R-Point (2004)

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.

Director:

Su-chang Kong (as Kong Soo-chang)

Writers:

Su-chang Kong (as Kong Soo-chang), Yeong-woo Pil

Stars:

Woo-seong Kam, Byung-ho Son, Sun-kyun Lee

1 win.

Cast

Credited cast:
Woo-seong Kam	...	Lieutenant Choi Tae-in
Byung-ho Son	...	Sergeant Jin Chang-rok
Sun-kyun Lee	...	Sergeant Park (as Seon-gyun Lee)
Park Won-Sang	...	Sergeant Cook (as Won-sang Park)
Tae-kyung Oh	...	Sergeant Jang Young-soo
Jin-ho Son	...	Sergeant Oh (as Jin-ho Song)
Yeong-dong Mun	...	Corporal Byun Moon-sub
Kyeong-ho Jeong	...	Corporal Lee Jae-pil
Byeong-cheol Kim	...	Corporal Joh Byung-hoon
Ju-bong Gi	...	Captain Park
Nae-sang Ahn	...	Captain Kang
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
David Anselmo	...	James (as David Joseph Anselmo)
James Han
Dong-kyu Lee

Storyline

On 07 January 1972, the South Korean base in Nah-Trang, Vietnam, receives a radio transmission from a missing platoon presumed dead. The high-command assigns the veteran and decorated Lieutenant Choi Tae-in to lead a squad with eight other soldiers and rescue the missing soldiers from the R-Point. When they arrive in the location, they have a shooting and defeat a Vietnamese woman with a machine gun in a trench. Later, they find a tombstone telling that one hundred years ago, Chinese killed Vietnamese, dropped them in a lake and built a temple over the place, being a sacred location to the Vietnamese. While chasing the missing soldiers, weird things happen with the rescue team.

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Plot Keywords:

infrared | rescue | soldier | radio transmission | presumed dead | 

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Taglines:

He who sheds others' blood will not return ... NOT EVEN HIS SOUL ...

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Genres:

Action | Horror | War

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence and language

User Reviews

scary but never o-t-t

Six months prior to the beginning of the film, a group of recon soldiers are sent to "R-Point", a strategically significant island south of Saigon. Radio contact is lost, and they're presumed dead, until six months later ("present day" in the film's sense) radio transmissions are received claiming that the soldiers are alive and in grave danger. A squad of 9 soldiers, led by hardened veteran Lt. Choi, are dispatched to find them and bring them home.

What follows isn't an action-heavy horror movie, but a more tense, atmospheric exploration of the lines between the supernatural and reality. Surrounded by miles of jungle and rumours of ghosts, the soldiers begin to crack under the pressures of their situation and begin to turn on one another. It's difficult to describe what they encounter without making it sound trite or clichéd (R-Point is neither), but the physical pressures of the jungle combined with the psychological pressures of the legends of R-Point are captured brilliantly both by the camera-work and the actors portraying their private descents into madness.

Atmospheric and full of suspense, R-Point is tense, very creepy, and definitely worth watching. It never goes over the top and remains tight and controlled. Horror movies and war movies cross over well, it seems. After is, war is hell, and in R-Point, each soldier certainly goes through that.

Details

Country:

South Korea

Language:

English Korean French Vietnamese

Release Date:

13 August 2004 (South Korea)

Also Known As:

Ghosts of War

Filming Locations:

Bokor Hill Station, Preah Monivong National Park, Cambodia

Box Office

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$6,744,984

Company Credits

Production Co:

CJ Entertainment, CN Film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

107 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital EX

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1