R Point

Filed Under: Film, Reviews | Article Tags : DVD review

 

By: Denis Blot

 

 

DVD Features Video: 1.85:1 Audio: Korean Dolby Digital 5.1, Korean DTS 5.1 Director’s Commentary Mission R-Point Creating 1972 Vietnam Special Effects Featurette Original Theatrical Trailer Tartan Asia Extreme New Releases  Theatrical release: 9/13/2004 DVD released on 2/28/2006 by TLA Releasing Running time of 107 minutes Starring: Woo-Sung Kam, Tae-kyung Oh, Byung-Ho Sohn Director: Su-Chang Kong Plot: During the Vietnam War, a South Korean army base begins receiving mysterious radio transmissions from a patrol that went missing six months earlier. A shell-shocked commanding officer and a ragtag military unit are sent into the desolate stretch of land known as R-Point to gather clues as to the whereabouts of the missing soldiers. What appeared to be a clear search and rescue mission turns into something far more terrifying than any battle.

 

 

Keep your eyes open, a Hollywood version of Su-Chang Kong’s R-Point will undoubtedly be in the works if not already in pre-production. Is it worthwhile for Hollywood to make a US version of this film? Definitely! The film’s premise of a platoon of soldiers in Vietnam on a mission to find another platoon that’s vanished, only to find themselves confronted by ghosts, is ideal to express the haunted mental states of many US soldiers that luckily returned home from the war.

While R-Point’s story involves Korean soldiers, as opposed to US, their descent into madness is something all too real for any soldier that has been through the hell of war. The introductory scenes play out like the beginning of Apocalypse Now; a rag tag group of soldiers are led by a major, who has become inured to death and who has a reputation for bad things happening wherever he goes, to the location Romeo Point in order to find a missing platoon. R-Point is under a curse that dictates that all who enter with blood on their hands will never leave. The soldiers take refuge in an abandoned chateau, and as the haunting begins they slowly begin turning on one another. In this action Kong attempts to raise the sort of psychological hysteria found in Night of the Living Dead. He is only moderately successful in this pursuit, leaving most of the horror of R-Point to rely on the gore and eerie ghostly atmosphere.

As a horror film R-Point thoroughly satisfies but it had the ability of becoming a film of greater significance. Kong could have easily adjusted the screenplay he wrote to provide a heartier weight to the guilt written conscience of the soldiers, and express some of the real horrors of war. While the subtext of the ghostly haunting certainly indicates the futility and destructive (both mental and physical) nature of war, the message gets lost as Kong’s story falls prey to too many ghost story gimmicks. While Hollywood would certainly be wise to take this into account in the US version, their past treatment of Asian horror films of losing all subtext in favor of pure horror does not bode well.

The DVD extras provided are certainly worth viewing. The featurettes; The Making of R-Point, Creating 1972 Vietnam, and special effects, are thorough in describing the trials and tribulations experienced during the film’s production. Behind-the-scenes material is supplemented by interviews with the actors, the prop master, make-up artist, director and producer. The full length commentary by director, producer and location supervisor provide a more in depth discussion to a lot of the information given in the featurettes, and is definitely worth listening to for those interested in the filmmaking process. The only thing missing from the extras are several deleted scenes (Kong mentions cutting out filmed scenes in the commentary) that would have been interesting to see.

R-Point has a good mix of horror and war scenes, and is definitely worth looking at if only to compare to the Hollywood version (that assuredly will be made) and to brag to your friends how “the original” is so much better.

Reviewer’s Opinion: RENT IT!!