[R Point]
Plot:Choi is expecting to return home, but then his departure is refused because of an unfortunate accident. Instead, his superiors assign him to a secret mission to find out what happened to 18 Korean soldiers who disappeared six months earlier in an area called "Romeo Point," or R-Point. What's strange is that the missing soldiers seem to be alive, since headquarters has received intermittent calls for rescue.

Cast: Woo-seong Kam, Byung-ho Son, Tae-kyung Oh, Won-sang Park, Seon-gyun Lee, Byeong-cheol Kim, Kyeong-ho Jeong, Yeong-dong Mun, Ju-bong Gi.

My Thoughts:Brilliant.

Review:Movies like "R Point" give one hope that even though 90% of the time, American Hollywood gets the supernatural horror film all wrong...there are other countries who get it right. Such is the case with the Korean horror pic "R-Point". A soldier named Choi is sent on a special mission to "Romeo Point" (R Point), to rescue a platoon of stranded soldiers during the final days of the Vietnam Conflict. He and his team trek through the jungle but before entering the area where the mysterious distress call came from, they see a sign that reads "Those with blood on their hands will not return from this place". They ignore the sign, and continue on with their mission. An act which fits in well with the movie since these guys are on a rescue mission and not dumb teens driven by curiosity. The thing to like about "R Point" is it doesn't really reveal itself too early. It starts off as a war pic, with bits and pieces of an ominous tone to it here and there. But it takes it's time in becoming a full blown horror movie, and it makes you love every minute of the wait. The soldiers themselves are the typical tough talking types, but are interesting enough as characters not to drag the movie down. There's a little bit of depth to each of the characters such as their value of their families and loved ones. The basic jist of the film is never fully explained early on either. You're not exactly sure what's happening but you definitely know it's not good. The movie kicks into high gear once Lieutenant Choi and his team come upon a weird ruins like place sitting in the middle of the jungle the following morning after a rest-bit. Writer/Director Su-Chang Kong really knows how to string an audience along by keeping the suspense and feeling of terror without moving too fast or too slow, as a phantom force which lurks within the jungle begins to play mindgames with Lieutenant Choi and his team. Alot of the supernatural scenes are quite scary, especially because there's no music really to accompany them. It always surprises me how moody and tense a film can be with a lack of music, which forces the viewer to focus more on the scenes themselves and what's happening in them. As far as scares go, "R Point" blends a little bit of "The Shining" with "Predator", as these soldiers start seeing undead phantom soldiers in the jungle, and a mysterious woman in a white dress. To make matters worse, there are numerous distress calls which keep coming from a radio inside the ruins where the soldiers take refuge and set up camp in. Distress calls which sound almost demonic in tone. The situation soon becomes grave once the force starts posessing some of Choi's men while others begin to mentally deteriorate due to the circumstances of the situation as they begin to discover via rotted corpses, and burial grounds that the people who've supposedly been contacting them for help are already dead! "R-Point" is really a very dark and moody supernatural horror pic which relies on performances, and atmosphere more than anything else and that's what makes it work so well. Another thing that works within the movie is the curse itself, the movie does show a few scenes from the curses point of view ala "Ghosts of Mars" when the martians would exit a human body, and the screen would change color. That in itself is creepy enough, but we also never learn exactly what the curse is, which is what I liked the most. There's no theories bantered around by anyone involved, and we're left to believe it is just a dark force that resides in a place where alot of death has happened and preys on the psyche of the living who set foot in that area by luring them there. "R-Point" ends brilliantly also, with a standoff happening between the final remaining soldiers on the cusp of a "who can you trust?" type of situation. This makes for a very exciting and intense climax to the picture which saves it's most ominous scene for last. This is one of the best asian horror films I've seen, I would even go as far to say it trumps "Ringu" and "Ju-On". "R Point" is a brilliant exercise in how to make a proper supernatural horror picture without a constant score, expensive FX, or a cast full of GAP ad kids. It's a shame that this is up for an american remake within the next three years..I doubt they'll be able to recapture the spirit and essence of Kong's original.

Positives:Great performances, very intense ending, a moody and dark tone which is carried throughout the picture. Some very spooky and eerie scenes and dialogue as well.

Negatives:None

Overall:Definitely a must see for fans of asian horror and people looking for a properly made supernatural horror film.





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