War and horror as cinematic genres can make compelling partners. Many war films - Apocalypse Now (1979) comes to mind - have drawn upon the conventions of horror to depict the cruelty and madness that spring from armed conflict. Conversely, supernaturally inclined horror films sometimes mine the battlefields to explore their character’s psychology, for example in Jacob’s Ladder (1990).
R-Point, the debut of screenwriter Kong Soo-chang, combines all these elements into a potent mix. The film is an unabashedly political commentary on the suppressed history of Korean involvement in global armed conflicts, including the current entanglement in Iraq. It is also a very good conventional horror film. There is no shortage of the things that go bump in the night, even if many of the techniques employed are not so inventive. The location shooting in Kampuchea (including inside the eerie, abandoned hotel originally built by the French) is highly effective and suffuses the film with a genuine sense of foreboding.
The film’s greatest asset is its cast, led by Gam Woo-sung (Spider Forest), using his intellectual demeanor to portray a shell-shocked officer drowning in cynicism, and Son Byung-ho (Failan) as a tightly reigned-in, pressure-cooker sergeant whose violent impulses are just waiting to be unleashed. The supporting roles present a cross-section of rural and lower-class Korean males some thirty-odd years ago, but the actors all rise above the stereotypes. It is a testament to their acting (and good writing) that we care about these characters and do not feel the urge to play "Who’s gonna get it first?"
The film’s powerful climax is almost entirely dependent on the acting of the cast, with the minimum of SFX razzle-dazzle. They pull it off beautifully: the sequence successfully translates the frisson and immediacy of great theater onto the screen.