Customer Reviews

R-Point

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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

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.

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!!!!!

i'm always leary of what to order based on the reviews when it comes to asian cinema, becuz everyone seems to have such whacked-out opinions. for me, this wasn't the most original, the scariest, or even the most engrossing film ever made, but i was surprisingly happy with it. ...i expected it to be 'all right' based on reviews, but i actually have watched this one more than once, and i quite enjoy the film overall. the acting is quite good, and i thought the quality was also very good. not too much gore, just a good old fashioned ghost story set in a 'war' environment. if you're more into 'oldboy gore/grossout', then maybe you won't like this, but those who just want some suspense with a good ghost story will get something out of this one.

I managed to catch this flick on the Sundance Channel the other night and was glad I did. R-Point is a very decent Korean supernatural thriller set in and during the Vietnam War. A small group of soldiers is sent to investigate the dissapearence of another squad last stationed at location R-Point. Upon arrival (to what is said is to be a temple but looks more like an old, decrepit mansion), no one is to be found and strange things begin to happen to the soldiers. The movie utilizes its scenery and surroundings to create a very eerie atmosphere throughout. I would not consider R-Point to be a horror just a generally creepy and interesting flick well worth watching.

It is 1972 during the Vietnam War. Two Korean military men receive radio transmissions from Donkey 30, a platoon thought lost 6 months ago. The base commander sends a platoon, led by Lt. Choi, to R-Point to find the missing men. The platoon gets dropped off on an island, whereby they come across a rock formation. On the rocks are some writing, plus this ominous phrase, "Those Who Have Blood On Their Hands Will Not Return". The next morning, an ominous temple appears out of nowhere, and thus we the viewers know the soldiers have now entered the Supernatural area. From here, the film focuses on the platoon and their encounters with the ghosts around the temple.

I enjoyed the movie up until the climax of the film. As in most asian horror films, the interpretation of what happens falls onto the viewer. However, it is never fully explained why the ghost(s) haunt the soldiers, or why they take over their bodies. As someone mentioned before, there is an annoying habit of showing the soldiers from the ghosts viewpoint. There really is no point to it, as they peer around trees or walls. Really unnecessary, especially since they can stand in front of you and remain unseen. The movie moves at a good pace, especially once the soldiers come upon the temple. The platoon slowly unravels mentally, as one by one the soldiers are done away with. The acting was good, especially from the Lt. Choi and Sgt. Jin.

There are some cool extras on the DVD:
* Making of R-Point: Shows the military training of the actors, plus some interviews with the director and other staff.
* Creating 1972 Vietnam: Interesting part showing how the crew had to deal with Vietnam of today, and trying to make it look like Vietnam during 1972.
* Special Effects Featurette: how they made up the ghosts and corpses
* Original Theatrical Trailer
* Tartan Asia Extreme New Releases

During the Vietnam war ,a motley group of South Korean soldiers -led by Lieutenant Choi( Kam Wu-Seong -a war hero with the unfortunate habit of losing men in combat ,on a larger scale that usual,and with the hard bitten tough nut Sergeant Jin ( Sohn Byung-Ho)as second in command are sent an a week long mission ,their task being to discover the whereabouts of another platoon ,missing ,presumed dead ,at the strategically vital R-Point.On arrival they discover an abandoned temple on the jungle site of an earlier massacre and a stone tablet warning that anyone trespassing on the sacred ground with blood on their habds will never leave.Not suprisingly,they are spooked by this and tensions intensify when an American patrol arrives,warning of dangers awaiting in the upper floor of the temple. Choi begins to realise things are not what they should be ,especially when he discovers his patrol has one more man than it started with.The men begin to die ,and the director keeps matters ambiguous as to whether this is due to some supernatural agency ,or the men killing each other as they fall victim to madness and paranoia.

This is a movie operating on atmosphere and suggestion rather than gross-out and will not please those who like their scares up front and in your face .It makes excellent use of the dark ,creepy and broody ruins rather than going for sudden jump cuts and shocks.The narrative is at times disjointed and the characters are the stock types found in any patrol movie from any movie industry the world over and one dance party sequence is hideously misjudged and defuses tension . Overall this is a well made and edgy mixture of war /horror picture that the more adventurous genre fans might well enjoy

An eerie story shot in a war format....not just a "horror" story.This is precisely why I liked it, because the horror element isn't the only story line at first....the soldiers in war theme is.If you want a good well made movie that is realistic in the Vietnam sense (not talking war gore either) with the supernatural element included, then this is for you. Picture yourself in a conflict, ghosts are the farthest thing from your mind and so it was for the ROK soldiers...at first. Would recommend this for veterans as well. Once again....great cinematography and scenery.

This isn't really a review, but more of sumthing informative. Jus like some people, i thought that this movie was kinda weak, maybe sucked, and was really really unoriginal, and regreted buying it out of instinct. Later on, i learned to appreciate this movie a lot more when i found out that it was actually based on a true story.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 guerillas 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.


This movie is pretty creepy and is well done. If your into horror I would recommend checking it out!

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.