R-Point (DVD)

It's 1972, and the Vietnam War rages on. First Lieutenant Choi (Gam Wu-seong), a decorated soldier who is just about to be dishonorably discharged, finds that he has "one more assignment" to complete before he can go home — he's allocated a platoon of misfits and sent to a remote location known as R-Point to answer a distress call from a small unit trapped behind enemy lines. But the enemy is not Viet Cong… it's something much, much worse.

No sooner to do the men arrive at the island location than they uncover a chiseled stone tablet with a warning: "Those who enter with blood on their hands, will never be able to return." They take it as an old superstition, dismissing it out of hand, and move into the bamboo forest. They walk and talk, nothing much happening, until they're suddenly attacked. They shoot back, uncover the culprit, a young woman, and leave her to die in the jungle.

The following morning when they awake, the men see a huge, abandoned and quite derelict plantation-style mansion near their campsite. It looks as though it's just sprung up overnight. Undeterred, and still without any sign of the lost unit, the men enter the building and set up a new camp.

They find a dusty, dirty, spiderweb-caked old radio, a few amenities, and a broken tape player. One of the guys fixes it, and the deprived group is thrilled to hear the familiar sounds of The Ventures blasting through the speakers. Their joy turns to horror, however, when the musical notes fade to screams of terror. Who recorded it? And where are they now? Meanwhile, an unseen creature watches them from the shadows in a P.O.V. shot very similar to the Evil Dead films.

For at least the first half hour, I was thinking a more apt title for R-Point might be Zzzz-Point. The characters are reasonably varied and interesting, but the set-up goes on for way too long. When the moments of horror finally do come, they are relatively tame. This is definitely no Dog Soldiers, if that's what you're hoping for. However, R-Point is a pretty good psychological thriller with some moments of suspense and decent elements of mystery. The last 20 minutes or so are excellent.

The English subtitles aren't bad, but the dialogue doesn't ring very true most of the time. I have a feeling some things were lost in translation. The cinematography is crisp and clear, with good use of color and admirable attention to detail (misty fields, sweat-beaded brows, ghostly gals in virginal white gowns, and so on, stand out vividly). The original score is strong. The film's director, Gong Su-chang, does a competent job of showing rather than telling, and when the few moments of terror do come, they're worth the wait.

The movie isn't balls-out horror, but it's tense and creepy. Personally, I would have preferred more of the supernatural aspects and less of the soldiers' minutia, but it's a minor complaint. If you like Korean (or Asian, in general) filmmaking, and you're a war buff, you'll like R-Point.

There are plenty of goodies on the disc. If you just click the "subtitle" button on your remote, they won't work — you have go into the setup menu on the DVD to make the captions work. The commentary (with the director, and I assume one of the producers) is light hearted and fun, and really quite candid. It's interesting to learn what they thought about filming in Cambodia, and how they worked to ensure authenticity to the time period and costumes. They admit not everything is perfect, but they have some reasonable explanations as to why.

There's also a making-of featurette, a few minutes on Creating 1972 Vietnam, and trailers for other Tartan DVD releases.

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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson