R-Point (2004)

Directed by Su-chang Kong

Starring Woo-seong Kam

A disappointing start to Tartans Asia extreme tour 2005 at least IMHO.

This is a weak story of a platoon of Korean soldiers during the Vietnam war who are sent to R-Point to try and find out what happened to a previous group. R-Point itself turns out to be a misty area of land with a warning message carved in stone. A long time before the area had been a lake but a massacre had taken place, the Chinese killed hundreds of Vietnamese and had discarded their bodies into the lake, they then filled in the lake and a large temple had been built atop it. The warning stated that anyone who entered the area and had shed blood would not leave there alive.

The problems with the film are down to several things, its supposed to be a War/Horror movie but is lacking in both areas. The actors for the most part were awful, these are experienced troops, most of them held the rank of Sergeant yet when anything slightly strange happened they ran around like a bunch of headless chickens (I was going to say like a group of schoolgirls but thats an insult to them). The editing was all to pot, leaving you wondering what the hell was going on as characters would just disappear and end up somewhere completely different without any sense or reasoning.

The actual setting for the film was terrific very photogenic, although Im sure some of it must have been filmed in the ruined temples in Cambodia that have appeared in several other films. The atmosphere was also good, dank, misty and mysterious, nicely done.

If it was meant as some sort of antiwar statement, it failed! As a horror movie, its too generic and fails. I did get the impression of a film trying to be too many different things instead of concentrating its strengths and pulling off something far more memorable, the one thing I will say, it lasted almost 2 hours and I cant say it bored me.

It did pique my interest finding out that South Korean troops fought in the Vietnam War, something I was unaware of, I just wonder if they were there under pressure from the US as has been the case for several countries with the war in Iraq. 

So a mediocre start to this selection of films, not boring but so much weaker than I had expected.

Cheers Trev.

BBFC rated 15.