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62%
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Ranked #5,499
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During the Vietnam War, a South Korean base receives a radio transmission from a missing squad, presumed dead, and sends a platoon to rescue the lost squad from the R-Point.
--IMDb
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Review by Chad
Added: March 18, 2006
During the Vietnam War, Korean marine Lieutenant Choi Tae-In (Woo-Seong Kam) is assigned the task of leading eight men into a Vietnamese "Holy Area" known as R-Point in order to locate the previous platoon that wandered through there. This platoon was thought to be dead after one badly-injured survivor was found and claimed that everyone else had died and that he had personally collected the dog tags of the deceased men. With that claim laying on the table, it doesn't seem like there's too much doubt to be had about what happened to the other men... right? Well, that is true up until an urgent radio message begging for help comes through from the men who supposedly died. The doctors figured that the man who claimed that everyone had died was simply hallucinating or is in a state of shock after almost dying in this Vietnamese jungle. So then, Lieutenant Choi Tae-In is assigned a group of men to take into the jungle and find these missing soldiers... and they soon find out that while the missing platoon members aren't exactly alive, they're quite far from being dead.
In recent years, Japanese horror has been gaining a huge American following thanks to the success of films such as Ringu and Ju-On: The Grudge. However, there have been some damned fine films coming out of Korea lately, and if I had to guess, I'd say that the next couple of big foreign horror films will come from Korea. There's quite a few Korean directors making a name for themselves with films that redefine how a horror movie should be, but sadly, this isn't one of them.
Typically, films from The Far East give the audience much more credit than American films. By that, I mean that American films will shove the explanation and motivations of the characters down your throat, leaving no room for any sort of audience interpretation. Of course there's the odd exception to the rule, but chances are good that if you go to your local movie theater on a Friday night, you'll run into one of these titles. Asian films, however, are quite different. They typically present you with a storyline, show you a few events, give you a couple of clues, and let you interpret the movie however you wish. This type of film certainly wouldn't please everyone, but personally, I enjoy them immensely. There's nothing that I enjoy more from modern cinema than to be presented with a riveting storyline that doesn't tie up every last string and leaves it up to the viewer to mull over things after the credits have long-since rolled. The problem with R-Point is that it takes that concept to the extreme; you're given some clues as to what's happening, but not nearly enough to make any sort of sense out of the events you just witnessed.
Now, I like to think that I'm a fairly intelligent movie viewer. I've watched countless films from Asia, so I know what to expect from the better titles to come out of their borders. It's very rare that a film will leave me completely clueless as to what the director was trying to convey long after the television has been turned off, but this is one of those films. Things happen with no explanation, people do things with no rational logic (and I'm not talking about the typical "further the plot" stupidity), and just when you think that things are finally making sense, something happens that completely shatters your explanation for the film. As the film rolled along, I kept thinking to myself that something would happen which would at least give a clue as to what was going on, but this never came... and in fact, the ending made things even more confusing.
The movie isn't entirely bad, however. There are some very creepy scenes, and it's pretty obvious that director Su-Chang Kong knows how to technically shoot a horror film. There's one scene in particular where one of the men finds out where the radio transmissions are coming from that is definitely one of the better scenes that I've seen in months, and you can't help but get goosebumps when one man finds a group of soldiers in a field (I won't spoil the surprise that makes the scene so effective). There's a large number of these types of scenes throughout the movie, and each one is set against some very realistic sets; you really start to believe that you're in the middle of a Vietnamese jungle during a major war. It's just sad, in my eyes, that nothing was really explained in any way by the time the movie wrapped up.
Perhaps I simply missed something here. Maybe the fact that I'm an American and not accustomed to Asian culture had something to do with my lack of understanding. I'm trying to give this film the benefit of the doubt, but to be honest, it's a bit difficult at this point while things are still fresh in my mind. As I mentioned, there are some masterfully shot scenes in this movie, but overall, the lack of a coherent storyline prevents me from recommending this one. 5/10.
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