the second half. There isn't enough terror to warrant the terrified reactions and there needs to be.