Korean Cinema Professor Steven Chung Jun Seong Ahn
R-Point (2004)
In my personal view, I think this movie is one of the most outstanding and important horror movies in Korea. Since this film is basically settled in the place R-Point, haunted place in Vietnam, there weren’t any point that viewer’s like me could calm down. I think this was also the director’s goal to make people feel frightened all the way to the end of the story. For example, every single soldier is haunted by a ghost as the story goes on and expands fear not only to the actors but also people watching this movie. The director did a great job by spreading in a 3D mode. Since the director selected strong looking soldiers in Vietnam, the horror is totally maximized, because as a normal person view, a strong men in fear looks more frightening to him than an original men in fear. By having those soldiers’ fear, the film really didn’t require appearance of a ghost a lot but showed as an additional contribution. Even the ghost quickly passed away, that moment continued fear to the audience too.
What I think it’s wonderful of this film is that the voice, “Haneulso, Haneulso, Yeogeenun Dooduhjee” became one of the most critical and main point of this film due to its characteristic of being a foreshadowing message. It also made the story to kind of cool down rather than just creating crisis all over the film.
One part that I still don’t quite understand is Lieutenant Choi, who ordered sergeant Chang to aim the gun to him and shoot even though Choi knew that Choi would be shot. I guess there could be numerous opinions of this scene, but I think Choi thought that he could save Chang by killing himself, or he could have been also a ghost in the first place. The decision really depends on every person’s opinion which I also think the director intended to have people share their thoughts and produce a wide spread of the movie story.
Julia Wong Kong Su-Chang’s film, “R-Point” seems to be a hybrid war/horror film. Throughout the film, I noticed there were many long shots in which the beautiful landscape of the island that the soldiers were at. Though the scenery was beautiful, the eerie music, static and high-angled shots allowed me to gain a feeling that something was not right with the setting; that there was going to be a lot of deaths and creepiness throughout the film. One of the scenes that caught my eye was when one of the sergeants was found hanging at the upper floor of the mansion. There was a long shot showing the mansion with the sergeant hanging by one of the upper floors that reminded me of covers of other horror films. There were also filters that seemed to change every now and then that made it seem like the soldiers were being watched. And by the static and eeriness, I assumed that it was the ghost. It was interesting at the final scenes when this filtered vision began to move, seemingly creeping on the soldiers that were left and peering into their eyes. That gave me a signal that perhaps that was how the ghost made the soldiers lose their minds. At the beginning scene when the soldiers first arrived, I noticed how the camera had done a close-up of the bracelet on the woman’s wrist after the lieutenant noticed it. The bells on the bracelet shows up throughout the film as one by one, the soldiers are killed off. I felt that the director effectively used the clichéd screeching music and bell sounds to haunt and scare the viewers. However, though this was an interesting mix of war and horror, I felt that because there was such a lack of character development and a lack of a clear backstory, it was hard to follow which sergeant was which, and what the whole plotline was supposed to be. The high-angle shots and long shots, though effective in creating an eerie feel as well as showing the setting, it made it hard to see each soldier individually enough to really be able to grasp who was who as they were always just running through the shots. This detracted definitely from the horror aspect of the film because I was so busy trying to figure out who died, who the flashback was related to, and which soldiers were already dead.
Camera techniques used in R-Point enhanced the audience’s viewing experience. The greenish filter on parts of the film successfully conveys the idea that the audience is seeing from a hidden perspective. It makes the ghosts feel real and keeps the audience alert to what might happen next. As the characters clearly expressed that the building was haunted, the green, night vision camera view suggested what the ghosts are seeing. The still shot during the filtered view emphasizes that they are solely watching, while a moving shot during that period illustrates their movement around the men. The quick switches between filtered and non-filtered views are successful because it places the audience at both perspectives. Track shots at eye level also convey the idea of a ghost’s perspective because its natural forward movement feels like walking. When one of them is lost in the deserted field, the camera perspective moving toward him felt like it was someone about to attack him.
While R-Point has its successful moments, it lacked overall for me. Horror films are designed to scare the audience, which by the reactions of the class it does—as I was anxious about what would happen next sometimes, too. The creepy sound effects and music emphasize the jumpy moments, and the weather underscores the bad things that are about to happen. However, I think it doesn’t live up to the potential of the basic storyline. I’m usually very easily scared and can’t stand watching horror movies, but for some reason Korean horror movies don’t effect me with the same intensity that American ones do. Maybe it’s the fact that I only know what they’re saying through the subtitles because reading them detracts my focus on the film.
“R-Point” is a peculiar horror movie that is a great example of Linda William’s “film bodies” in two aspects. Obviously, it is a horror movie, so the film manipulates viewers’ bodily reactions by introducing scary scenes and surprising the audience. But on top of that, “R-Point” is a quasi-sad movie that leaves depressed feelings in the viewers, through the miserable deaths of the soldiers one by one and the touching bond among them. For example, when a hallucinated soldier fires and kills the “Cook,” one particular soldier who had shared deep bond with the Cook is struck with great shock and cries outrageously. Another such touching scene is the last scene, where the last-standing soldier is rescued by the helicopter, but he is seen as a crazy man. The man murmurs to his comrades whose bodies mysteriously have disappeared from the scene. As the man solely calls for his gone friends, the viewers cannot help but to sympathize with him and to feel gloomy.
On its aspect as a horror movie, “R-Point” is produced by the incorporation of the classic elements of a horror film, namely the screeching sound, female ghost, hallucination, and foreshadowing. Every time it is implied that a ghost is watching the soldiers, the screen suddenly turns greenish and the ominous dark score is played to add to the creepy mood. Also, when the soldiers turn on the radio and it suddenly produces screaming sounds, the ominous score is played again to highlight the intensifying fearful atmosphere. About the ghost and the hallucination the soldiers see, Kong Su-chang follows other classic horror films and utilizes the conventional female ghost character. The female ghost can be reflected back to the scene where the soldiers cause a Viet-Cong girl to die, and it is implied that the girl bore some sort of grief at the soldiers as she was left to die. Finally, throughout the first half of the movie, there are multiple foreshadows that harbinger the upcoming catastrophe. For instance, when the Yankees come around and warn the soldiers that they will not be able to survive for more than four days, it is a clear indication that the soldiers will not end up alive by the end of their mission. “R-Point” is a cleverly developed film that is both “scary” and “sad” at the same time, and it successfully fits into Linda William’s “film bodies” genre.
In the movie, "R-point," there are not many close shots used. Rather, two and three shots with master shots are nicely combined in order to emphasize the relationship between the soldiers and to illustrate the whole interaction among the soldiers by providing a shot with all the soldiers in the screen. Close shots are only used to hint that such objects such as a bracelet play important roles later in the movie. In the beginning, the Vietnamese woman's face is also captured as a close shot in order to suggest that she would later appear again in the film. Since the hand-held camera motion is not used, bird's eye view and long shot are incorporated to show the soldiers' movement and their path. Panning is also used twice in the beginning to make the transition between the scenes seem smoother. For instance, when moving from the scene with the two men talking to the scene with whole soldiers, panning is used to gradually point from the neon sign to the characters walking down the street. In another scene where one soldier searches for Sergeant Oh, he screams the sergeant's name aloud and the camera pans across the grassland to show his act of searching from his perspective. Tracking shot is also used when filming the characters from their backs in order to build tension and intensity as it is from a perspective of an unknown. The audiences get a feeling that someone is secretly following their back that helps create a mysterious atmosphere. When moving around the jungle, camera stays still while the soldiers one by one pass the camera. The camera would have probably been motionless in order to highlight the fact that the soldiers move around together and that they share a tight relationship in which they depend on each other for help and survival. There is also a repetition in the film in which the woman wearing the white dress always appears on a rainy day with thunders. Also, when one sergeant is inside the cave, the lines "We're all dying, do you copy me?" comes out repetitively since the phrase itself is so powerful. Moreover, towards the end, almost every soldier is in a sequence asked to recite their names and ranks. Throughout the movie, nondiegetic sounds such as the sound of the bell from nowhere and drum sounds are used to build up tension and to indicate that something surprising is about to approach. At the end of the movie, camera zooms out from the blind soldier to show that the dead bodies of the soldiers are gone. The movie overall was a typical horror movie that nicely combined all of these camera techniques to show the importance of the changing relationship among the soldiers and to build up intensity and tension. Even though the soldiers at first shared a tight relationship bonded by trust for group survival, at the end, they all become suspicious of each other and that trust breaks with their death. Even though the movie definitely deals with supernatural beings, the psychological aspect of the soldiers play more significant role throughout the movie.
In R-Point, there was an excessive use of the camera changing perspectives from a regular camera capturing the moments of the soldiers on the island, to a sort of omnipresent supernatural figure that's watching the soldiers. When the perspectives change to the ghostly one, the audience sees what's going on with the soldiers from an eye-level shot in a strange shade of green, and it's always set such that the camera is shooting from behind certain objects like trees or walls, which sets up a sort of feeling like whenever the camera shifts to this perspective, it's as though the audience is peeping in on the soldiers.
There are a lot of long shots that depict a lot of the scenery in R-Point that also include the soldiers, but the ratio of landscape to the soldiers is huge. There was a scene in which the camera takes a long shot of the scenery (a lot of the brush in the area as well as the gloomy foggy weather) and in the bottom right corner of the screen, you see the soldiers slowly making their way into the shot. It gives a feeling that these soldiers don't have a real idea of what they're getting into by entering R-Point. Throughout the film there are a lot of these long shots that show how small these soldiers are in comparison to the landscape, which kind of emphasizes also how what they're getting into is much larger than them.
Overall, I think that "R-point" is worthwhile to watch. As the film is about soldiers during a war, short shots were utilized especially during the shooting scenes to present anxiety and intensity. However, I noticed frequent high angle and birds’ eye view shots in the film. In the beginning, I was not sure what the purpose of them were for; I supposed that it gave the effect of looking at a map and seeing their movement throughout the deserted land. But, when the ghosts and supernatural aspects came into the story, the birds eye view shots and high angle shots made more sense. They were being surveillanced at all times; the additional green filter frames emphasized anxiety and fear in the film as well as the creepy idea of being watched at all times. As for the horror qualities of “R-point” I thought that they were lacking in most of the film; generic eerie sounds, creepy woman ghost, corpses, and blood did not attract nor surprise me. The plot also advanced quite slowly in most of the film, so it seemed predictable until the ending. Therefore, most of the film was not scary but actually kind of boring for me. The ending scenes, however, (when they were all in the big dark room and started losing their sanity) were much more interesting and well-made. The little dialogue (like “Say your name and rank”,) presented expressions, as well as the green filters were utilized well to increase the fear and supernatural qualities. Although the plot was not very eventful, the ending scenes made up for the lack of good horror in the film. Only after watching the ending did I like the idea of incorporating horror into war-related films. The fact that soldiers kept on disappearing on the R-point island and that help for them did not receive much attention nor seriousness reflects the manipulated and neglected attitudes towards soldiers who fought in war, specifically Koreans during the Vietnam War.
Since, this film was about war, there weren’t many special objects that stood out in significance except the tape player/radio and eyes. The radio and tape player were not unusual objects in the situation and time the film was set in. They served as the soldiers’ only hope and form of communication—the only things that kept them going; they were so hopeful that the soldiers tried extremely hard to ignore the creepy recording and the rundown radio. Eyes, however, served as a more interesting object (or objects) in the film. There were several closeups of the soldiers’ eyes and the reflection of the ghosts that haunted them. In the last scenes when they were getting psychologically and supernaturally manipulated, their eyes and ability to see were the cause of their insanity; if they looked long enough at the ghosts, they became “possessed.” The only one who was not affected by ghosts was the surviving soldier who was blinded by the bomb; losing the ability to see saved him from going insane. Having the eyes as a focused object in the film resonates the insanity and loss of innocence involved in wartime soldiers’ lives. Having to witness endless violence and destruction dehumanizes soldiers and changes their lives forever; eyes symbolizing sight and unwanted knowledge ruins soldiers psychologically.
Kong Su-Chang's film "R-Point" is what one can characterize as a horror film filled with classic elements of what many horror films entail. One such example occurs multiple times throughout the film where the scene begins with the characters in the midst of a dark and stormy night couple with eerie music playing in the background. Here, Lieutenant Choi, shown in a long shot, is staring intently outside of a dark and mysterious building. Just as he begins to walk away, he notices something in the distance; the camera then shifts to the image of a young woman with long black hair in a white traditional Vietnamese dress (called an Ao Dai). And just as quickly as the lightning came to show this chilling figure did it disappear. This scene occurs once more in the film, only this time, the female ghost leads the Lieutenant to a graveyard filled with the French soldiers that died in the area (this graveyard did not exist when the other soldiers stumbled upon the same area later on in the film). Not only does this scene provide a typical scene in a horror film, it foreshadows the imminent doom that is to fall upon these soldiers.
What makes this film very interesting (and somewhat amusing) is the irony that is used. From the very beginning of the film, the viewer is made aware that all of the soldiers that were on this mission to R-Point are dead, but it is later on implied (and assumed) that the soldiers all died due to the remaining spirits or ghosts of the missing 6 soldiers that they were deployed to find in the first place. However, throughout the whole film the spirits only act as instigations for the soldiers themselves to kill one another. An example of this is where one of the soldiers kills a fellow soldier because he was in a state of complete fear after an encounter with a ghost. This leads to the very prominent "ending battle" scene where all of the soldiers basically killed one another in a deranged act of fear for their own lives. In the end, the soldiers could not leave R-Point due to the fact that they have one another's blood on their hands (which also means they killed one another and therefore could not possibly leave).
It was interesting to see many aspects of yesterday’s lecture also come up in R-Point. The typical long-haired female ghost in a white dress felt a bit unnecessary, but was resonant of commonalities of many Asian horror films. Also, as mentioned in lecture, R-Point associates religion with the supernatural, showing scenes of temples and incense and mentioning that it was considered a sacred place.
For some reason, I cared more about these soldiers dying than the characters who were killed in Epitaph. Even though the characters weren't as fleshed out as they could have been, and I had trouble telling them apart, we were shown little things about them that made viewers feel more empathetic towards their fate. For instance, the parts where they all danced goofily to The Ventures, or how Sargent Mah would keep talking about his wife and daughter, or how Jung sold his medical certificate to buy his mother a cow, all were scenes (albeit cheesy ones) that served to create at least some emotional ties to them. R-Point manages to create a lot of suspense in the parts that led up to the climax and keep viewers on their toes until the end. It doesn't heavily use terrifying images for that scare-factor, but facilitates an ongoing tension of not knowing what will happen next, or even when and how people will die. The night-vision scenes of observing the soldiers at a distance, which are supposed to be from the ghosts' POV, add to the overall tension and underlying feelings of dread - that knowledge they are being watched. Similarly, the longshots utilized in the film seemed to add to vast, desolate scenery of R-Point. The tall grass and uninhabited feel of the environment all the more emphasized the point that these men are trapped and alone there, making their deaths seem inevitable but also increasing the sense of dread in the viewer along the way.
Finally in the end, Jung who has gone insane, is mumbling to himself as the camera goes very slowly away from him to reveal an eerily emptied out room, devoid of the bodies that were there last night. Again, it is a subtlety that does not rely on gory images to create an effectively creepy scene.This is something I thought that R-Point did well, rather than always relying on jump-scares like most horror movies.
I’ve already seen this movie, R-point by Kong Su-chang, few times several years ago, and every time I hesitated to watch it. However, this course sort of “forced” me to watch it again and refreshed the story. The reason why I hesitated is that the movie, R-point, depends on the audience for interpretation. It can be analyzed in so many points of view such as the ending of Inception by Christopher Nolan which leaves many questions as to whether or not it is a dream. These characteristics make the movie both confrontational and uncomfortable to the viewer as well as bringing a whole new topic to discuss when the movie is finished.
Those soldiers who see the ghost always left behind alone or act individually. For example, Sergeant Jin left the crew by himself and follows an Unknown Soldier into the bamboo forest. Then he fell into a cliff and searches through the cave all alone and hears the radio sound. He then finds a dead body and the scene shifts to the other members of crew looking for Sergeant Jin. A soldier wanders away as if he is possessed by something, and the scene shifts to the other soldiers proceeding with their mission. Later they find the lost crew member back with the group. This routine repeats numerous times throughout the story to all the members except Corporal Jang. It never shows what happened after Sergeant Jin finds the body in the cave or when private 1st class Jo, left alone in the field with the soldiers that have suddenly disappeared. I had guessed that these soldiers were already possessed and died when they encountered the ghost alone because they all killed or tried to kill people on the island. That is why corporal Jang didn’t die because he was still innocent and failed to kill anybody which means he did not touch the blood. Also at the very end, Corporal Jang was alone in the building and there was no trace of other soldiers, and this back up my reasoning. This open ending leaves the viewers with multiple evidence to determine the actual ending.
The movie R-Point was consistent with long and medium shots to show the action and landscape within this horror war film. Yet, there were various times during the film when a bird’s eye shot added more depth into some of these particular scenes. For example, the moment in which the soldiers discovered the dead bodies in the lake, we were given an unknown perspective from the sky and shown the corpses beneath the shallow waves. However, there were other moments when this point of view did not add any significance to the movie, in my belief, and was merely an inconvenience. Such as when Lieutenant Choi was confronted in the hallway moments before Oh’s death. It may have been meant to add the illusion that the ghosts were watching their every move, similar to when the night-vision scenes are shown but I preferred the image effect ever the awkward angle. Besides the usual angles, it seemed that many of the important scenes throughout the beginning of the film occurred when the soldiers were relieving themselves. The first being when the group arrived at the rock stating the curse and it isn’t until after Corporal Lee Jae-pil peed on the it did the rest of the statement (of being unable to return) become uncovered. Or later on when Sergeant Oh lost his fellow comrades because he was peeing, caused him to stumble upon the ghosts of the missing soldiers in the fields. These two cases in particular happen in board day light, almost telling the characters and the audience that they should remain fearful whether it Is day or night. Although my experience with horror films is very minimal, these little details of high-angles and ghosts in day light made the film more interesting than the jump shots of the women in white or the possessing of the bodies that happened in the end of the movie.
The movie "R-Point" was a horror movie that included Korean history in it, namely, the Korean soldiers' participation in the Vietnam war. To be honest, I did not watch some scenes of the movie because I do not like horror movies, but from the scenes that I did see, several things stood out to me. Throughout the movie, I noticed that several repetitive, symmetric scenes appeared. For example, when the soldiers were in the bamboo forest, the bamboo stalks were vertical lines that appeared throughout the whole screen. Also, when the soldiers were looking at the burning incense, the rocks in that area were also shown. These rocks were shown in a beautiful, and neat fashion. Another example of this is when the Korean soldiers were walking down the stairs of the building with the American soldier. The downward-facing angle showed the repetitive and nearly symmetrical pattern of the stairs. It was interesting to see this because symmetry is usually associated with beauty, and that contrasts greatly with the horrors that were present in this film. I also thought it was interesting how the director included beautiful shots of the sunset, such as the one where the house and soldiers are silhouetted against the orange sky. This was a nice contrast to the horrors that later occurred in the night as well. Something that I did not like about this film was the nighttime camera scenes. These were usually shown with shrill music, and I did not appreciate that. Also, the cut from the normal camera to the nighttime camera was very abrupt, in my opinion. From my understanding, these scenes were used to show the ghost's perspective of the soldiers, but I still did not like these scenes.
Gloria Lee R-Point is a very horrific and gory film produced by Su-Chang Kong in 2004. Since I am not a person who can stand watching horror films, it was very hard for me to watch such gory scenes and feel nervous for whole time. The director Kong did well on making a horror film that contains two supposedly most scary things in world, which are a war and ghosts. However, I think any kinds of horror films do not make sense in a contextual sense and always confuse me. In the film, R-Point, the soldiers disappear eventually until the last survivor who lost his sight. Most of the soldiers are killed by other soldier among them. As the film gets to the ending, the soldiers cannot believe in anyone but themselves. That is why Lieutenant Choi asks the every other soldier’s names and ranks in the climax part of the film. On the one hand, a scene where Lieutenant Choi asks the blind soldier to shoot him lets the audiences notice that only Choi could see the ghost. I believe the soldiers who died had all seen a ghost and possessed by the ghost. Maybe Choi knew that if he gets possessed by the ghost, he would kill the blind soldier. And that is why he asks the blind soldier to shoot him and because the blind soldier could not see the ghost, he survived. There are many scenes throughout the film to support the possibility of the blind soldier’s survival. A gravestone in the bamboo forest has a phase saying: A person with bloody hands can’t go back. It turned out that the only soldier throughout the film who did not get blood on his hands is the blind solider. Also, at the very first scene of the film, a person who is wearing a bandage all over his body and talking his old story is the only survivor who becomes blind by the grenade. Overall, I think the director Kong intended to express the grief of the soldiers or people from the gory and miserable war through this film. As the American soldier in the film says that R-Point is the place where no alive and dead person can live, a war creates a cursed and haunted land that no one can live on. The recurring themes of death and insanity in the film well contributed to the genre of the film, which is horror. R-Point has many foreshadows and tilted shots as well as scary sound effects and dreadful places. Lots of these settings attributed to make such a scary and horrific scenes of the film. The sound effects and the background music make me so nervous for whole time and I almost felt like if there had been no sound playing, I would have watched the movie better. The phase on the gravestone foreshadows that not a single soldier will go back to where they came from and creates a dreadful mood. R-Point did very well on scaring me out with many scary settings.
R Point is really one outstanding horror movie. It has many surprising and scary scenes that make the audiences watched with fear and have a sense of frightening during the movie. The director makes use of really good camera techniques that provided the audience with the warning of something bad is going to happen. At the scene where the soldiers gathered at the building, the director filmed with a greenish scene, which is trying to convey the message of a ghost who is secretly looking at them and something bad is going to happen. The director changes between a colored scene to a greenish filter scene and filmed with a tracking shot at eye level, that allows the audience to be aware of the ghost’s movement around the soldiers.
At the scene where there were only three of the soldiers in the big field, the director filmed the scene from far and showing only the back of their bodies, creating a tension and horrifying atmosphere. The director later continues to track forward slowly, to give the feeling of creepy and scary about the island. The director actually makes use of long shots to capture the scenery of the island that the soldiers were on. However, the background music used in the movie was relatively scary and provides the audience an idea of what kind of island the soldiers were on.
During this movie, the objects that stood out were the bracelet with bells on it and the tape player. The director provided many close up shots of the bells whenever a soldier is dead. The bells actually helped to act as a scary tool but provided scary music to audience and giving a sense of frightening. As for the tape player, when the soldiers attempt to use it, it will release scary screams which helped to intensify the scary place.
The ending scene of the movie, the director makes use of tracking shot with Corporal Jang sitting down alone and talking. The bodies of the soldiers were not present as well. It actually leaves the audience with a question of what had happened and where the bodies went to. This would probably leave to the imagination and understanding of the audience to deduce what could have happened.
Personally, R-Point is a profound horror films that is doubtful and hard to fully understand. As a viewer, the film made me uncomfortable not because of the ghost but because of the all the horrible mood of the film. When group of soldiers arrived at R-Point to find missing soldiers of Battalion 53, they found headstone that says ‘If you have blood on your hand, you can’t go back.’ The headstone already hints the future of the soldiers who have experience to kill someone. Also, strange things occur to all of soldiers who have experience to kill someone except Sergeant Jung who never had killed someone during the mission. The main incident of the film is that each soldier was possessed by a ghost to lose their consciousness and this incident leads all soldiers to the death except Sergeant Jung.
In different view, R-Point is the place where the person who has experience to kill somebody can’t return to the reality. In addition, R-Point is the place where lots of innocent people dead and buried with deep resentment. So, the spirits of the dead people which represent as a female ghost with white dress leads lots of soldiers to death because soldiers are figure of war and they killed many innocent Vietnamese in Vietnam War. The reason why female ghost left Sergeant Jung is making other groups of soldiers to come to R-Point to continue the revenge.
As I firstly mention, R-Point is hard and complex to clearly understand. However, the creepy mood with creepy music made film to immerse in the emotion of soldiers and victims of war. Though the film is featured as a horror movie, I personally think is the film about warning and arousing attentions of War’s aftereffects for both winners and victims. Therefore, the film ‘R-Point’ clearly describes the improvement of horror film of Korea.
Rather than focusing on the overarching “horror” of Kong Su-chang’s 2004 film “R-Point,” I was drawn in by the deeper themes of masculinity and manhood. Almost the entire movie is made up of male characters and I believe that the movie has the ability to speak directly to male members of the audience that are watching the film. For the first half of the film, the soldiers are seen with prostitutes, getting examined for STDs, playing with a baseball, peeing outside on a rock and using phrases such as “I don’t get scared of anything,” and “My cock’s got more power than any of yours.” All of these qualities create the traditional image of manhood. It portrays these soldiers and masculine and tough; an image that most men want to have. Particularly, in South Korea, I feel as though masculinity is particularly important.
As the film progresses, however, you begin to see the fall of this macho façade, and the exposure of what these men truly are. They begin to let their emotions show through as they lose comrades and friends. One scene that struck me in particular was when one soldier was grasping onto another’s leg and crying. I found this moving and representative of the fact that men don’t always need to come across as tough and emotionless. Since the film was marketed as a “horror” film, the target audience was probably young South Korean men, who have either already served in the military, or soon will. I believe that this film probably carried an additional level of emotion for them, that I cannot understand. I think it is rare when you find a film that can speak into the heart of men, but I believe that “R-Point” has the ability to do so, if the viewer is not completely consumed by the fact that it is a “horror” movie and nothing more than that.
I've heard about this film, R-Point, but never actually had the chance to see it until today. My impression of the film? It had a good start; I could actually relate with the soldiers to myself. As I saw the film, I could constantly reminisce about my own military recollections. Towards the end, the film became pretty tedious and slow. It was also very predictable. I guess the film isn’t really a common army film because it is filled with horror and “ghosts”. I could see the director, Kong Su-chang, tried to make a unique horror film out of a military genre but it was too vague at least to me. I also felt like the film’s camera works weren’t superior or up to its top potential.
The camera works in R-Point were too simple and rudimentary. There were no exclusive scenes, and most of them were just repetitive and plain. In other films, we have seen in class, I could easily spot couple remarkable scenes, but in R-Point, all the scenes appear too common and ordinary. In one scene, where the soldiers land in Vietnam, I could remember the camera was at a low-angle shot, showing audiences only their boots and then it gradually pans or zooms out to the full shot. Another similar scene is when the camera is focused on the old transmitters and then it zooms out to take a long take. In addition to the commonly used low-angle and full shots the director also uses the point-of-view shots. This was most obviously used when the POV shot is recording what the ghost is seeing; it was in a greenish view, something similar to a night vision. However, one type of camera work that wasn’t used many times is the birds-eye view shot. The only scene I could remember is when one of the soldiers trip in the river and the camera is taken up like a crane and shows the soldiers’ corpses in a birds-eye view.
Honestly, I did enjoy the first half of R-Point, as it made me recollect my own military life; however, towards the end, it was extremely slow and predictable. I think a “ghost” or horror film is really incongruent to be put in a military type film, or at least it is really hard to fit those two concepts and make an interesting film out of it.
The movie R-Point by, Kong Su Chang, has a lot of factors that can identify this particular film as an Asian horror film. Of course, just as other Asian films like Ringu and Epitaph, a female ghost with long hair dressed in all white shows up and makes all the soldiers go insane. The idea used in this horror film is "bing-ui" which means a ghost goes into one's body and possesses his/her soul. This can be seen when soldiers are shouting their name and military ID number as proof of being not possessed by the ghost. The ghost's vision is pictured with hand held camera with night vision effect. By using night vision effect, the director implies that one who sees through night vision is somewhat different from normal being. From this, the audience can notice right away that the night vision look is the sight of the ghost.
A lot of long shots were used to identify the setting of the story. There were a few close ups but they were mainly for the scene where the female ghost's eyes are bleeding in front of Lieutenant. During this scene, very short takes of the ghost's close ups with vibrating effect were used to intensify the fear of the audience. The beginning scene of this film is the cause and a foreshadowing of what will happen later in the film. The radio gives horrifying transmission then, there is a scene where a soldier who has bandage all over his body in shock. This resembles the final sequence of this film. The soldier who survived has bandage over his eyes as the soldier in the beginning scene. After that, the last scene plays the same transmission with blood coming out of radio as if it tells the audience that the incident will happen again. Such happening may be caused by 'han'. I believe that the director melted in 'han' well into story of Viet-con.
R-Point deals with the two main themes involved with war scary movies. The first is the soldier's guilt and the fear of killing others, especially civilians. Despite their duty, soldiers are still humans, and they unavoidably feel uneasy and guilty to shoot and kill other humans. The example is depicted in one of the beginning scenes, when no one volunteers to shoot a local-looking girl after the girl's shooting attack in the woods. Some may deny their fear and rather try to disguise it by cussing at the victim or someone else, as the soldiers do throughout the film. Nevertheless, the fear gets unfolded when they face a scary situation and can even take over one's mind. In the film, the mysterious disappearance of soldiers and their strange deaths awake the soldiers' fear which, in collaboration with the ghost's spirit, makes them kill each other or themselves. The second major theme of the film is the "han (한)" of the dead people, the victims of the war, in the R point area: their grief, anger, and will to revenge. It seems that the area is not only surrounded by the souls of dead Vietnamnese but also the French soldiers that were massacred. The local-looking girl, who is shown in a traditional, typical display of a virgin ghost (처녀귀신) with its long, back hair as well as her white costume, is the main ghost character that appears throughout the film. The photograph that the captain found suggests that she was a part of the community that got killed during the war. Now with a deep, unbearable han, she is taking her revenge on those who kill others, like the engraving on the stone at the entrance of the R point warns. In fact, there are many shots, especially towards the end, that are colored green and screnned from the perspective of the ghost, watching over the soldiers in the building. However, as the film also introduces the voices of the French soldiers and the graveyard, the han can be more generalized to all those who suffer and lose their lives from the war.
The best and worst qualities of R-point came from the obtuse style of how the story unfolded. While we are quick to realize that R-point is a place full of haunts and tragedy, we never fully figure out the roots of the mysteries that surround the island. We encounter a female ghost on more than one occasion, and unless you were asleep you could infer that the female had something to do with all the murder on the island. However, we are never explicitly told why she wants to murder anyone who enters R-point, which I think is great in the sense that this open-ended interpretation is quite atypical of all the horror movies that I've watched and makes R-point unique, but also left me quite annoyed at the end because I really wanted to understand what in the world her problem was. The picture we are shown with her and the (was it?) French soldiers made me think that perhaps she was used/abused by these soldiers and therefore hates all foreign militant figures (which I thought could be interpreted as how Asian countries may have felt about the presence of Westerners in their wars), but I really would have liked a more concrete answer by the end of the movie. I do have to say that one of my favorite aspects of the movie was the cinematography. I, of course not being a cinema studies major, have only a shallow appreciation for the artistic efforts of the producers and director. However, even I could tell by comparing R-point to the other horror films I've seen that the way R-point was shot was highly 'skillful' by relying more on technique than gore to elicit my emotions. The scene with the disappearing graveyard wasn't at all full of guts and blood, but for me it was one of the most frightening scenes of the movie. In examples such as this one, Kong Su Chang managed to find a middle ground between what we discussed as body genres and art cinema, perhaps allowing horror to move away from being considered a more 'lowly' form of cinema.
The best and worst qualities of R-point came from the obtuse style of how the story unfolded. While we are quick to realize that R-point is a place full of haunts and tragedy, we never fully figure out the roots of the mysteries that surround the island. We encounter a female ghost on more than one occasion, and unless you were asleep you could infer that the female had something to do with all the murder on the island. However, we are never explicitly told why she wants to murder anyone who enters R-point, which I think is great in the sense that this open-ended interpretation is quite atypical of all the horror movies that I've watched and makes R-point unique, but also left me quite annoyed at the end because I really wanted to understand what in the world her problem was. The picture we are shown with her and the (was it?) French soldiers made me think that perhaps she was used/abused by these soldiers and therefore hates all foreign militant figures (which I thought could be interpreted as how Asian countries may have felt about the presence of Westerners in their wars), but I really would have liked a more concrete answer by the end of the movie. I do have to say that one of my favorite aspects of the movie was the cinematography. I, of course not being a cinema studies major, have only a shallow appreciation for the artistic efforts of the producers and director. However, even I could tell by comparing R-point to the other horror films I've seen that the way R-point was shot was highly 'skillful' by relying more on technique than gore to elicit my emotions. The scene with the disappearing graveyard wasn't at all full of guts and blood, but for me it was one of the most frightening scenes of the movie. In examples such as this one, Kong Su Chang managed to find a middle ground between what we discussed as body genres and art cinema, perhaps allowing horror to move away from being considered a more 'lowly' form of cinema.
The film, R point, utilizes tracking shots and foreshadowing to create an apprehensive, uncomfortable atmosphere that lingers right until the end.
One of the techniques utilized to produce such an effect is slow tracking shots. In a way, the shots emit a menacing mood because it serves as a warning for the audience; a horrific event will shortly take place. An example can be found in the scene where three soldiers are on patrol on their first night at R point. One of the soldiers expresses fear by saying that ‘he has bad feelings about his this place and that living and the dead alike cannot live here, except for the ghosts’. In this scene, a tracking shot (with the help of menacing music which grows louder as the shots get closer) is used to convey a feeling that something uncanny is moving toward the soldiers from the back. Step by step, the camera portrays an inexplicable feeling of something moving closer to the soldiers until the audience is convinced that a catastrophe may occur. While the soldiers are not killed immediately after the scene, the audience is able to easily comprehend the fact that there will be death later on in the film. This scene can be thought of as a warning for the upcoming execution of ‘a real danger’ which is also shown through the use of tracking shots. A clear example of this is the scene where corporal Cho is left behind while the others proceed to move on. A tracking shot is taken from behind when corporal Cho calls for sergeant Oh upon finishing urinating. The camera again portrays something as moving toward the corporal’s back hinting potential danger. The corporal, believing that the sergeant is behind him, follows what he think is his superior. He then ends up with a group of soldiers, whom he quickly realizes, is not part of his squad. Although it is unclear whether the director had such intentions, one can argue that the first tracking shot warns the audience of potential danger and the 2nd shot ‘carries out the danger.’
Perhaps an important feature of this film is its use of foreshadowing to create a sense of malice. For instance, in the scene where the US soldiers tell Lieutenant Choi stories of how myriad French soldiers were killed instantly not by the Vietnamese or some other human beings but by ‘something else’. This bit of information explains a previous scene where a soldier reports to his lieutenant that he heard transmission from French soldiers that they will pay a visit (in spite of the fact that he doesn’t speak French). Thus, there is a foreshadowing of the fact that there are ghosts and that perhaps there is a possibility that Korean soldiers will suffer the same fate as the French. A more conspicuous example can be found later in the film when the US soldiers who warned Lieutenant Choi of imminent death, were in fact ghosts. The ghost themselves warned the Koreans soldiers of their eventual, inescapable death.
The film of R-point is a horror move and directed by Kong-Su Chang. Korean soldiers base in Vietnam received a radio transmission from a missing platoon presumed dead. Choi Tae-in is leader who got mission to rescue the missing soldiers from the R-Point. When they arrive in the location, they killed Vietnamese woman after that they find the message on the stone. It says if you kill someone you cannot survive in this place. Choi finds an one building, where they set up their base. During they stayed in the location to find missing soldiers. They realized a shocking revelation, when they try to report corporal Jung killed by someone, that one men in their platoon was one of the missing men they were sent to find. After that they realized the place has something wrong and one of them start to die in a horrible way. They encounter mysterious horrible events. R-Point movie keeps make me guessing and thinking what is the truth. This movie is very conventional horror film. It greatly created psychologically with a heavy of atmosphere to get more scared The film director gives tensions of the sounds effects that produce a atmospheric thriller more. When the screen shot covered by green, it goes slowly to recognize audience the ghosts are around. This skill greatly gives suspense. Actors show great performance to act as a supernatural thriller movie. The film angel When the moment of devoid of ghostly entanglements, making the rest of the film all the more effective. Also the stories are very tricky that I hard to expect the ending story. It makes more confused to understand what’s going on but it enhances to create interests through the twisted story.
I don't like horror film, but R-point is really interesting horror film I've ever seen. There are some characteristics that make R-point distinctive from other horror movies. First, unlike other horror movies, R-point is composed of less brutal, blood scenes and creepy noises. And the ghost (the woman wearing Ao Dai, not the haunted soldiers) only appears 4 times during the movie. Second, some of the scenes are filmed by infrared(?) camera. And it seems like the movie is unfolding by the angle of the ghost.
There are lots of interpretations of the movie. To interpret the movie, I think the soldiers except for corporal Jang are already dead and haunted right after the gun battle at the bamboo grove. But except for Lieutenant Choi, soldiers can't aware that they are haunted and dead. There are lots of scenes supporting this idea. First is the attitude of the Lieutenant Choi. During the movie, he is way too calm and doesn't try to get out of the R-point area. He also has conversation with ghosts whom are the dead American soldiers, so naturally. And later in the movie, sergeant Jin yells at Choi, "You want to play the boss in the end." I think this indicates that finally sergeant Jin finds out that they are all already dead and mad at Choi who is already haunted and knew all this happened but pretends to not.
Second, in the end of the movie, soldiers' dead body are gone. This is because the soldiers are already dead at the bamboo grove and their bodies are at bamboo grove.
Third, the soldiers drink beer that they got from the dead American soldiers.
Fourth, There are some scenes that Corporal Jang smells something strange when he is with corporal Ma. Maybe it's because corporal Ma is a cook. But I think these scenes implies that corporal Ma is already dead and the smell is from the corpse of corporal Ma. That is, except for Jang, the soldiers are already dead.
And there are 2 reasons Jang is the only one survived. In the stone at temple, it says that "All those with the blood in their hands could not survive." This means that soldiers who killed people whether at war or not will eventually die. And Jang is the only one who never killed people. He came to war instead of his brother and this is his first time on the mission. Also, at the R-point, he never kills people. So, that is the one reason he is survived. In the beginning of the film, hospital scene indicates that most of the soldiers have syphilis. However, Jang is the one who does not have syphilis. Even Lieutenant Choi went to Vietnam brothel in the beginning of the movie. And if you see the picture of the French army, there's a ghost (a girl wearing Ao Dai). This probably implies that the girl is the sex slave of the French army and soldiers who have engaged in prostitution can not survive.
This film “R-Point” generally focuses on bringing out the atmosphere in the film, of this island, which is cursed. In addition, there is also an emphasis on the theme of sanity and insanity and also the incurring theme of reality and the ghostly world. From the beginning of the film, there is an extreme close-up shot of the radio transmitter which is emitting radio signals from this group of missing soldiers. Through this close-up shot of the radio transmitter, there seems to be a hint that this is the main symbol of the film and will be the object that is the main focus in this film. There are also other close-up shots of the radio transmitter in the film, such as when the soldiers are calling for help and also in the closing shot. In the closing shot especially, where there is some dark liquid which I assume to be blood flowing out of the radio transmitter. This seemingly signifies that there is an inner being in this radio transmitter and it is still not the end yet. There hasn’t been a closure to the mystery of R-Point.
Another significant cinematographic technique is the use of the switch between the audience’s point of view and that of the ghost, which is not made known to the audience, watching the soldiers. Furthermore, in the scene when the soldiers reach the start of the R-Point trail, there is a very obvious cut of the shot to a different scene. It somehow signifies of a possible sudden disappearance of the platoon of soldiers later, like a kind of overshadowing. There are also some sideways tracking in the film, which also brings out the mysteriousness in the film. There was another significant long shot where the soldiers return to their base at sunset. The surroundings of the shot was very beautiful but it also emphasized on the building being stand alone, which is somewhat eerie and also brings out the feeling of a menacing and lonely end. This somehow reflects the state of the soldiers, who died in menacing ways except for one, who survives but seems to have lost his mental state. This also highlights the fate of soldiers who enter R-Point. There will be no end to it and there is only one sole survivor at the end, whom people will not likely believe as the bodies of those who died will never be found. It’s a never-ending cycle.
R-Point follows the conventions of a typical scary movie to the point where it becomes highly predictable. Although this film may be technically classified as a horror film, I believe that it fails to create many of the “bodily reactions” described by Linda Williams. Through the use of distinct screen filters and quick camera movements, Director Kong Su-Chang attempts to create a sense of suspense and thrill of the unknown. Green-tinted shots reminiscent of night-vision increase the tension between the ghosts’ presence and the essentially helpless soldiers, which is effective in planting the seed of suspense and fear of the unknown. However, I think it’s kind of campy. Kong used this technique as a source for dramatic irony, but instead of feeling this, I simply felt that it was too similar to popular video games nowadays, which significantly reduced the intended effect.
In addition to green-tinted shots, Kong also utilized quick camera movements and the element of surprise, which again follows the conventional horror film. Although this technique is usually effective in eliciting “bodily reactions”, when used excessively, the effect wears down. Rather than startling and instilling fear in the audience, the repeated discovery of dead bodies just becomes a predictable formula that becomes a bit tedious to watch. I think that is the reason why I find that Kong failed in creating a horror film; it’s too formulaic. Throughout the film, Kong repeatedly relies on generic music, green-tinted shots, and the quick appearance of dead bodies and ghosts to elicit fear within the audience. But when used to this extent, not only does the movie become extremely predictable, but it also fails to scare the audience. Ironically, Kong’s primary techniques used to create fear achieve the opposite effect.
R-Point is a film whose background is one that is set in a very hard time in Korean history. The use of the Vietnam War, the portrait of military dictator President Park Chung-hee, and the terrors mentioned in the war contribute to the film's place in Korean national cinema. The changing of the radio transmitter messages from the beginning to the end of the movie as well as the revelation that all those who enter R-Point with blood on their hands would die are very creepy devices used in the film. The perspective of the ghost's view through the eerie green filter is also a useful way to frighten the audience, and the camera's multiple close-ups of the bells throughout the movie is another way that can give the audience chills. Other useful examples of cinematography include the discovery of the French graveyard and its disappearance, the finding decaying corpse of the radio operator, and the blood spilling from the hanging corpse were some of the most chilling scenes that can scare. The final scene with Lt. Choi facing the ghost and her attempted possession of him was terrifying, and the camera work made the scene that much more scary. Even though the amount of blood and gore is low in the film compared to conventional Hollywood horror films, the use of camera shots and techniques helped allow the film to maximize its fright factor.
Daniel Rhee R-Point In the movie R-Point, a platoon of nine soldiers go to an area known as Romeo-Point, R-Point, in search of a battalion that went missing six months ago. The director does not tell us anything about the previous soldiers, but through the plot, we realize that they were being spooked by this woman, who we also know nothing about, from a French unit that was stationed at R-Point in the past. The development of this movie was particularly interesting because every new piece of information that was given to the audience had to be explained later in the story which ultimately connected all the dots. For example, the American soldiers that came to R-Point to fix a radio on the second floor were actually ghosts, in which we later see that the soldiers had been rotting in a helicopter in the forest. Overall, the concept that the director had with the film was quite interesting. The director always used long takes when he tried to build suspense up for a thrill sequence and quickly followed with shots that flashed back and forth between the soldier that was being spooked and the rest of the soldiers who were confused with the situation. At first, I was confused as to what was going when only a few of the soldiers were getting spooked, but then at the end of the film, the director makes it clear to the audience that it is fear that ultimately overtakes each soldier's life. Once a soldier was aware of the ghost, they would only be naturally curious and eventually make eye contact, which would lead to possession. One technique that I had mixed reviews about was the sort of infrared camera viewpoint that the director used to show the perspective of the ghost. Even though we see the ghost go into the soldiers and possess them, ultimately turning each soldier against each other, the viewpoint of the girl was not satisfying. Rather than constantly showing the ghost's point of view, I think the film would have been more thrilling if the director used the last scene where the lieutenant is face to face with the ghost more often at different angles. Horror films must have a thrilling concept but when there is something tangible to be afraid of, it makes the horror film all the more exciting. And because we do not see the ghost as often as some films, the buildup would be anticlimactic.
R-Point did use many of the common devices deployed during horror films, having included the female ghost, rotting flesh, non-diagetic sounds meant to put us on edge, and the unexplainable supernatural. In particular, one of my favorite moments is when Lt. Choi Tae-In follows the female ghost into the pouring rain, and we are completely blind-sided when the lightening reveals the French soldier’s graves. The wide shot gives us a full breath of how many soldiers died, and is tilted such that it seems as if the Buddhist statue (with a mangled face, which just adds to the eeriness) is watching the Lieutenant. It brings to the forefront one of the underlying devices the director uses to freak out the audience, namely he uses the implication that religious or supernatural forces are at work to impart a sense of hopelessness against the horror. Certainly the Buddhist emphasis remains strong, as ruins of temples are another main location of the plot’s action. It makes the visual of the Christian graveyard all the more jarring. It’s also an example of how this movie, rather than tread the “horror film path” of depicting many gory scenes, is strongest in its ability to put us on edge and instill fear by playing with our minds. Personally, I usually associate horror films with gore, so the relative lack-thereof actually makes R-Point something of an outlier.
There are a few points that irked me though; the first one being the scene with the Americans. Compared to other movies (and especially dramas), R-Point did an excellent job of actually hiring English-speakers. Nonetheless, the dialogue sounded stiff and unnatural. The Sgt. is supposed to be relaying a gruesome and frightening tale to the Lieutenant, warning him of his 4-day expiration date, but instead the moment was broken through humor because 1) I found the English jarring, and 2) the Sgt. absolutely dwarfs the Lieutenant when standing side-by-side. Even the camera plays along, and tilts slightly upward during the Sgt’s close-up, and slightly downward (with the Sgt’s shoulder taking up half the screen) during the Lieutenant’s medium shot. Also, was the military so open during the Vietnam war, that an African American would have been in charge of an all-white section as depicted in the movie? Korean stereotypes at work? Another aspect that began to frustrate me was the soldier’s obvious incompetence. Clearly this was a dangerous mission, so why send these unqualified soldiers? Would the movie have been less scary if the soldiers were all skilled and trained? And in the end, we still don’t know who the lady-ghost is. I want to know! Why is she killing everyone? She is directly identified as the cause, as we hear her bells ringing even if the actor seems to be a soldier, and yet we know virtually nothing of her besides that she's in the photograph. Throughout the movie the director was withholding information, but in the end we are left with more questions.
I strongly liked the tie between wartime setting and a horror movie. Blood, creepy landscape, music and the feeling of death. Everything linked greatly. Also, I found it interesting that this movie was able to convey to the audience two feelings. One is horror. There are many foreshadows of future horror, through the use of stones, ghosts, rains, and muds which really freaks out the audiences. Another emotion is the sadness. The soldiers are closely bonded and is almost brother-like, and some mention about their desire to spend time with their family once they complete this mission. But they end up spending the last moment of their life in this horror island. So this film was definitely more than just a horror movie, in the sense that it had very lamenting aspects consisted in many parts of the film.
Film technique wise, they use various shots like long shots and intense close ups. The long shots are used particularly to portray the scenery, which consists of the soldiers, and the landscape. By using a contrary close up, the director really succeeds in giving the audience a sense of fear. When the camera suddenly shifts to a close up, we suddenly spot horror aspect (ghosts and the horrified faces of the soldiers). The music fits greatly with the movie too. The director used a very suspenseful music whenever the soldiers were in a dark setting, and it is clear that something bad was going to happen. As a individual who is not in strong fond of horror movies, I fairly enjoyed this movie in the sense that the ending was unpredictable and ironic. From the first, we knew this movie was in a wartime setting but I am sure no one expected that it was the ghosts that basically murdered all the soldiers. I also believe the director has done a great job implementing the horror aspect of the movie effectively into this movie.
Despite the overall frightening ghost scenes and murders, I found myself focusing on the positive aura derived from the soldiers’’ relationships with one another. This “military bromance” was something I particularly focused on because it is not something I can ever personally experience as a girl. While the typical “girl world” is well-known to be and full of drama and complications, R-Point allowed me to once again recognize how simple and fascinating the male bonding can be.
My very first encounter of the military bromance was evident through the scene in which the main group of Korean soldiers spend their first night on the island. Even though these individuals are potentially under much pressure from their army duties, I was amazed at the level of conversation that was existent. Through lighthearted conversations such as sex experiences and past jobs, the corporals certainly open up to one another very casually. This may not have been as commonly regarded had there been a group of females unfamiliar with each other. While there are many extroverted women, in most cases she would not reveal her identity so quickly, let alone engage in sex talks. Furthermore, as negatively implied as it may be, I was attracted by the usage of cigarettes and beer to enhance the soldiers’ collectiveness with one another. Although structural division based on army rank undoubtedly influences how corporals and privates respect Lieutenant Jin and Sergeant Choi, smoking and drinking was a continuous motif that enhances brotherly friendship. Indeed the scene in which everyone is dancing to a Ventures’ song through the American radio emphasizes how easily men have fun with each other. The fast-paced progress of how closely knit the soldiers become eventually protected me from being too overwhelmed with horrific scenes from the movie. Rather than being completely soaked into the petrifying battle against ghosts, I definitely felt an admiration towards the light yet rapid cohesion in male friendship.
Like Epitaph, Kong Su Chang’s R-Point contains the same common techniques of a typical “Asian Horror” movie. R-Point uses a female ghost with long, face obscuring hair and ambiguity. In the beginning of the movie, the group of soldiers encounter a wounded woman. At first, they decide to forcefully assist her death, but then decide to spare her. Furthermore, the scene is shot from an upward tilt. The camera is tilted up toward the soldiers from the perspective of the woman. This technique hence conveys the masculine hierarchy within the scene. The conveyed masculine hierarchy allows for a justification for the haunting of the men throughout the movie from the oppressed female “ghost.” According to Robin Wood, female ghosts haunt in Korean movies to show that they have been wronged. Hence, the movie can allude to the fact that is a social critique of the wrongs of the Vietnam War and the female victims.
In addition to the use of the female ghost as a horror technique within the film, Chang uses ambiguity to give the audience a heightened emotional response. The characters are dressed in camouflage clothing that allows them to blend into their surroundings. Just as they are wandering around the woods as essentially apart of it, the audience wanders where they are headed and what their fate may be. Furthermore, the uses of a muted color tone within the entire movie helps to establish a peculiar and ambiguous atmosphere and setting.
“R-Point” by Kong Su Chang is a horror movie based on the subject of Korean military. Searching for the missing soldiers around the R-Point, 9 soldiers are thrown into the R-Point but somehow they are played by the ghost of a Vietnamese girl. After all the illusions and murders, only one soldier survives with his eyes injured. I honestly couldn’t see the film for 90% since I was very freaked out with the psychological horrors in this film, so I tried to focus on what I discovered from some of the scenes that I accidently watched as well as the hearing that I tried to focus on. By just hearing the sound, it was possible to discover what was happening in the film since the sound, especially in horror, take a very important role of creating the intensity as well as the suspense. First of all, most predominant sound in this film is obviously the gun shooting sound. At one scene, the gun doesnot just shot once but rather the continuously without stopping. This continuity represents the unstopping fear and the suspicion of the soldiers. With one or two shoots, people die; but the soldiers are scared of a 1% of chance that the enemy does not die. Also, they somehow kind of show their strength as a person with a gun towards the unknown/known enemy so that they can possibly calm down themselves of the endless and enormous fear. Secondly, the second predominant sound is the bell. I am not sure what the bell represented visually, however, the sound of the bell, definitely, created the mysterious and urgent mood to the film. Very unique and cold sound alarms the audience that something very unusual and inhumane things will happen. The goose bumps, personally, covered my arms every single time the bell ringed in the movie. In Korea, it is ignore to imagine the diviner (점쟁이) with the tickle of the bell; always, the diviner invites the ghost into his/her body with the bell dancing that the bell sound somehow symbolizes the incoming ghost. Moreover, the beep(?) sound continuously comes out in the movie when some scenes are related to the ghost. The beep sound resembles the sound of sound that the graph shower in the hospital makes when a person’s heart stops beating. This sound also symbolizes the ghost as well. I personally think this movie is well-made since the subject of this film seemed to be fairly unique. As well this movie composes both those psychological and visual horrors that comparing with those 3rd level of horror movies, this has more thought/ philosophy within its film.
R point attempts to create a horror meets desperate soldiers scenario that becomes predictable from the start of the film. First we have our ghost whose face is white with long dark hair haunting the lieutenant of the platoon. We have our predictable array of characters, the strict sergeant, the brilliant commander and a platoon full of misfits. The characters are placed on an island that is distant from civilization and far away from any type of help. This creates a classic horror setting for the movie to take place. Because of the nature of the film we could also predict that the platoon would all die except one character while the others turn on each other sucuumbing to desperation and insanity.
The camera work added to the haunting feeling of the setting. Often, the characters were seen from behind shrouded in a creepy blue veil as if trying to present the view of the people in the other world. This gave the characters the feeling of being watched hastening their desperation and fall to insanity.
R-Point, a Korean horror film directed by Kong Su-chang, is a movie set in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. The concept of this film is endless vengeance. Because Vietnamese people were killed ruthlessly by foreigners, they became ghosts and killed whoever came to the island.
The beginning starts off with the Lieutenant shooting at the Vietnamese girl. This later portrays what was written on the rock, which states that if you have ever killed someone, you cannot go back. This, in fact, refers to all the soldiers except one who went to the island. Also, the statement ‘I am where you are’ tells that the ghosts are nearby or the soldiers are the ghosts, which in the later scenes becomes true. I’m guessing that soldier Jang has not killed anyone, and therefore did not die when all the other soldiers died. Also, I think another reason why soldier Jang didn’t die is because he wasn’t associated with having sex with Vietnamese women. In the picture where the soldier Jang found in the box, the ghost woman is in the picture with the French soldiers. I think this suggests that the woman was sexually abused by the French soldiers, and that is why she tries to kill the Korean soldiers who had sex with Vietnamese women. In the beginning scene the lieutenant, for example, was with a prostitute trying to have sex. And, four of the soldiers were getting checked by the doctor for syphilis; however, soldier Jang was portrayed pure by saying that he traded his health card with some other guy just to get money.
This film successfully heightens the tension with its camera work and background sound. Unlike other Korean horror films that have obvious plots to scare the audience, this film incessantly keeps its thrill and tension. By using bleach bypass, the audience can feel different point of views. Normally, we are watching the film in audience’s point of view; however, with this technique, I feel like I’m watching the soldiers in ghost’s point of view. Moreover, the camera moving technique is very similar to that of the Japanese horror film, Ring.
The film "R-Point" has similar characteristics of "K-horror" because it uses the typical woman ghost with long black hair and white garments. The long shots used throughout the film clearly depict the vast emptiness of the land and how devoid it is of human activity. Nature is used as a representation of how the soldiers are physically trapped on the land through the usage of the bamboo jungle, dense and tall grass, and the caves that enclose them in like a makeshift jail. Foreshadowing was also commonly used throughout the film: the gravestone and especially when the American soldiers warned them of how no one leaves the land. This was one of the best methods used because it instilled a sense of hope inside the audience, and it had us rooting for them to escape. The final scene reveals a close up shot of Sergeant Jung's face mumbling to himself because of the trauma he had experienced, and the camera tracks out to show an empty room where the corpses of the dead soldiers once laid. This camera technique beautifully reveals the horrific cycle of revenge that will continue to occur because we realize it was foreshadowed in the beginning scene when the first wounded soldier claimed that all his men dead. The film used night vision and a hand-held camera view when depicting the viewpoint of the ghost. In this case, the film failed to present these scenes in a terrifying way as I found myself bored most of the time when the camera switched to night vision. Night vision is typically used by soldiers and I personally thought the night vision took away from the horrifying mood. One of the characteristics of this film that did instill fear in the audience were the extreme close ups of the ghost's bloody eye and the face paced chase sequences matched with the eerie, screeched music.
R-Point is a combination of war and ghost movie, which I think a typical summer movie in Korea. The female ghost with long black hair dressed in a white traditional dress and the 'Han' of dead soldiers follow the cliche patterns of Korean horror movie. However, not a fan of neither of the genres, I was a victim of "bodily genre" throughout the movie. As the characters encounters the spirits of dead soldiers, I would get goose bumps, tensed muscles and occasional yells. Although the ghosts are not shockingly deformed or monstrous, the atmosphere they created as the omnipresent third party was enough to get me chills. Additionally, the setting of the movie maximises the tension. The camera often takes long shots to show the character is completely alone in an abandoned land and puts the angles of the ghosts' perspective. The landscape of the film is covered with weeds and green mosses, which represent the power of nature and how the nature is unnaturally deformed in R-point region. The long shots of the setting amplify the unpleasant feeling throughout the movie. The high angle shots and bird's-eye shots made me close my eyes because it signals the characters are unprotected and exposed to the ghosts.
I rationalised that the movie reveals the ugliness of the war as the ghosts represent the soldiers' guilt they accumulated while in service. In order to survive, they have been dehumanised themselves and oppressed by the higher power. Killing to succeed their mission and to not get killed destructed their minds and came to believe some form of supernaturals haunting them down. Each deaths of soldiers reveals their own kind of guilt developed during their service; however, I did not like the sudden killing of remaining soldiers at the end. I thought the end should be more powerful to give the audience some lingering chill or to convey the idea of ugliness of the war.
"R Poing" is a horror movie that does not accommodate much graphic aid in order to build tension and fear. There are elements in this movie common in other horror movies, while some uncommon. "R Point" makes frequent uses of tracking shot, tilt, and pan just like many other horror films. The tracking shots were used to build tension, implying approaching dangers. Using the same logic in the opposite way, the camera moves away from the last survivor, implying that dangers now fade away, thus soothing tensions. Tilt and pan are used in a similar way with the tracking shot. These are combined in several cases in the movie. The camera starts at a high angle shot then moves forward and down to an eye-level or a normal shot. This kind of camera movement frequently appears in the movie, illustrating the backgrounds then protagonists later. The background setting plays a big role in building tension. The dark and foggy setting that dominates the entire movie constructs an exciting and scary atmosphere. Along with the use of backgrounds to construct a scary atmosphere, the movie uses sound effects and film color. The amplifying sound conveys growing tension and dangers. The film often uses green-filtered screen to illustrate the view from ghosts. This visual presentation draws a clear line between different perspectives that of humans and that of ghosts. The movie not only constructs a scary atmosphere through the green-filtered screen, but also uses it to build fast pace. By alternating two different film colors from different angles, the movie gradually shortens its takes' length, building dynamics in the scene. All these elements are accommodated at the highlight of the movie when the green-filtered camera moves among protagonists along with a squeaky sound. All these elements mentioned above are fairly observed in many other horror movies. The unique aspect of this film is that it does not illustrate ghosts with extreme graphic presentation or exaggeration if you will. The visual exaggeration in horror films has developed or intensified with the development of graphic technology. "R Point", however, minimizes visual effects on ghosts. This in fact creates a weird situation later in which the audience cannot discern ghosts from humans. The movie tries to construct a horrifying atmosphere not mainly from the visual presentation, but from an idea that anything could be a threat. In this way, "R-Point" takes a unconventional approach towards the genre of horror movie, yet from my personal view, has failed to construct enough horrifying mood. "Epitaph" was a movie that did better job in doing this.
The film R-Point by Kong Su-Chang utilizes long tracking shots of the men or one soldier to foreshadow impending death or evoke fear of the bizarre unknown that haunts R-point. For example, in the scene where corporal Joh(?) gets lost in the field, we are shown a long shot of the corporal all alone portraying an eerie atmosphere. Although the corporal is indeed alone, the scene gives a chilling sensation that something is lurking about in the mise en scene, even if we do not see it. The lack of normality in a seemingly normal setting of an empty field coupled with suspenseful background noise removes the viewer and the story from normalcy, into the unknown where a sequence of events follows that leads to chaos and death.
The film also uses green/blue filtered shots to give the point of view of the "other" or the ghost that consumes all of the soldiers in the end. These medium or long tracking shots are filtered in a different color to give the sense that we are witnessing a point of view that is not human. To add to the horror-movie cinematography, these shots also emphasize the surrounding shadows centering the men or moving in between them or behind them to portray a sort of 1-dimensional sensation of a predator about to attack its prey.
Although the film tends to be "obtuse" or extremely vague as to what it is that is killing the soldiers off one by one, R-point utilizes these point of view shots and long shots to build the characters but more importantly the ghost itself or speculation as to what or who the killer is. However I thought the scenes of the vietnamese girl were unnecessary and rather ruined the story of what the "ghost" is. I was hoping R-point would shy away from the typical long haired girl ghost or disturbed soul and focus more on the souls of the dead soldiers.
The movie R-point was somewhat different than any other Korean horror mocies that are released. Almost all the horror movies scares out of audiences by an sudden appear of objects or anything by startling the audiences. However, the R-point gradually creating the mood of horror and scaries the audiences. It absolutely brings the audiences' curiosity out about what will happen and who will die for the next. This storyline does creates more and more tensions as the film gets to the ending scene.
Since the story is based on the invisible ghost killing soldiers in the region of R-point, there are camera shooting the scene as the perspectives of the 3rd person. I assum this perspective is from ghosts'. Throughout the film, there are lots of camera techniques, however, I personally think this technique stands out the most. When camera shoot the scene with the perstive of ghost, it shows the scenes in green color by differenciating the view of normal ones. Also, the camera mostly zooms into the characters pretty closely when the ghost tried to look at them and go inside of thier body. The characters also stares at the camera straightly with horrified faces. Also, when it shoot the defecation scene of the three soldiers in the field, the camera gradually moved towards them and it suddenly stops zooming in when characters look back feeling something is coming up.The camera moves very rapidly, plus, with the weird sound when it moves fast like the director might wanted the audiences to feel the movement of the ghost more effectively. This camera movement and techniques overally took huge parts of the film.
From what I heard, there are a lot of analysis of the movie R-point. The one that survived untill the last is surgent Jang. How was he able to survive? The first reason is that accidently losing of his eyesight and doesn't get to see that invisible ghosts which was the reason why everyone killed theirselves. The second reason is that sergent Jang was the only one who did not get blood on his hand. To go back to the scene where the soldiers finally arrived the region of R-point, they see a monument saying "If you get blood on your hand, you cannot go back." This could explain why he survived, because only he did not shoot the vietnamese girl at first. However, the last scene that sergent Jang was all alone in the building which was taken with the long shot, remains as irony. Where all the dead bodies of other soldiers go and why does everything look so clean like he was the only one who was suffered? It also suggests the analysis that sergent Jang only survived from the fight before and what led the story and him was the ghosts of the other soldiers. This movie creates tons of anlaysis. I really think this is intersting. Additionally, the ending scene has a huge impact. Before the soldiers come to the R-point, the sound from radio receiver was "하늘소 하늘소 여기는 당나귀 삼공 당나귀 삼공 We're alive....." however, the donkey changes to a mole at the ending scene. A mole was the password that the last soldiers used. Thus, it indirectly shows the nightmate will go on and on.
Personally, I hate to watch horror films, so I've been worried about not only watching this film, but also writing response about it. I expected it'll be a torture to me. However, it turned out to be one of the outstanding films I've watched. "R-point" isn't just showing tons of ghost, like other conventional Korean horror movies, but it kept the audiences in tension by the storyline and music. One more reason why this film is considered as outstanding one is because it can be interpreted in various ways. There were two interesting points in this film. First, it gives hints before something happens. At the first scene, the only survived soldier meant there will be only one survivorat the end. Also, when the 9 soldiers arrived atthe Romeo point and found the rock with Chinese character saying, "The one who got blood on his hand cannot return." Second, in R-Point, it keep shows the ghosts' view. I enjoyed not only watching this film, but also guessing the meaning of some points that weren't clear and search how others interpreted this film.
"R-Point" is one of the most horrific films I have ever seen. Unlike classical horror films that scares the audience with sudden and gory monster scenes, "R-Point" creates gradual suspense as if the ghost is slowly tightening his or her neck. Throughout the film, many questions are left unanswered. Who hung the soldier? Who are the French soldiers on the radio? Why did the "ghost" spare young soldier's life? What is the identity of the killer? The director is trying to illustrate man vs. fear. Before soldiers are killed, the soldiers were calm and full of hope to see their family after the mission. However, when they listen to recorded voice of dying fellow soldiers on the radio, white ghost frequently appears. Especially in the last scene when the soldiers murders each other, the close up shots in night vision gradual approaches to the target. Many ominous cues leads to the fear of unknown, such as, the chinese writing on the grave stone, fog, and a pool of blood in the radio transmission. I think the soldiers were fighting against the fear of unknown, not the "ghost" The woman with white dress is just a delusion as a result of feeling guilty after killing the woman in the bamboo forest. Because we tend to see what we fear the most, only a few soldier out of nine could see the the woman with white dress at the same time. When the leader of squad order the youngest to soldier to shoot the woman, we can see that his fear ultimately killed him, not the ghost.
R-Point I usually do not like war movies, because war films often have similar plots or ideas and it is easy to imagine the endings of them. However, R-Point bucks the trend. I was shocked by the twists and turns in this movie. The ending was not what I expected. I was expecting a "blood and guts" war movie, but instead, I got treated to a psychological thriller. R-point is such a strong film that makes the audiences’ hearts racing with panic, without any unneeded special effect or lame murderer scenes. This film doesn't skimp away on the character development, and I think this makes the film more effective. Each person has a name, a way they react to one another and are plausible characters. It adds to the viewer's compassion that everyone except the lieutenant are poor uneducated saps trying to get home to their families and villages. Then they die. Moreover, the feeling of hopelessness is both a strong and weak part of the movie. On one hand, if you are in the middle of things you can hardly just give up, but on the other hand, if you see there is nothing you can do, why bother? And if the characters are obviously ill equipped to deal with the situation, the details are irrelevant for some viewers. As usual in the latest Asian horror, the ghosts are hardly interested in the logic of things. There is no right or wrong, they just need to separate people from their lives and they do it in the creepiest way. I believe R-Point is pretty scary and would have a maximum effect while watched at night with no lights on.
Dear Professor! I'm in 3.4 group but I couldn't watch "epitaph" properly because it was too scary. I did watch it but, not in depth. So, I am posting on R-point instead, which I think was better to watch as a horror movie. R-point was a very interesting movie. The story plot reminded me of "Battle Royale",the Japanese movie, and the novel "Lord Of the Flies" in a way that everyone was trapped in a certain place and everyone got killed one by one because of the rule or spell that was executed. R-point is a damned place where everyone gets possessed by the ghost's play. Each of the army member get killed as they transform to the ghost's soul. At the end, Choi sees a woman ghost and orders the blind soldier to shoot, however, it was an illusion of Choi and he gets shot tragically. I think that was a brilliant end, which again was the tricks of the ghosts. The movie did not explain much of why and how this thing was working, but it tried to explain by depicting the process. It tried to show that they were being played or watched by ghosts by displaying in a different camera. The camera screen becomes green just like seeing through another equipment. That third point of view makes us believe that there is a third person that might not be a human form. The first death was extremely shocking. One soldier sits down on the staircase and gets a bucket of blood fall all over his face. When he looks up we see the dead man hanging. It really shocks the audience in an extreme way, and this first death was impactful. The art directing really matched the tone of the movie. The color was greenish and toned down, which explains the whole mood of gruesomeness and horror. The pace of the movie is very well made as it really does not let us to watch in relief for a second. Everyone had to have their nerves on and anticipate the next death. The movie ends in tragedy, but it was an amazing end,which really ended the movie in how the power and tricks of the ghost is absolute.
June Wie R Point was a horror film that showed a group of men in a haunted area in Vietnam. There was a lot of foreshadowing throughout the movie. When they meet the girl and are deciding who should kill her it foreshadowed that she would come back to kill them. Another example was that the group had gone to find a group that was missing and at the end the same thing happens to them besides Jung, the only survivor. There was alot if elements that are typical within an Asian horror film. The girl ghost with the long black hair and the white dress was a typical character in Asian/Korean films. Also the theme of religion was relevant in this movie because of the ghost. There was a temple in this movie which I found was symbolic. The movie had a lot of long shots that showed where the soldiers were. The house that they stayed in was shown in long shot multiple times throughout the movie. Also the scenery within Vietnam was shown multiple times through a long shot. There were also lots of medium shots in which the characters faces and expressions were shown. I thought a scene that was very eerie was when they realize that the American soldiers they talked to were actually ghosts and the actual soldiers had died. I am not very good at watching horror movies so the gore and freight that the movie portrayed was difficult for me to watch. However, i did find the movie to be interesting and somewhat intriguing. The ending with Jung talking throughout the night was very sad and I thought it was interesting how it ended with a long shot of the house.
I haven't seen a lot of Korean horror movies before, so I'm not really informed what 'classic' Korean movie is. However, R-point seems like it makes a good variation from being too cliche. Although R-point has elements of horror, the main subject is war. The supernatural elements and sudden dramatic zoom in and close ups of expressions are typical to horror movies. However, the movie barely shows any real "ghostly" ghosts compared to the previous movie Gidam. There aren't many gores except for blood and so-called ghosts looks more like normal humans or just moving corpses. Also, the suspense comes from the unknown "something" that is always following the soldiers. By hiding direct exposure of the ghost until the end and leaving out enough explanations, the horror comes from the fact that even the viewers, just like the soldiers, don't have a clear explanation for the malicious supernatural force. In order to build suspense, R-Point uses a lot of camera angles from above, below, or behind the subject, making the viewers to hide and peek at the soldiers. Often, the view is disturbed by some obstacles placed in front of it such as turning fan, telephone cord, soldiers, bushes, and grass. The movie especially uses a lot of long shots to show the soldiers, as we are watching them from afar among the grass. Later, the movie uses even more direct approach to depict the unknown malicious force that is creeping on them by using green-toned handheld camera scenes. However, we're not sure whose exactly are those green viewpoints are. Is it the dead soldier? One of the Donkey Three soldiers? The Vietnamese girl? We never know for sure.
In the beginning, an unknown soldier appears and goes to R-point along with the soldiers. Not so many audiences will recognize that the one of the ten people is a ghost. In my opinion, this ghost might come out to meet these soldiers to welcome them coming to R-point. This ghost is alike the death angel bringing the soldiers to the death. When a female Vietnamese were shooting to soldiers, it was so weird that none of them got a single shot. At the end, audience can actually as guess that the soldiers might be killed at this moment already. Later, when soldiers are killing each other, director indirectly shows that the soldiers were ghost already. Mr. Choi wishes to go and check up the forest not to look for dead body of the Vietnamese lady, but to find dead body of himself. It implies that they were killed in the forest already. Also, when Mr. Park is killed, director shows Park’s legs and audience can see that lights go through the park’s legs, which means park does not have legs, and park is a ghost already.
The tombstone in the island says that people cannot go back if they killed someone. The individuals seem to be kind, but as soldiers, they had killed numerous people including Vietnamese prostitute. Their guilty and fear must remain in their mind. In r point, their guilt and fear visually appeared as ghosts, and made themself crazy. During the movie, ghost does not physically attack people, but people kill themselves, alike they killed people during the war. In the island, everyone but Mr. jung, the youngest could survive. There are two reasons of his survive. The boy is the one who was the most pure through the soldiers. He was young, so he might not kill anyone unlike other soldiers. Also he was blind which did not visually confuse him. Normally people believe what they see, but director is telling us that what we see is not always true. We could see 10th soldiers and Vietnamese lady but they all did not exist. Mr. Jung who became physically blind, could not be blinded by ghosts. Because he was blind, he could survive.
Korean history of Vietnam War and horror are greatly combined tin this film, R-point. Many of famous horror films in Korea have Japanese atmosphere. However this one is very Korean at the same time, it is very calm compared to other horror films.
The movie, R-point, is story about that soldiers reach to romeo point in order to look for their vanished soldiers during vietnam war and 8 of 9 soldiers die misteriously. Also, the ghost does not come out many times and the sound is not like dreariness in this movie. R-point attracts audiences to offer scary places.
R-point is very comparative with other horror movies. This movie shows different horror in the war which is made by human. Vietnam war is especially the example that explains a lot of citizens in vietnam were murdered with no reason during the war. In this movie, 8 soldiers are covered with the ghost by turns and they kill each other. The ghost does not join to murder directly. Personaly, i am very scared to see that the ghost stands in front of me or runs into me.
Therefore, R-point offers the place to show terrible horror. Firstly, one of the horros in this movie is the background of terrible war. Secondly, the ghost goes inside of human and control to murder.
R-Point is a well made Korean horror film written and directed by Su-chang Gong. This movie used interesting camera techniques which attracted people to focus more on the scene and aroused many questions from the audience.
The green filtered effect played very important role in this movie. It hints that some mystery thing is watching at soldiers which was interpreted as the view of the ghost. This view appeared either when soldiers were having conflicts or frightened by horrific mood. This effect insinuated that they were in danger and that they felt mental insecurity. Transition between green-filtered and unfiltered scene also let audience to understand both human and ghost perspectives. Some close shots were also used in this movie. For instance, close shot was used to highlight the important object such as the woman's bracelet, the radio transmitter, and the bleeding eye of female ghost.
There were few things that I did not understand. I was bewildered by the survival of Sergeant Jang since everyone died except him, so I came up with possible personal explanation. When soldiers enter the island, they see "People who have touched people's blood cannot go back" This would have applied to every soldiers;however, Sergeant Jang lost his military serial number chain which meant life to soldiers and this might have caused him to escape from the spirit of the ghost and death. Moreover, if this was meant to people who have killed or touched people's blood in R-point, Sergeant Jang was never take part in killing people. He was the only one who was not applied to this saying. Last of all, grenade explosion made Sergeant Jang completely blind and it would have hurt his hearing sense as well. Therefore, he was able to escape from auditory hallucinations, visual hallucinations, and delusion of possession. As Sergeant Jang was excluded from these fear factors, he would have been able to keep himself alive.
I felt a bit disappointed due to the unclear closure to the mystery of R-Point. I could not understand why all the corpses are disappeared except Sergeant Jang; I was unsure if I should interpret this scene as everyone was ghost except Sergeant Jang or the spirit of the ghosts took their corpses. There are many unanswered questions throughout the film, and I felt like this happened because the director wanted to show too many things in the limited time. However, I still enjoyed watching this film and wish to find out the meaning of some mysterious scenes through class discussion tomorrow.
The movie, "R-Point" set in Vietnam War, vividly describes how one party of Korean army invades one Vietnamese town killing Vietnamese and recognizes that their party are already all dead as time passes. As a horror movie set in war,this movie shows scenes in a way maximizing human fear about untouchable objects seen as Vietnamese ghosts. All people in Korean army party are given the changes in his point of view. Their views turn green and each Korean army gradually realizes that they are not alive anymore but their spirits stayed in the old place for some reasons. The change of color in background in scenes implies that each character gets varied and distrusting point of view. So, it is proved that the change in background color of scenes can indirectly shows each character's emotion and feeling without narrations. Other than the background color change of scene, instant and urgent movement in viewpoint between scenes gives the audience the feeling of potential scariness about invisible but hostile objects. The blurring scenes in this movie properly depict how each character's fear gets bigger. For example, the point of view projected by camera mostly heads toward back of each character. While these scenes effectively show how each character loses his mind and feels awful, the audience cannot concentrate on whole sequence of these scary scenes without suspension of extreme changes in each character's feeling. So, it seems that the balance between urgent scenes for rising fear and illustrating scenes for movie story is important to help the audience understand the storyline in this movie.
Korean Cinema
ReplyDeleteProfessor Steven Chung
Jun Seong Ahn
R-Point (2004)
In my personal view, I think this movie is one of the most outstanding and important horror movies in Korea. Since this film is basically settled in the place R-Point, haunted place in Vietnam, there weren’t any point that viewer’s like me could calm down. I think this was also the director’s goal to make people feel frightened all the way to the end of the story. For example, every single soldier is haunted by a ghost as the story goes on and expands fear not only to the actors but also people watching this movie. The director did a great job by spreading in a 3D mode.
Since the director selected strong looking soldiers in Vietnam, the horror is totally maximized, because as a normal person view, a strong men in fear looks more frightening to him than an original men in fear. By having those soldiers’ fear, the film really didn’t require appearance of a ghost a lot but showed as an additional contribution. Even the ghost quickly passed away, that moment continued fear to the audience too.
What I think it’s wonderful of this film is that the voice, “Haneulso, Haneulso, Yeogeenun Dooduhjee” became one of the most critical and main point of this film due to its characteristic of being a foreshadowing message. It also made the story to kind of cool down rather than just creating crisis all over the film.
One part that I still don’t quite understand is Lieutenant Choi, who ordered sergeant Chang to aim the gun to him and shoot even though Choi knew that Choi would be shot. I guess there could be numerous opinions of this scene, but I think Choi thought that he could save Chang by killing himself, or he could have been also a ghost in the first place. The decision really depends on every person’s opinion which I also think the director intended to have people share their thoughts and produce a wide spread of the movie story.
Julia Wong
ReplyDeleteKong Su-Chang’s film, “R-Point” seems to be a hybrid war/horror film. Throughout the film, I noticed there were many long shots in which the beautiful landscape of the island that the soldiers were at. Though the scenery was beautiful, the eerie music, static and high-angled shots allowed me to gain a feeling that something was not right with the setting; that there was going to be a lot of deaths and creepiness throughout the film. One of the scenes that caught my eye was when one of the sergeants was found hanging at the upper floor of the mansion. There was a long shot showing the mansion with the sergeant hanging by one of the upper floors that reminded me of covers of other horror films. There were also filters that seemed to change every now and then that made it seem like the soldiers were being watched. And by the static and eeriness, I assumed that it was the ghost. It was interesting at the final scenes when this filtered vision began to move, seemingly creeping on the soldiers that were left and peering into their eyes. That gave me a signal that perhaps that was how the ghost made the soldiers lose their minds.
At the beginning scene when the soldiers first arrived, I noticed how the camera had done a close-up of the bracelet on the woman’s wrist after the lieutenant noticed it. The bells on the bracelet shows up throughout the film as one by one, the soldiers are killed off. I felt that the director effectively used the clichéd screeching music and bell sounds to haunt and scare the viewers. However, though this was an interesting mix of war and horror, I felt that because there was such a lack of character development and a lack of a clear backstory, it was hard to follow which sergeant was which, and what the whole plotline was supposed to be. The high-angle shots and long shots, though effective in creating an eerie feel as well as showing the setting, it made it hard to see each soldier individually enough to really be able to grasp who was who as they were always just running through the shots. This detracted definitely from the horror aspect of the film because I was so busy trying to figure out who died, who the flashback was related to, and which soldiers were already dead.
Camera techniques used in R-Point enhanced the audience’s viewing experience. The greenish filter on parts of the film successfully conveys the idea that the audience is seeing from a hidden perspective. It makes the ghosts feel real and keeps the audience alert to what might happen next. As the characters clearly expressed that the building was haunted, the green, night vision camera view suggested what the ghosts are seeing. The still shot during the filtered view emphasizes that they are solely watching, while a moving shot during that period illustrates their movement around the men. The quick switches between filtered and non-filtered views are successful because it places the audience at both perspectives. Track shots at eye level also convey the idea of a ghost’s perspective because its natural forward movement feels like walking. When one of them is lost in the deserted field, the camera perspective moving toward him felt like it was someone about to attack him.
ReplyDeleteWhile R-Point has its successful moments, it lacked overall for me. Horror films are designed to scare the audience, which by the reactions of the class it does—as I was anxious about what would happen next sometimes, too. The creepy sound effects and music emphasize the jumpy moments, and the weather underscores the bad things that are about to happen. However, I think it doesn’t live up to the potential of the basic storyline. I’m usually very easily scared and can’t stand watching horror movies, but for some reason Korean horror movies don’t effect me with the same intensity that American ones do. Maybe it’s the fact that I only know what they’re saying through the subtitles because reading them detracts my focus on the film.
Caitlin Omai
“R-Point” is a peculiar horror movie that is a great example of Linda William’s “film bodies” in two aspects. Obviously, it is a horror movie, so the film manipulates viewers’ bodily reactions by introducing scary scenes and surprising the audience. But on top of that, “R-Point” is a quasi-sad movie that leaves depressed feelings in the viewers, through the miserable deaths of the soldiers one by one and the touching bond among them. For example, when a hallucinated soldier fires and kills the “Cook,” one particular soldier who had shared deep bond with the Cook is struck with great shock and cries outrageously. Another such touching scene is the last scene, where the last-standing soldier is rescued by the helicopter, but he is seen as a crazy man. The man murmurs to his comrades whose bodies mysteriously have disappeared from the scene. As the man solely calls for his gone friends, the viewers cannot help but to sympathize with him and to feel gloomy.
ReplyDeleteOn its aspect as a horror movie, “R-Point” is produced by the incorporation of the classic elements of a horror film, namely the screeching sound, female ghost, hallucination, and foreshadowing. Every time it is implied that a ghost is watching the soldiers, the screen suddenly turns greenish and the ominous dark score is played to add to the creepy mood. Also, when the soldiers turn on the radio and it suddenly produces screaming sounds, the ominous score is played again to highlight the intensifying fearful atmosphere. About the ghost and the hallucination the soldiers see, Kong Su-chang follows other classic horror films and utilizes the conventional female ghost character. The female ghost can be reflected back to the scene where the soldiers cause a Viet-Cong girl to die, and it is implied that the girl bore some sort of grief at the soldiers as she was left to die. Finally, throughout the first half of the movie, there are multiple foreshadows that harbinger the upcoming catastrophe. For instance, when the Yankees come around and warn the soldiers that they will not be able to survive for more than four days, it is a clear indication that the soldiers will not end up alive by the end of their mission. “R-Point” is a cleverly developed film that is both “scary” and “sad” at the same time, and it successfully fits into Linda William’s “film bodies” genre.
Byeong Wan Kim
In the movie, "R-point," there are not many close shots used. Rather, two and three shots with master shots are nicely combined in order to emphasize the relationship between the soldiers and to illustrate the whole interaction among the soldiers by providing a shot with all the soldiers in the screen. Close shots are only used to hint that such objects such as a bracelet play important roles later in the movie. In the beginning, the Vietnamese woman's face is also captured as a close shot in order to suggest that she would later appear again in the film. Since the hand-held camera motion is not used, bird's eye view and long shot are incorporated to show the soldiers' movement and their path. Panning is also used twice in the beginning to make the transition between the scenes seem smoother. For instance, when moving from the scene with the two men talking to the scene with whole soldiers, panning is used to gradually point from the neon sign to the characters walking down the street. In another scene where one soldier searches for Sergeant Oh, he screams the sergeant's name aloud and the camera pans across the grassland to show his act of searching from his perspective. Tracking shot is also used when filming the characters from their backs in order to build tension and intensity as it is from a perspective of an unknown. The audiences get a feeling that someone is secretly following their back that helps create a mysterious atmosphere. When moving around the jungle, camera stays still while the soldiers one by one pass the camera. The camera would have probably been motionless in order to highlight the fact that the soldiers move around together and that they share a tight relationship in which they depend on each other for help and survival. There is also a repetition in the film in which the woman wearing the white dress always appears on a rainy day with thunders. Also, when one sergeant is inside the cave, the lines "We're all dying, do you copy me?" comes out repetitively since the phrase itself is so powerful. Moreover, towards the end, almost every soldier is in a sequence asked to recite their names and ranks. Throughout the movie, nondiegetic sounds such as the sound of the bell from nowhere and drum sounds are used to build up tension and to indicate that something surprising is about to approach. At the end of the movie, camera zooms out from the blind soldier to show that the dead bodies of the soldiers are gone.
ReplyDeleteThe movie overall was a typical horror movie that nicely combined all of these camera techniques to show the importance of the changing relationship among the soldiers and to build up intensity and tension. Even though the soldiers at first shared a tight relationship bonded by trust for group survival, at the end, they all become suspicious of each other and that trust breaks with their death. Even though the movie definitely deals with supernatural beings, the psychological aspect of the soldiers play more significant role throughout the movie.
Janet Tang
ReplyDeleteIn R-Point, there was an excessive use of the camera changing perspectives from a regular camera capturing the moments of the soldiers on the island, to a sort of omnipresent supernatural figure that's watching the soldiers. When the perspectives change to the ghostly one, the audience sees what's going on with the soldiers from an eye-level shot in a strange shade of green, and it's always set such that the camera is shooting from behind certain objects like trees or walls, which sets up a sort of feeling like whenever the camera shifts to this perspective, it's as though the audience is peeping in on the soldiers.
There are a lot of long shots that depict a lot of the scenery in R-Point that also include the soldiers, but the ratio of landscape to the soldiers is huge. There was a scene in which the camera takes a long shot of the scenery (a lot of the brush in the area as well as the gloomy foggy weather) and in the bottom right corner of the screen, you see the soldiers slowly making their way into the shot. It gives a feeling that these soldiers don't have a real idea of what they're getting into by entering R-Point. Throughout the film there are a lot of these long shots that show how small these soldiers are in comparison to the landscape, which kind of emphasizes also how what they're getting into is much larger than them.
Jasmine Tat
ReplyDeleteOverall, I think that "R-point" is worthwhile to watch. As the film is about soldiers during a war, short shots were utilized especially during the shooting scenes to present anxiety and intensity. However, I noticed frequent high angle and birds’ eye view shots in the film. In the beginning, I was not sure what the purpose of them were for; I supposed that it gave the effect of looking at a map and seeing their movement throughout the deserted land. But, when the ghosts and supernatural aspects came into the story, the birds eye view shots and high angle shots made more sense. They were being surveillanced at all times; the additional green filter frames emphasized anxiety and fear in the film as well as the creepy idea of being watched at all times. As for the horror qualities of “R-point” I thought that they were lacking in most of the film; generic eerie sounds, creepy woman ghost, corpses, and blood did not attract nor surprise me. The plot also advanced quite slowly in most of the film, so it seemed predictable until the ending. Therefore, most of the film was not scary but actually kind of boring for me. The ending scenes, however, (when they were all in the big dark room and started losing their sanity) were much more interesting and well-made. The little dialogue (like “Say your name and rank”,) presented expressions, as well as the green filters were utilized well to increase the fear and supernatural qualities. Although the plot was not very eventful, the ending scenes made up for the lack of good horror in the film. Only after watching the ending did I like the idea of incorporating horror into war-related films. The fact that soldiers kept on disappearing on the R-point island and that help for them did not receive much attention nor seriousness reflects the manipulated and neglected attitudes towards soldiers who fought in war, specifically Koreans during the Vietnam War.
Since, this film was about war, there weren’t many special objects that stood out in significance except the tape player/radio and eyes. The radio and tape player were not unusual objects in the situation and time the film was set in. They served as the soldiers’ only hope and form of communication—the only things that kept them going; they were so hopeful that the soldiers tried extremely hard to ignore the creepy recording and the rundown radio. Eyes, however, served as a more interesting object (or objects) in the film. There were several closeups of the soldiers’ eyes and the reflection of the ghosts that haunted them. In the last scenes when they were getting psychologically and supernaturally manipulated, their eyes and ability to see were the cause of their insanity; if they looked long enough at the ghosts, they became “possessed.” The only one who was not affected by ghosts was the surviving soldier who was blinded by the bomb; losing the ability to see saved him from going insane. Having the eyes as a focused object in the film resonates the insanity and loss of innocence involved in wartime soldiers’ lives. Having to witness endless violence and destruction dehumanizes soldiers and changes their lives forever; eyes symbolizing sight and unwanted knowledge ruins soldiers psychologically.
(Julie) Jiong Yi Huang
ReplyDeleteKong Su-Chang's film "R-Point" is what one can characterize as a horror film filled with classic elements of what many horror films entail. One such example occurs multiple times throughout the film where the scene begins with the characters in the midst of a dark and stormy night couple with eerie music playing in the background. Here, Lieutenant Choi, shown in a long shot, is staring intently outside of a dark and mysterious building. Just as he begins to walk away, he notices something in the distance; the camera then shifts to the image of a young woman with long black hair in a white traditional Vietnamese dress (called an Ao Dai). And just as quickly as the lightning came to show this chilling figure did it disappear. This scene occurs once more in the film, only this time, the female ghost leads the Lieutenant to a graveyard filled with the French soldiers that died in the area (this graveyard did not exist when the other soldiers stumbled upon the same area later on in the film). Not only does this scene provide a typical scene in a horror film, it foreshadows the imminent doom that is to fall upon these soldiers.
What makes this film very interesting (and somewhat amusing) is the irony that is used. From the very beginning of the film, the viewer is made aware that all of the soldiers that were on this mission to R-Point are dead, but it is later on implied (and assumed) that the soldiers all died due to the remaining spirits or ghosts of the missing 6 soldiers that they were deployed to find in the first place. However, throughout the whole film the spirits only act as instigations for the soldiers themselves to kill one another. An example of this is where one of the soldiers kills a fellow soldier because he was in a state of complete fear after an encounter with a ghost. This leads to the very prominent "ending battle" scene where all of the soldiers basically killed one another in a deranged act of fear for their own lives. In the end, the soldiers could not leave R-Point due to the fact that they have one another's blood on their hands (which also means they killed one another and therefore could not possibly leave).
Sojung Lee
ReplyDeleteIt was interesting to see many aspects of yesterday’s lecture also come up in R-Point. The typical long-haired female ghost in a white dress felt a bit unnecessary, but was resonant of commonalities of many Asian horror films. Also, as mentioned in lecture, R-Point associates religion with the supernatural, showing scenes of temples and incense and mentioning that it was considered a sacred place.
For some reason, I cared more about these soldiers dying than the characters who were killed in Epitaph. Even though the characters weren't as fleshed out as they could have been, and I had trouble telling them apart, we were shown little things about them that made viewers feel more empathetic towards their fate. For instance, the parts where they all danced goofily to The Ventures, or how Sargent Mah would keep talking about his wife and daughter, or how Jung sold his medical certificate to buy his mother a cow, all were scenes (albeit cheesy ones) that served to create at least some emotional ties to them. R-Point manages to create a lot of suspense in the parts that led up to the climax and keep viewers on their toes until the end. It doesn't heavily use terrifying images for that scare-factor, but facilitates an ongoing tension of not knowing what will happen next, or even when and how people will die. The night-vision scenes of observing the soldiers at a distance, which are supposed to be from the ghosts' POV, add to the overall tension and underlying feelings of dread - that knowledge they are being watched. Similarly, the longshots utilized in the film seemed to add to vast, desolate scenery of R-Point. The tall grass and uninhabited feel of the environment all the more emphasized the point that these men are trapped and alone there, making their deaths seem inevitable but also increasing the sense of dread in the viewer along the way.
Finally in the end, Jung who has gone insane, is mumbling to himself as the camera goes very slowly away from him to reveal an eerily emptied out room, devoid of the bodies that were there last night. Again, it is a subtlety that does not rely on gory images to create an effectively creepy scene.This is something I thought that R-Point did well, rather than always relying on jump-scares like most horror movies.
Inhwan (Mia) Choi
ReplyDeleteI’ve already seen this movie, R-point by Kong Su-chang, few times several years ago, and every time I hesitated to watch it. However, this course sort of “forced” me to watch it again and refreshed the story. The reason why I hesitated is that the movie, R-point, depends on the audience for interpretation. It can be analyzed in so many points of view such as the ending of Inception by Christopher Nolan which leaves many questions as to whether or not it is a dream. These characteristics make the movie both confrontational and uncomfortable to the viewer as well as bringing a whole new topic to discuss when the movie is finished.
Those soldiers who see the ghost always left behind alone or act individually. For example, Sergeant Jin left the crew by himself and follows an Unknown Soldier into the bamboo forest. Then he fell into a cliff and searches through the cave all alone and hears the radio sound. He then finds a dead body and the scene shifts to the other members of crew looking for Sergeant Jin. A soldier wanders away as if he is possessed by something, and the scene shifts to the other soldiers proceeding with their mission. Later they find the lost crew member back with the group. This routine repeats numerous times throughout the story to all the members except Corporal Jang. It never shows what happened after Sergeant Jin finds the body in the cave or when private 1st class Jo, left alone in the field with the soldiers that have suddenly disappeared. I had guessed that these soldiers were already possessed and died when they encountered the ghost alone because they all killed or tried to kill people on the island. That is why corporal Jang didn’t die because he was still innocent and failed to kill anybody which means he did not touch the blood. Also at the very end, Corporal Jang was alone in the building and there was no trace of other soldiers, and this back up my reasoning. This open ending leaves the viewers with multiple evidence to determine the actual ending.
The movie R-Point was consistent with long and medium shots to show the action and landscape within this horror war film. Yet, there were various times during the film when a bird’s eye shot added more depth into some of these particular scenes. For example, the moment in which the soldiers discovered the dead bodies in the lake, we were given an unknown perspective from the sky and shown the corpses beneath the shallow waves. However, there were other moments when this point of view did not add any significance to the movie, in my belief, and was merely an inconvenience. Such as when Lieutenant Choi was confronted in the hallway moments before Oh’s death. It may have been meant to add the illusion that the ghosts were watching their every move, similar to when the night-vision scenes are shown but I preferred the image effect ever the awkward angle.
ReplyDeleteBesides the usual angles, it seemed that many of the important scenes throughout the beginning of the film occurred when the soldiers were relieving themselves. The first being when the group arrived at the rock stating the curse and it isn’t until after Corporal Lee Jae-pil peed on the it did the rest of the statement (of being unable to return) become uncovered. Or later on when Sergeant Oh lost his fellow comrades because he was peeing, caused him to stumble upon the ghosts of the missing soldiers in the fields. These two cases in particular happen in board day light, almost telling the characters and the audience that they should remain fearful whether it Is day or night. Although my experience with horror films is very minimal, these little details of high-angles and ghosts in day light made the film more interesting than the jump shots of the women in white or the possessing of the bodies that happened in the end of the movie.
Karen Lam
ReplyDeleteThe movie "R-Point" was a horror movie that included Korean history in it, namely, the Korean soldiers' participation in the Vietnam war. To be honest, I did not watch some scenes of the movie because I do not like horror movies, but from the scenes that I did see, several things stood out to me.
Throughout the movie, I noticed that several repetitive, symmetric scenes appeared. For example, when the soldiers were in the bamboo forest, the bamboo stalks were vertical lines that appeared throughout the whole screen. Also, when the soldiers were looking at the burning incense, the rocks in that area were also shown. These rocks were shown in a beautiful, and neat fashion. Another example of this is when the Korean soldiers were walking down the stairs of the building with the American soldier. The downward-facing angle showed the repetitive and nearly symmetrical pattern of the stairs. It was interesting to see this because symmetry is usually associated with beauty, and that contrasts greatly with the horrors that were present in this film.
I also thought it was interesting how the director included beautiful shots of the sunset, such as the one where the house and soldiers are silhouetted against the orange sky. This was a nice contrast to the horrors that later occurred in the night as well.
Something that I did not like about this film was the nighttime camera scenes. These were usually shown with shrill music, and I did not appreciate that. Also, the cut from the normal camera to the nighttime camera was very abrupt, in my opinion. From my understanding, these scenes were used to show the ghost's perspective of the soldiers, but I still did not like these scenes.
Gloria Lee
ReplyDeleteR-Point is a very horrific and gory film produced by Su-Chang Kong in 2004. Since I am not a person who can stand watching horror films, it was very hard for me to watch such gory scenes and feel nervous for whole time. The director Kong did well on making a horror film that contains two supposedly most scary things in world, which are a war and ghosts. However, I think any kinds of horror films do not make sense in a contextual sense and always confuse me. In the film, R-Point, the soldiers disappear eventually until the last survivor who lost his sight. Most of the soldiers are killed by other soldier among them. As the film gets to the ending, the soldiers cannot believe in anyone but themselves. That is why Lieutenant Choi asks the every other soldier’s names and ranks in the climax part of the film. On the one hand, a scene where Lieutenant Choi asks the blind soldier to shoot him lets the audiences notice that only Choi could see the ghost. I believe the soldiers who died had all seen a ghost and possessed by the ghost. Maybe Choi knew that if he gets possessed by the ghost, he would kill the blind soldier. And that is why he asks the blind soldier to shoot him and because the blind soldier could not see the ghost, he survived. There are many scenes throughout the film to support the possibility of the blind soldier’s survival. A gravestone in the bamboo forest has a phase saying: A person with bloody hands can’t go back. It turned out that the only soldier throughout the film who did not get blood on his hands is the blind solider. Also, at the very first scene of the film, a person who is wearing a bandage all over his body and talking his old story is the only survivor who becomes blind by the grenade. Overall, I think the director Kong intended to express the grief of the soldiers or people from the gory and miserable war through this film. As the American soldier in the film says that R-Point is the place where no alive and dead person can live, a war creates a cursed and haunted land that no one can live on.
The recurring themes of death and insanity in the film well contributed to the genre of the film, which is horror. R-Point has many foreshadows and tilted shots as well as scary sound effects and dreadful places. Lots of these settings attributed to make such a scary and horrific scenes of the film. The sound effects and the background music make me so nervous for whole time and I almost felt like if there had been no sound playing, I would have watched the movie better. The phase on the gravestone foreshadows that not a single soldier will go back to where they came from and creates a dreadful mood. R-Point did very well on scaring me out with many scary settings.
R-Point
ReplyDeleteR Point is really one outstanding horror movie. It has many surprising and scary scenes that make the audiences watched with fear and have a sense of frightening during the movie. The director makes use of really good camera techniques that provided the audience with the warning of something bad is going to happen. At the scene where the soldiers gathered at the building, the director filmed with a greenish scene, which is trying to convey the message of a ghost who is secretly looking at them and something bad is going to happen. The director changes between a colored scene to a greenish filter scene and filmed with a tracking shot at eye level, that allows the audience to be aware of the ghost’s movement around the soldiers.
At the scene where there were only three of the soldiers in the big field, the director filmed the scene from far and showing only the back of their bodies, creating a tension and horrifying atmosphere. The director later continues to track forward slowly, to give the feeling of creepy and scary about the island. The director actually makes use of long shots to capture the scenery of the island that the soldiers were on. However, the background music used in the movie was relatively scary and provides the audience an idea of what kind of island the soldiers were on.
During this movie, the objects that stood out were the bracelet with bells on it and the tape player. The director provided many close up shots of the bells whenever a soldier is dead. The bells actually helped to act as a scary tool but provided scary music to audience and giving a sense of frightening. As for the tape player, when the soldiers attempt to use it, it will release scary screams which helped to intensify the scary place.
The ending scene of the movie, the director makes use of tracking shot with Corporal Jang sitting down alone and talking. The bodies of the soldiers were not present as well. It actually leaves the audience with a question of what had happened and where the bodies went to. This would probably leave to the imagination and understanding of the audience to deduce what could have happened.
Joey Tay Hui Lin
Jinyoung Park
ReplyDeletePersonally, R-Point is a profound horror films that is doubtful and hard to fully understand. As a viewer, the film made me uncomfortable not because of the ghost but because of the all the horrible mood of the film. When group of soldiers arrived at R-Point to find missing soldiers of Battalion 53, they found headstone that says ‘If you have blood on your hand, you can’t go back.’ The headstone already hints the future of the soldiers who have experience to kill someone. Also, strange things occur to all of soldiers who have experience to kill someone except Sergeant Jung who never had killed someone during the mission. The main incident of the film is that each soldier was possessed by a ghost to lose their consciousness and this incident leads all soldiers to the death except Sergeant Jung.
In different view, R-Point is the place where the person who has experience to kill somebody can’t return to the reality. In addition, R-Point is the place where lots of innocent people dead and buried with deep resentment. So, the spirits of the dead people which represent as a female ghost with white dress leads lots of soldiers to death because soldiers are figure of war and they killed many innocent Vietnamese in Vietnam War. The reason why female ghost left Sergeant Jung is making other groups of soldiers to come to R-Point to continue the revenge.
As I firstly mention, R-Point is hard and complex to clearly understand. However, the creepy mood with creepy music made film to immerse in the emotion of soldiers and victims of war. Though the film is featured as a horror movie, I personally think is the film about warning and arousing attentions of War’s aftereffects for both winners and victims. Therefore, the film ‘R-Point’ clearly describes the improvement of horror film of Korea.
Rather than focusing on the overarching “horror” of Kong Su-chang’s 2004 film “R-Point,” I was drawn in by the deeper themes of masculinity and manhood. Almost the entire movie is made up of male characters and I believe that the movie has the ability to speak directly to male members of the audience that are watching the film. For the first half of the film, the soldiers are seen with prostitutes, getting examined for STDs, playing with a baseball, peeing outside on a rock and using phrases such as “I don’t get scared of anything,” and “My cock’s got more power than any of yours.” All of these qualities create the traditional image of manhood. It portrays these soldiers and masculine and tough; an image that most men want to have. Particularly, in South Korea, I feel as though masculinity is particularly important.
ReplyDeleteAs the film progresses, however, you begin to see the fall of this macho façade, and the exposure of what these men truly are. They begin to let their emotions show through as they lose comrades and friends. One scene that struck me in particular was when one soldier was grasping onto another’s leg and crying. I found this moving and representative of the fact that men don’t always need to come across as tough and emotionless. Since the film was marketed as a “horror” film, the target audience was probably young South Korean men, who have either already served in the military, or soon will. I believe that this film probably carried an additional level of emotion for them, that I cannot understand. I think it is rare when you find a film that can speak into the heart of men, but I believe that “R-Point” has the ability to do so, if the viewer is not completely consumed by the fact that it is a “horror” movie and nothing more than that.
Tae Kyu Kim
ReplyDeleteR-Point
I've heard about this film, R-Point, but never actually had the chance to see it until today. My impression of the film? It had a good start; I could actually relate with the soldiers to myself. As I saw the film, I could constantly reminisce about my own military recollections. Towards the end, the film became pretty tedious and slow. It was also very predictable. I guess the film isn’t really a common army film because it is filled with horror and “ghosts”. I could see the director, Kong Su-chang, tried to make a unique horror film out of a military genre but it was too vague at least to me. I also felt like the film’s camera works weren’t superior or up to its top potential.
The camera works in R-Point were too simple and rudimentary. There were no exclusive scenes, and most of them were just repetitive and plain. In other films, we have seen in class, I could easily spot couple remarkable scenes, but in R-Point, all the scenes appear too common and ordinary. In one scene, where the soldiers land in Vietnam, I could remember the camera was at a low-angle shot, showing audiences only their boots and then it gradually pans or zooms out to the full shot. Another similar scene is when the camera is focused on the old transmitters and then it zooms out to take a long take. In addition to the commonly used low-angle and full shots the director also uses the point-of-view shots. This was most obviously used when the POV shot is recording what the ghost is seeing; it was in a greenish view, something similar to a night vision. However, one type of camera work that wasn’t used many times is the birds-eye view shot. The only scene I could remember is when one of the soldiers trip in the river and the camera is taken up like a crane and shows the soldiers’ corpses in a birds-eye view.
Honestly, I did enjoy the first half of R-Point, as it made me recollect my own military life; however, towards the end, it was extremely slow and predictable. I think a “ghost” or horror film is really incongruent to be put in a military type film, or at least it is really hard to fit those two concepts and make an interesting film out of it.
The movie R-Point by, Kong Su Chang, has a lot of factors that can identify this particular film as an Asian horror film. Of course, just as other Asian films like Ringu and Epitaph, a female ghost with long hair dressed in all white shows up and makes all the soldiers go insane. The idea used in this horror film is "bing-ui" which means a ghost goes into one's body and possesses his/her soul. This can be seen when soldiers are shouting their name and military ID number as proof of being not possessed by the ghost. The ghost's vision is pictured with hand held camera with night vision effect. By using night vision effect, the director implies that one who sees through night vision is somewhat different from normal being. From this, the audience can notice right away that the night vision look is the sight of the ghost.
ReplyDeleteA lot of long shots were used to identify the setting of the story. There were a few close ups but they were mainly for the scene where the female ghost's eyes are bleeding in front of Lieutenant. During this scene, very short takes of the ghost's close ups with vibrating effect were used to intensify the fear of the audience. The beginning scene of this film is the cause and a foreshadowing of what will happen later in the film. The radio gives horrifying transmission then, there is a scene where a soldier who has bandage all over his body in shock. This resembles the final sequence of this film. The soldier who survived has bandage over his eyes as the soldier in the beginning scene. After that, the last scene plays the same transmission with blood coming out of radio as if it tells the audience that the incident will happen again. Such happening may be caused by 'han'. I believe that the director melted in 'han' well into story of Viet-con.
R-Point deals with the two main themes involved with war scary movies. The first is the soldier's guilt and the fear of killing others, especially civilians. Despite their duty, soldiers are still humans, and they unavoidably feel uneasy and guilty to shoot and kill other humans. The example is depicted in one of the beginning scenes, when no one volunteers to shoot a local-looking girl after the girl's shooting attack in the woods. Some may deny their fear and rather try to disguise it by cussing at the victim or someone else, as the soldiers do throughout the film. Nevertheless, the fear gets unfolded when they face a scary situation and can even take over one's mind. In the film, the mysterious disappearance of soldiers and their strange deaths awake the soldiers' fear which, in collaboration with the ghost's spirit, makes them kill each other or themselves.
ReplyDeleteThe second major theme of the film is the "han (한)" of the dead people, the victims of the war, in the R point area: their grief, anger, and will to revenge. It seems that the area is not only surrounded by the souls of dead Vietnamnese but also the French soldiers that were massacred. The local-looking girl, who is shown in a traditional, typical display of a virgin ghost (처녀귀신) with its long, back hair as well as her white costume, is the main ghost character that appears throughout the film. The photograph that the captain found suggests that she was a part of the community that got killed during the war. Now with a deep, unbearable han, she is taking her revenge on those who kill others, like the engraving on the stone at the entrance of the R point warns. In fact, there are many shots, especially towards the end, that are colored green and screnned from the perspective of the ghost, watching over the soldiers in the building. However, as the film also introduces the voices of the French soldiers and the graveyard, the han can be more generalized to all those who suffer and lose their lives from the war.
The best and worst qualities of R-point came from the obtuse style of how the story unfolded. While we are quick to realize that R-point is a place full of haunts and tragedy, we never fully figure out the roots of the mysteries that surround the island. We encounter a female ghost on more than one occasion, and unless you were asleep you could infer that the female had something to do with all the murder on the island. However, we are never explicitly told why she wants to murder anyone who enters R-point, which I think is great in the sense that this open-ended interpretation is quite atypical of all the horror movies that I've watched and makes R-point unique, but also left me quite annoyed at the end because I really wanted to understand what in the world her problem was. The picture we are shown with her and the (was it?) French soldiers made me think that perhaps she was used/abused by these soldiers and therefore hates all foreign militant figures (which I thought could be interpreted as how Asian countries may have felt about the presence of Westerners in their wars), but I really would have liked a more concrete answer by the end of the movie.
ReplyDeleteI do have to say that one of my favorite aspects of the movie was the cinematography. I, of course not being a cinema studies major, have only a shallow appreciation for the artistic efforts of the producers and director. However, even I could tell by comparing R-point to the other horror films I've seen that the way R-point was shot was highly 'skillful' by relying more on technique than gore to elicit my emotions. The scene with the disappearing graveyard wasn't at all full of guts and blood, but for me it was one of the most frightening scenes of the movie. In examples such as this one, Kong Su Chang managed to find a middle ground between what we discussed as body genres and art cinema, perhaps allowing horror to move away from being considered a more 'lowly' form of cinema.
The best and worst qualities of R-point came from the obtuse style of how the story unfolded. While we are quick to realize that R-point is a place full of haunts and tragedy, we never fully figure out the roots of the mysteries that surround the island. We encounter a female ghost on more than one occasion, and unless you were asleep you could infer that the female had something to do with all the murder on the island. However, we are never explicitly told why she wants to murder anyone who enters R-point, which I think is great in the sense that this open-ended interpretation is quite atypical of all the horror movies that I've watched and makes R-point unique, but also left me quite annoyed at the end because I really wanted to understand what in the world her problem was. The picture we are shown with her and the (was it?) French soldiers made me think that perhaps she was used/abused by these soldiers and therefore hates all foreign militant figures (which I thought could be interpreted as how Asian countries may have felt about the presence of Westerners in their wars), but I really would have liked a more concrete answer by the end of the movie.
ReplyDeleteI do have to say that one of my favorite aspects of the movie was the cinematography. I, of course not being a cinema studies major, have only a shallow appreciation for the artistic efforts of the producers and director. However, even I could tell by comparing R-point to the other horror films I've seen that the way R-point was shot was highly 'skillful' by relying more on technique than gore to elicit my emotions. The scene with the disappearing graveyard wasn't at all full of guts and blood, but for me it was one of the most frightening scenes of the movie. In examples such as this one, Kong Su Chang managed to find a middle ground between what we discussed as body genres and art cinema, perhaps allowing horror to move away from being considered a more 'lowly' form of cinema.
Seung Hyun Koh
ReplyDeleteThe film, R point, utilizes tracking shots and foreshadowing to create an apprehensive, uncomfortable atmosphere that lingers right until the end.
One of the techniques utilized to produce such an effect is slow tracking shots. In a way, the shots emit a menacing mood because it serves as a warning for the audience; a horrific event will shortly take place. An example can be found in the scene where three soldiers are on patrol on their first night at R point. One of the soldiers expresses fear by saying that ‘he has bad feelings about his this place and that living and the dead alike cannot live here, except for the ghosts’. In this scene, a tracking shot (with the help of menacing music which grows louder as the shots get closer) is used to convey a feeling that something uncanny is moving toward the soldiers from the back. Step by step, the camera portrays an inexplicable feeling of something moving closer to the soldiers until the audience is convinced that a catastrophe may occur. While the soldiers are not killed immediately after the scene, the audience is able to easily comprehend the fact that there will be death later on in the film. This scene can be thought of as a warning for the upcoming execution of ‘a real danger’ which is also shown through the use of tracking shots. A clear example of this is the scene where corporal Cho is left behind while the others proceed to move on. A tracking shot is taken from behind when corporal Cho calls for sergeant Oh upon finishing urinating. The camera again portrays something as moving toward the corporal’s back hinting potential danger. The corporal, believing that the sergeant is behind him, follows what he think is his superior. He then ends up with a group of soldiers, whom he quickly realizes, is not part of his squad. Although it is unclear whether the director had such intentions, one can argue that the first tracking shot warns the audience of potential danger and the 2nd shot ‘carries out the danger.’
Perhaps an important feature of this film is its use of foreshadowing to create a sense of malice. For instance, in the scene where the US soldiers tell Lieutenant Choi stories of how myriad French soldiers were killed instantly not by the Vietnamese or some other human beings but by ‘something else’. This bit of information explains a previous scene where a soldier reports to his lieutenant that he heard transmission from French soldiers that they will pay a visit (in spite of the fact that he doesn’t speak French). Thus, there is a foreshadowing of the fact that there are ghosts and that perhaps there is a possibility that Korean soldiers will suffer the same fate as the French. A more conspicuous example can be found later in the film when the US soldiers who warned Lieutenant Choi of imminent death, were in fact ghosts. The ghost themselves warned the Koreans soldiers of their eventual, inescapable death.
The film of R-point is a horror move and directed by Kong-Su Chang. Korean soldiers base in Vietnam received a radio transmission from a missing platoon presumed dead. Choi Tae-in is leader who got mission to rescue the missing soldiers from the R-Point. When they arrive in the location, they killed Vietnamese woman after that they find the message on the stone. It says if you kill someone you cannot survive in this place. Choi finds an one building, where they set up their base. During they stayed in the location to find missing soldiers. They realized a shocking revelation, when they try to report corporal Jung killed by someone, that one men in their platoon was one of the missing men they were sent to find. After that they realized the place has something wrong and one of them start to die in a horrible way. They encounter mysterious horrible events.
ReplyDeleteR-Point movie keeps make me guessing and thinking what is the truth. This movie is very conventional horror film. It greatly created psychologically with a heavy of atmosphere to get more scared The film director gives tensions of the sounds effects that produce a atmospheric thriller more. When the screen shot covered by green, it goes slowly to recognize audience the ghosts are around. This skill greatly gives suspense. Actors show great performance to act as a supernatural thriller movie. The film angel When the moment of devoid of ghostly entanglements, making the rest of the film all the more effective. Also the stories are very tricky that I hard to expect the ending story. It makes more confused to understand what’s going on but it enhances to create interests through the twisted story.
Chankyung Jung
Saewon Kim
ReplyDeleteI don't like horror film, but R-point is really interesting horror film I've ever seen. There are some characteristics that make R-point distinctive from other horror movies. First, unlike other horror movies, R-point is composed of less brutal, blood scenes and creepy noises. And the ghost (the woman wearing Ao Dai, not the haunted soldiers) only appears 4 times during the movie. Second, some of the scenes are filmed by infrared(?) camera. And it seems like the movie is unfolding by the angle of the ghost.
There are lots of interpretations of the movie. To interpret the movie, I think the soldiers except for corporal Jang are already dead and haunted right after the gun battle at the bamboo grove. But except for Lieutenant Choi, soldiers can't aware that they are haunted and dead. There are lots of scenes supporting this idea. First is the attitude of the Lieutenant Choi. During the movie, he is way too calm and doesn't try to get out of the R-point area. He also has conversation with ghosts whom are the dead American soldiers, so naturally. And later in the movie, sergeant Jin yells at Choi, "You want to play the boss in the end." I think this indicates that finally sergeant Jin finds out that they are all already dead and mad at Choi who is already haunted and knew all this happened but pretends to not.
Second, in the end of the movie, soldiers' dead body are gone. This is because the soldiers are already dead at the bamboo grove and their bodies are at bamboo grove.
Third, the soldiers drink beer that they got from the dead American soldiers.
Fourth, There are some scenes that Corporal Jang smells something strange when he is with corporal Ma. Maybe it's because corporal Ma is a cook. But I think these scenes implies that corporal Ma is already dead and the smell is from the corpse of corporal Ma. That is, except for Jang, the soldiers are already dead.
And there are 2 reasons Jang is the only one survived. In the stone at temple, it says that "All those with the blood in their hands could not survive." This means that soldiers who killed people whether at war or not will eventually die. And Jang is the only one who never killed people. He came to war instead of his brother and this is his first time on the mission. Also, at the R-point, he never kills people. So, that is the one reason he is survived. In the beginning of the film, hospital scene indicates that most of the soldiers have syphilis. However, Jang is the one who does not have syphilis. Even Lieutenant Choi went to Vietnam brothel in the beginning of the movie. And if you see the picture of the French army, there's a ghost (a girl wearing Ao Dai). This probably implies that the girl is the sex slave of the French army and soldiers who have engaged in prostitution can not survive.
R-Point (2004)
ReplyDeleteThis film “R-Point” generally focuses on bringing out the atmosphere in the film, of this island, which is cursed. In addition, there is also an emphasis on the theme of sanity and insanity and also the incurring theme of reality and the ghostly world. From the beginning of the film, there is an extreme close-up shot of the radio transmitter which is emitting radio signals from this group of missing soldiers. Through this close-up shot of the radio transmitter, there seems to be a hint that this is the main symbol of the film and will be the object that is the main focus in this film. There are also other close-up shots of the radio transmitter in the film, such as when the soldiers are calling for help and also in the closing shot. In the closing shot especially, where there is some dark liquid which I assume to be blood flowing out of the radio transmitter. This seemingly signifies that there is an inner being in this radio transmitter and it is still not the end yet. There hasn’t been a closure to the mystery of R-Point.
Another significant cinematographic technique is the use of the switch between the audience’s point of view and that of the ghost, which is not made known to the audience, watching the soldiers. Furthermore, in the scene when the soldiers reach the start of the R-Point trail, there is a very obvious cut of the shot to a different scene. It somehow signifies of a possible sudden disappearance of the platoon of soldiers later, like a kind of overshadowing. There are also some sideways tracking in the film, which also brings out the mysteriousness in the film. There was another significant long shot where the soldiers return to their base at sunset. The surroundings of the shot was very beautiful but it also emphasized on the building being stand alone, which is somewhat eerie and also brings out the feeling of a menacing and lonely end. This somehow reflects the state of the soldiers, who died in menacing ways except for one, who survives but seems to have lost his mental state. This also highlights the fate of soldiers who enter R-Point. There will be no end to it and there is only one sole survivor at the end, whom people will not likely believe as the bodies of those who died will never be found. It’s a never-ending cycle.
Felicia Chay
Stacey Hahn
ReplyDeleteR-Point follows the conventions of a typical scary movie to the point where it becomes highly predictable. Although this film may be technically classified as a horror film, I believe that it fails to create many of the “bodily reactions” described by Linda Williams. Through the use of distinct screen filters and quick camera movements, Director Kong Su-Chang attempts to create a sense of suspense and thrill of the unknown. Green-tinted shots reminiscent of night-vision increase the tension between the ghosts’ presence and the essentially helpless soldiers, which is effective in planting the seed of suspense and fear of the unknown. However, I think it’s kind of campy. Kong used this technique as a source for dramatic irony, but instead of feeling this, I simply felt that it was too similar to popular video games nowadays, which significantly reduced the intended effect.
In addition to green-tinted shots, Kong also utilized quick camera movements and the element of surprise, which again follows the conventional horror film. Although this technique is usually effective in eliciting “bodily reactions”, when used excessively, the effect wears down. Rather than startling and instilling fear in the audience, the repeated discovery of dead bodies just becomes a predictable formula that becomes a bit tedious to watch. I think that is the reason why I find that Kong failed in creating a horror film; it’s too formulaic. Throughout the film, Kong repeatedly relies on generic music, green-tinted shots, and the quick appearance of dead bodies and ghosts to elicit fear within the audience. But when used to this extent, not only does the movie become extremely predictable, but it also fails to scare the audience. Ironically, Kong’s primary techniques used to create fear achieve the opposite effect.
Ryan Chang
ReplyDeleteR-Point is a film whose background is one that is set in a very hard time in Korean history. The use of the Vietnam War, the portrait of military dictator President Park Chung-hee, and the terrors mentioned in the war contribute to the film's place in Korean national cinema. The changing of the radio transmitter messages from the beginning to the end of the movie as well as the revelation that all those who enter R-Point with blood on their hands would die are very creepy devices used in the film. The perspective of the ghost's view through the eerie green filter is also a useful way to frighten the audience, and the camera's multiple close-ups of the bells throughout the movie is another way that can give the audience chills. Other useful examples of cinematography include the discovery of the French graveyard and its disappearance, the finding decaying corpse of the radio operator, and the blood spilling from the hanging corpse were some of the most chilling scenes that can scare. The final scene with Lt. Choi facing the ghost and her attempted possession of him was terrifying, and the camera work made the scene that much more scary. Even though the amount of blood and gore is low in the film compared to conventional Hollywood horror films, the use of camera shots and techniques helped allow the film to maximize its fright factor.
Daniel Rhee
ReplyDeleteR-Point
In the movie R-Point, a platoon of nine soldiers go to an area known as Romeo-Point, R-Point, in search of a battalion that went missing six months ago. The director does not tell us anything about the previous soldiers, but through the plot, we realize that they were being spooked by this woman, who we also know nothing about, from a French unit that was stationed at R-Point in the past. The development of this movie was particularly interesting because every new piece of information that was given to the audience had to be explained later in the story which ultimately connected all the dots. For example, the American soldiers that came to R-Point to fix a radio on the second floor were actually ghosts, in which we later see that the soldiers had been rotting in a helicopter in the forest. Overall, the concept that the director had with the film was quite interesting. The director always used long takes when he tried to build suspense up for a thrill sequence and quickly followed with shots that flashed back and forth between the soldier that was being spooked and the rest of the soldiers who were confused with the situation. At first, I was confused as to what was going when only a few of the soldiers were getting spooked, but then at the end of the film, the director makes it clear to the audience that it is fear that ultimately overtakes each soldier's life. Once a soldier was aware of the ghost, they would only be naturally curious and eventually make eye contact, which would lead to possession.
One technique that I had mixed reviews about was the sort of infrared camera viewpoint that the director used to show the perspective of the ghost. Even though we see the ghost go into the soldiers and possess them, ultimately turning each soldier against each other, the viewpoint of the girl was not satisfying. Rather than constantly showing the ghost's point of view, I think the film would have been more thrilling if the director used the last scene where the lieutenant is face to face with the ghost more often at different angles. Horror films must have a thrilling concept but when there is something tangible to be afraid of, it makes the horror film all the more exciting. And because we do not see the ghost as often as some films, the buildup would be anticlimactic.
Charlotte Fitzek
ReplyDeleteR-Point did use many of the common devices deployed during horror films, having included the female ghost, rotting flesh, non-diagetic sounds meant to put us on edge, and the unexplainable supernatural. In particular, one of my favorite moments is when Lt. Choi Tae-In follows the female ghost into the pouring rain, and we are completely blind-sided when the lightening reveals the French soldier’s graves. The wide shot gives us a full breath of how many soldiers died, and is tilted such that it seems as if the Buddhist statue (with a mangled face, which just adds to the eeriness) is watching the Lieutenant. It brings to the forefront one of the underlying devices the director uses to freak out the audience, namely he uses the implication that religious or supernatural forces are at work to impart a sense of hopelessness against the horror. Certainly the Buddhist emphasis remains strong, as ruins of temples are another main location of the plot’s action. It makes the visual of the Christian graveyard all the more jarring. It’s also an example of how this movie, rather than tread the “horror film path” of depicting many gory scenes, is strongest in its ability to put us on edge and instill fear by playing with our minds. Personally, I usually associate horror films with gore, so the relative lack-thereof actually makes R-Point something of an outlier.
There are a few points that irked me though; the first one being the scene with the Americans. Compared to other movies (and especially dramas), R-Point did an excellent job of actually hiring English-speakers. Nonetheless, the dialogue sounded stiff and unnatural. The Sgt. is supposed to be relaying a gruesome and frightening tale to the Lieutenant, warning him of his 4-day expiration date, but instead the moment was broken through humor because 1) I found the English jarring, and 2) the Sgt. absolutely dwarfs the Lieutenant when standing side-by-side. Even the camera plays along, and tilts slightly upward during the Sgt’s close-up, and slightly downward (with the Sgt’s shoulder taking up half the screen) during the Lieutenant’s medium shot. Also, was the military so open during the Vietnam war, that an African American would have been in charge of an all-white section as depicted in the movie? Korean stereotypes at work? Another aspect that began to frustrate me was the soldier’s obvious incompetence. Clearly this was a dangerous mission, so why send these unqualified soldiers? Would the movie have been less scary if the soldiers were all skilled and trained? And in the end, we still don’t know who the lady-ghost is. I want to know! Why is she killing everyone? She is directly identified as the cause, as we hear her bells ringing even if the actor seems to be a soldier, and yet we know virtually nothing of her besides that she's in the photograph. Throughout the movie the director was withholding information, but in the end we are left with more questions.
Charlotte Fitzek
MinJoon Choi
ReplyDeleteI strongly liked the tie between wartime setting and a horror movie. Blood, creepy landscape, music and the feeling of death. Everything linked greatly. Also, I found it interesting that this movie was able to convey to the audience two feelings. One is horror. There are many foreshadows of future horror, through the use of stones, ghosts, rains, and muds which really freaks out the audiences. Another emotion is the sadness. The soldiers are closely bonded and is almost brother-like, and some mention about their desire to spend time with their family once they complete this mission. But they end up spending the last moment of their life in this horror island. So this film was definitely more than just a horror movie, in the sense that it had very lamenting aspects consisted in many parts of the film.
Film technique wise, they use various shots like long shots and intense close ups. The long shots are used particularly to portray the scenery, which consists of the soldiers, and the landscape. By using a contrary close up, the director really succeeds in giving the audience a sense of fear. When the camera suddenly shifts to a close up, we suddenly spot horror aspect (ghosts and the horrified faces of the soldiers). The music fits greatly with the movie too. The director used a very suspenseful music whenever the soldiers were in a dark setting, and it is clear that something bad was going to happen. As a individual who is not in strong fond of horror movies, I fairly enjoyed this movie in the sense that the ending was unpredictable and ironic. From the first, we knew this movie was in a wartime setting but I am sure no one expected that it was the ghosts that basically murdered all the soldiers. I also believe the director has done a great job implementing the horror aspect of the movie effectively into this movie.
Dong Eun (Agnes) Lee
ReplyDeleteMilitary Bromance in R-Point
Despite the overall frightening ghost scenes and murders, I found myself focusing on the positive aura derived from the soldiers’’ relationships with one another. This “military bromance” was something I particularly focused on because it is not something I can ever personally experience as a girl. While the typical “girl world” is well-known to be and full of drama and complications, R-Point allowed me to once again recognize how simple and fascinating the male bonding can be.
My very first encounter of the military bromance was evident through the scene in which the main group of Korean soldiers spend their first night on the island. Even though these individuals are potentially under much pressure from their army duties, I was amazed at the level of conversation that was existent. Through lighthearted conversations such as sex experiences and past jobs, the corporals certainly open up to one another very casually. This may not have been as commonly regarded had there been a group of females unfamiliar with each other. While there are many extroverted women, in most cases she would not reveal her identity so quickly, let alone engage in sex talks. Furthermore, as negatively implied as it may be, I was attracted by the usage of cigarettes and beer to enhance the soldiers’ collectiveness with one another. Although structural division based on army rank undoubtedly influences how corporals and privates respect Lieutenant Jin and Sergeant Choi, smoking and drinking was a continuous motif that enhances brotherly friendship. Indeed the scene in which everyone is dancing to a Ventures’ song through the American radio emphasizes how easily men have fun with each other. The fast-paced progress of how closely knit the soldiers become eventually protected me from being too overwhelmed with horrific scenes from the movie. Rather than being completely soaked into the petrifying battle against ghosts, I definitely felt an admiration towards the light yet rapid cohesion in male friendship.
Amanda Kim
ReplyDeleteLike Epitaph, Kong Su Chang’s R-Point contains the same common techniques of a typical “Asian Horror” movie. R-Point uses a female ghost with long, face obscuring hair and ambiguity. In the beginning of the movie, the group of soldiers encounter a wounded woman. At first, they decide to forcefully assist her death, but then decide to spare her. Furthermore, the scene is shot from an upward tilt. The camera is tilted up toward the soldiers from the perspective of the woman. This technique hence conveys the masculine hierarchy within the scene. The conveyed masculine hierarchy allows for a justification for the haunting of the men throughout the movie from the oppressed female “ghost.” According to Robin Wood, female ghosts haunt in Korean movies to show that they have been wronged. Hence, the movie can allude to the fact that is a social critique of the wrongs of the Vietnam War and the female victims.
In addition to the use of the female ghost as a horror technique within the film, Chang uses ambiguity to give the audience a heightened emotional response. The characters are dressed in camouflage clothing that allows them to blend into their surroundings. Just as they are wandering around the woods as essentially apart of it, the audience wanders where they are headed and what their fate may be. Furthermore, the uses of a muted color tone within the entire movie helps to establish a peculiar and ambiguous atmosphere and setting.
“R-Point” by Kong Su Chang is a horror movie based on the subject of Korean military. Searching for the missing soldiers around the R-Point, 9 soldiers are thrown into the R-Point but somehow they are played by the ghost of a Vietnamese girl. After all the illusions and murders, only one soldier survives with his eyes injured. I honestly couldn’t see the film for 90% since I was very freaked out with the psychological horrors in this film, so I tried to focus on what I discovered from some of the scenes that I accidently watched as well as the hearing that I tried to focus on. By just hearing the sound, it was possible to discover what was happening in the film since the sound, especially in horror, take a very important role of creating the intensity as well as the suspense. First of all, most predominant sound in this film is obviously the gun shooting sound. At one scene, the gun doesnot just shot once but rather the continuously without stopping. This continuity represents the unstopping fear and the suspicion of the soldiers. With one or two shoots, people die; but the soldiers are scared of a 1% of chance that the enemy does not die. Also, they somehow kind of show their strength as a person with a gun towards the unknown/known enemy so that they can possibly calm down themselves of the endless and enormous fear.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, the second predominant sound is the bell. I am not sure what the bell represented visually, however, the sound of the bell, definitely, created the mysterious and urgent mood to the film. Very unique and cold sound alarms the audience that something very unusual and inhumane things will happen. The goose bumps, personally, covered my arms every single time the bell ringed in the movie. In Korea, it is ignore to imagine the diviner (점쟁이) with the tickle of the bell; always, the diviner invites the ghost into his/her body with the bell dancing that the bell sound somehow symbolizes the incoming ghost. Moreover, the beep(?) sound continuously comes out in the movie when some scenes are related to the ghost. The beep sound resembles the sound of sound that the graph shower in the hospital makes when a person’s heart stops beating. This sound also symbolizes the ghost as well.
I personally think this movie is well-made since the subject of this film seemed to be fairly unique. As well this movie composes both those psychological and visual horrors that comparing with those 3rd level of horror movies, this has more thought/ philosophy within its film.
Somin Seong.
Tina Nguyen
ReplyDeleteR point attempts to create a horror meets desperate soldiers scenario that becomes predictable from the start of the film. First we have our ghost whose face is white with long dark hair haunting the lieutenant of the platoon. We have our predictable array of characters, the strict sergeant, the brilliant commander and a platoon full of misfits. The characters are placed on an island that is distant from civilization and far away from any type of help. This creates a classic horror setting for the movie to take place. Because of the nature of the film we could also predict that the platoon would all die except one character while the others turn on each other sucuumbing to desperation and insanity.
The camera work added to the haunting feeling of the setting. Often, the characters were seen from behind shrouded in a creepy blue veil as if trying to present the view of the people in the other world. This gave the characters the feeling of being watched hastening their desperation and fall to insanity.
Miwon Kim
ReplyDeleteKorean Cinema
R-Point
R-Point, a Korean horror film directed by Kong Su-chang, is a movie set in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. The concept of this film is endless vengeance. Because Vietnamese people were killed ruthlessly by foreigners, they became ghosts and killed whoever came to the island.
The beginning starts off with the Lieutenant shooting at the Vietnamese girl. This later portrays what was written on the rock, which states that if you have ever killed someone, you cannot go back. This, in fact, refers to all the soldiers except one who went to the island. Also, the statement ‘I am where you are’ tells that the ghosts are nearby or the soldiers are the ghosts, which in the later scenes becomes true. I’m guessing that soldier Jang has not killed anyone, and therefore did not die when all the other soldiers died. Also, I think another reason why soldier Jang didn’t die is because he wasn’t associated with having sex with Vietnamese women. In the picture where the soldier Jang found in the box, the ghost woman is in the picture with the French soldiers. I think this suggests that the woman was sexually abused by the French soldiers, and that is why she tries to kill the Korean soldiers who had sex with Vietnamese women. In the beginning scene the lieutenant, for example, was with a prostitute trying to have sex. And, four of the soldiers were getting checked by the doctor for syphilis; however, soldier Jang was portrayed pure by saying that he traded his health card with some other guy just to get money.
This film successfully heightens the tension with its camera work and background sound. Unlike other Korean horror films that have obvious plots to scare the audience, this film incessantly keeps its thrill and tension. By using bleach bypass, the audience can feel different point of views. Normally, we are watching the film in audience’s point of view; however, with this technique, I feel like I’m watching the soldiers in ghost’s point of view. Moreover, the camera moving technique is very similar to that of the Japanese horror film, Ring.
The film "R-Point" has similar characteristics of "K-horror" because it uses the typical woman ghost with long black hair and white garments. The long shots used throughout the film clearly depict the vast emptiness of the land and how devoid it is of human activity. Nature is used as a representation of how the soldiers are physically trapped on the land through the usage of the bamboo jungle, dense and tall grass, and the caves that enclose them in like a makeshift jail. Foreshadowing was also commonly used throughout the film: the gravestone and especially when the American soldiers warned them of how no one leaves the land. This was one of the best methods used because it instilled a sense of hope inside the audience, and it had us rooting for them to escape. The final scene reveals a close up shot of Sergeant Jung's face mumbling to himself because of the trauma he had experienced, and the camera tracks out to show an empty room where the corpses of the dead soldiers once laid. This camera technique beautifully reveals the horrific cycle of revenge that will continue to occur because we realize it was foreshadowed in the beginning scene when the first wounded soldier claimed that all his men dead.
ReplyDeleteThe film used night vision and a hand-held camera view when depicting the viewpoint of the ghost. In this case, the film failed to present these scenes in a terrifying way as I found myself bored most of the time when the camera switched to night vision. Night vision is typically used by soldiers and I personally thought the night vision took away from the horrifying mood. One of the characteristics of this film that did instill fear in the audience were the extreme close ups of the ghost's bloody eye and the face paced chase sequences matched with the eerie, screeched music.
R-Point is a combination of war and ghost movie, which I think a typical summer movie in Korea. The female ghost with long black hair dressed in a white traditional dress and the 'Han' of dead soldiers follow the cliche patterns of Korean horror movie. However, not a fan of neither of the genres, I was a victim of "bodily genre" throughout the movie. As the characters encounters the spirits of dead soldiers, I would get goose bumps, tensed muscles and occasional yells. Although the ghosts are not shockingly deformed or monstrous, the atmosphere they created as the omnipresent third party was enough to get me chills. Additionally, the setting of the movie maximises the tension. The camera often takes long shots to show the character is completely alone in an abandoned land and puts the angles of the ghosts' perspective. The landscape of the film is covered with weeds and green mosses, which represent the power of nature and how the nature is unnaturally deformed in R-point region. The long shots of the setting amplify the unpleasant feeling throughout the movie. The high angle shots and bird's-eye shots made me close my eyes because it signals the characters are unprotected and exposed to the ghosts.
ReplyDeleteI rationalised that the movie reveals the ugliness of the war as the ghosts represent the soldiers' guilt they accumulated while in service. In order to survive, they have been dehumanised themselves and oppressed by the higher power. Killing to succeed their mission and to not get killed destructed their minds and came to believe some form of supernaturals haunting them down. Each deaths of soldiers reveals their own kind of guilt developed during their service; however, I did not like the sudden killing of remaining soldiers at the end. I thought the end should be more powerful to give the audience some lingering chill or to convey the idea of ugliness of the war.
by Woo Yeon Park
Delete"R Poing" is a horror movie that does not accommodate much graphic aid in order to build tension and fear. There are elements in this movie common in other horror movies, while some uncommon.
ReplyDelete"R Point" makes frequent uses of tracking shot, tilt, and pan just like many other horror films. The tracking shots were used to build tension, implying approaching dangers. Using the same logic in the opposite way, the camera moves away from the last survivor, implying that dangers now fade away, thus soothing tensions.
Tilt and pan are used in a similar way with the tracking shot. These are combined in several cases in the movie. The camera starts at a high angle shot then moves forward and down to an eye-level or a normal shot. This kind of camera movement frequently appears in the movie, illustrating the backgrounds then protagonists later. The background setting plays a big role in building tension. The dark and foggy setting that dominates the entire movie constructs an exciting and scary atmosphere.
Along with the use of backgrounds to construct a scary atmosphere, the movie uses sound effects and film color. The amplifying sound conveys growing tension and dangers. The film often uses green-filtered screen to illustrate the view from ghosts. This visual presentation draws a clear line between different perspectives that of humans and that of ghosts.
The movie not only constructs a scary atmosphere through the green-filtered screen, but also uses it to build fast pace. By alternating two different film colors from different angles, the movie gradually shortens its takes' length, building dynamics in the scene.
All these elements are accommodated at the highlight of the movie when the green-filtered camera moves among protagonists along with a squeaky sound.
All these elements mentioned above are fairly observed in many other horror movies. The unique aspect of this film is that it does not illustrate ghosts with extreme graphic presentation or exaggeration if you will. The visual exaggeration in horror films has developed or intensified with the development of graphic technology. "R Point", however, minimizes visual effects on ghosts. This in fact creates a weird situation later in which the audience cannot discern ghosts from humans. The movie tries to construct a horrifying atmosphere not mainly from the visual presentation, but from an idea that anything could be a threat. In this way, "R-Point" takes a unconventional approach towards the genre of horror movie, yet from my personal view, has failed to construct enough horrifying mood. "Epitaph" was a movie that did better job in doing this.
Young Joon Kim
ReplyDeleteThe film R-Point by Kong Su-Chang utilizes long tracking shots of the men or one soldier to foreshadow impending death or evoke fear of the bizarre unknown that haunts R-point. For example, in the scene where corporal Joh(?) gets lost in the field, we are shown a long shot of the corporal all alone portraying an eerie atmosphere. Although the corporal is indeed alone, the scene gives a chilling sensation that something is lurking about in the mise en scene, even if we do not see it. The lack of normality in a seemingly normal setting of an empty field coupled with suspenseful background noise removes the viewer and the story from normalcy, into the unknown where a sequence of events follows that leads to chaos and death.
The film also uses green/blue filtered shots to give the point of view of the "other" or the ghost that consumes all of the soldiers in the end. These medium or long tracking shots are filtered in a different color to give the sense that we are witnessing a point of view that is not human. To add to the horror-movie cinematography, these shots also emphasize the surrounding shadows centering the men or moving in between them or behind them to portray a sort of 1-dimensional sensation of a predator about to attack its prey.
Although the film tends to be "obtuse" or extremely vague as to what it is that is killing the soldiers off one by one, R-point utilizes these point of view shots and long shots to build the characters but more importantly the ghost itself or speculation as to what or who the killer is. However I thought the scenes of the vietnamese girl were unnecessary and rather ruined the story of what the "ghost" is. I was hoping R-point would shy away from the typical long haired girl ghost or disturbed soul and focus more on the souls of the dead soldiers.
Sora Paik
ReplyDeleteThe movie R-point was somewhat different than any other Korean horror mocies that are released. Almost all the horror movies scares out of audiences by an sudden appear of objects or anything by startling the audiences. However, the R-point gradually creating the mood of horror and scaries the audiences. It absolutely brings the audiences' curiosity out about what will happen and who will die for the next. This storyline does creates more and more tensions as the film gets to the ending scene.
Since the story is based on the invisible ghost killing soldiers in the region of R-point, there are camera shooting the scene as the perspectives of the 3rd person. I assum this perspective is from ghosts'. Throughout the film, there are lots of camera techniques, however, I personally think this technique stands out the most. When camera shoot the scene with the perstive of ghost, it shows the scenes in green color by differenciating the view of normal ones. Also, the camera mostly zooms into the characters pretty closely when the ghost tried to look at them and go inside of thier body. The characters also stares at the camera straightly with horrified faces. Also, when it shoot the defecation scene of the three soldiers in the field, the camera gradually moved towards them and it suddenly stops zooming in when characters look back feeling something is coming up.The camera moves very rapidly, plus, with the weird sound when it moves fast like the director might wanted the audiences to feel the movement of the ghost more effectively. This camera movement and techniques overally took huge parts of the film.
From what I heard, there are a lot of analysis of the movie R-point. The one that survived untill the last is surgent Jang. How was he able to survive? The first reason is that accidently losing of his eyesight and doesn't get to see that invisible ghosts which was the reason why everyone killed theirselves. The second reason is that sergent Jang was the only one who did not get blood on his hand. To go back to the scene where the soldiers finally arrived the region of R-point, they see a monument saying "If you get blood on your hand, you cannot go back." This could explain why he survived, because only he did not shoot the vietnamese girl at first. However, the last scene that sergent Jang was all alone in the building which was taken with the long shot, remains as irony. Where all the dead bodies of other soldiers go and why does everything look so clean like he was the only one who was suffered? It also suggests the analysis that sergent Jang only survived from the fight before and what led the story and him was the ghosts of the other soldiers. This movie creates tons of anlaysis. I really think this is intersting. Additionally, the ending scene has a huge impact. Before the soldiers come to the R-point, the sound from radio receiver was "하늘소 하늘소 여기는 당나귀 삼공 당나귀 삼공 We're alive....." however, the donkey changes to a mole at the ending scene. A mole was the password that the last soldiers used. Thus, it indirectly shows the nightmate will go on and on.
Jieun Yoon
ReplyDeletePersonally, I hate to watch horror films, so I've been worried about not only watching this film, but also writing response about it. I expected it'll be a torture to me. However, it turned out to be one of the outstanding films I've watched. "R-point" isn't just showing tons of ghost, like other conventional Korean horror movies, but it kept the audiences in tension by the storyline and music. One more reason why this film is considered as outstanding one is because it can be interpreted in various ways.
There were two interesting points in this film. First, it gives hints before something happens. At the first scene, the only survived soldier meant there will be only one survivorat the end. Also, when the 9 soldiers arrived atthe Romeo point and found the rock with Chinese character saying, "The one who got blood on his hand cannot return." Second, in R-Point, it keep shows the ghosts' view.
I enjoyed not only watching this film, but also guessing the meaning of some points that weren't clear and search how others interpreted this film.
Dong Kyun Lim
ReplyDelete"R-Point" is one of the most horrific films I have ever seen. Unlike classical horror films that scares the audience with sudden and gory monster scenes, "R-Point" creates gradual suspense as if the ghost is slowly tightening his or her neck. Throughout the film, many questions are left unanswered. Who hung the soldier? Who are the French soldiers on the radio? Why did the "ghost" spare young soldier's life? What is the identity of the killer? The director is trying to illustrate man vs. fear. Before soldiers are killed, the soldiers were calm and full of hope to see their family after the mission. However, when they listen to recorded voice of dying fellow soldiers on the radio, white ghost frequently appears. Especially in the last scene when the soldiers murders each other, the close up shots in night vision gradual approaches to the target. Many ominous cues leads to the fear of unknown, such as, the chinese writing on the grave stone, fog, and a pool of blood in the radio transmission.
I think the soldiers were fighting against the fear of unknown, not the "ghost" The woman with white dress is just a delusion as a result of feeling guilty after killing the woman in the bamboo forest. Because we tend to see what we fear the most, only a few soldier out of nine could see the the woman with white dress at the same time. When the leader of squad order the youngest to soldier to shoot the woman, we can see that his fear ultimately killed him, not the ghost.
Myoung Su Ko
ReplyDeleteKorean cinema
2013-07-24
R-Point
I usually do not like war movies, because war films often have similar plots or ideas and it is easy to imagine the endings of them. However, R-Point bucks the trend. I was shocked by the twists and turns in this movie. The ending was not what I expected. I was expecting a "blood and guts" war movie, but instead, I got treated to a psychological thriller. R-point is such a strong film that makes the audiences’ hearts racing with panic, without any unneeded special effect or lame murderer scenes.
This film doesn't skimp away on the character development, and I think this makes the film more effective. Each person has a name, a way they react to one another and are plausible characters. It adds to the viewer's compassion that everyone except the lieutenant are poor uneducated saps trying to get home to their families and villages. Then they die.
Moreover, the feeling of hopelessness is both a strong and weak part of the movie. On one hand, if you are in the middle of things you can hardly just give up, but on the other hand, if you see there is nothing you can do, why bother? And if the characters are obviously ill equipped to deal with the situation, the details are irrelevant for some viewers.
As usual in the latest Asian horror, the ghosts are hardly interested in the logic of things. There is no right or wrong, they just need to separate people from their lives and they do it in the creepiest way. I believe R-Point is pretty scary and would have a maximum effect while watched at night with no lights on.
Dear Professor!
ReplyDeleteI'm in 3.4 group but I couldn't watch "epitaph" properly because it was too scary. I did watch it but, not in depth. So, I am posting on R-point instead, which I think was better to watch as a horror movie.
R-point was a very interesting movie. The story plot reminded me of "Battle Royale",the Japanese movie, and the novel "Lord Of the Flies" in a way that everyone was trapped in a certain place and everyone got killed one by one because of the rule or spell that was executed. R-point is a damned place where everyone gets possessed by the ghost's play. Each of the army member get killed as they transform to the ghost's soul. At the end, Choi sees a woman ghost and orders the blind soldier to shoot, however, it was an illusion of Choi and he gets shot tragically. I think that was a brilliant end, which again was the tricks of the ghosts. The movie did not explain much of why and how this thing was working, but it tried to explain by depicting the process. It tried to show that they were being played or watched by ghosts by displaying in a different camera. The camera screen becomes green just like seeing through another equipment. That third point of view makes us believe that there is a third person that might not be a human form. The first death was extremely shocking. One soldier sits down on the staircase and gets a bucket of blood fall all over his face. When he looks up we see the dead man hanging. It really shocks the audience in an extreme way, and this first death was impactful. The art directing really matched the tone of the movie. The color was greenish and toned down, which explains the whole mood of gruesomeness and horror. The pace of the movie is very well made as it really does not let us to watch in relief for a second. Everyone had to have their nerves on and anticipate the next death. The movie ends in tragedy, but it was an amazing end,which really ended the movie in how the power and tricks of the ghost is absolute.
-Jeongwon Moon
June Wie
ReplyDeleteR Point was a horror film that showed a group of men in a haunted area in Vietnam. There was a lot of foreshadowing throughout the movie. When they meet the girl and are deciding who should kill her it foreshadowed that she would come back to kill them. Another example was that the group had gone to find a group that was missing and at the end the same thing happens to them besides Jung, the only survivor.
There was alot if elements that are typical within an Asian horror film. The girl ghost with the long black hair and the white dress was a typical character in Asian/Korean films. Also the theme of religion was relevant in this movie because of the ghost. There was a temple in this movie which I found was symbolic.
The movie had a lot of long shots that showed where the soldiers were. The house that they stayed in was shown in long shot multiple times throughout the movie. Also the scenery within Vietnam was shown multiple times through a long shot. There were also lots of medium shots in which the characters faces and expressions were shown. I thought a scene that was very eerie was when they realize that the American soldiers they talked to were actually ghosts and the actual soldiers had died. I am not very good at watching horror movies so the gore and freight that the movie portrayed was difficult for me to watch. However, i did find the movie to be interesting and somewhat intriguing. The ending with Jung talking throughout the night was very sad and I thought it was interesting how it ended with a long shot of the house.
Dong Min Shin
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen a lot of Korean horror movies before, so I'm not really informed what 'classic' Korean movie is. However, R-point seems like it makes a good variation from being too cliche. Although R-point has elements of horror, the main subject is war. The supernatural elements and sudden dramatic zoom in and close ups of expressions are typical to horror movies. However, the movie barely shows any real "ghostly" ghosts compared to the previous movie Gidam. There aren't many gores except for blood and so-called ghosts looks more like normal humans or just moving corpses. Also, the suspense comes from the unknown "something" that is always following the soldiers. By hiding direct exposure of the ghost until the end and leaving out enough explanations, the horror comes from the fact that even the viewers, just like the soldiers, don't have a clear explanation for the malicious supernatural force.
In order to build suspense, R-Point uses a lot of camera angles from above, below, or behind the subject, making the viewers to hide and peek at the soldiers. Often, the view is disturbed by some obstacles placed in front of it such as turning fan, telephone cord, soldiers, bushes, and grass. The movie especially uses a lot of long shots to show the soldiers, as we are watching them from afar among the grass. Later, the movie uses even more direct approach to depict the unknown malicious force that is creeping on them by using green-toned handheld camera scenes. However, we're not sure whose exactly are those green viewpoints are. Is it the dead soldier? One of the Donkey Three soldiers? The Vietnamese girl? We never know for sure.
Dayeon Hyeon
ReplyDeleteIn the beginning, an unknown soldier appears and goes to R-point along with the soldiers. Not so many audiences will recognize that the one of the ten people is a ghost. In my opinion, this ghost might come out to meet these soldiers to welcome them coming to R-point. This ghost is alike the death angel bringing the soldiers to the death. When a female Vietnamese were shooting to soldiers, it was so weird that none of them got a single shot. At the end, audience can actually as guess that the soldiers might be killed at this moment already. Later, when soldiers are killing each other, director indirectly shows that the soldiers were ghost already. Mr. Choi wishes to go and check up the forest not to look for dead body of the Vietnamese lady, but to find dead body of himself. It implies that they were killed in the forest already. Also, when Mr. Park is killed, director shows Park’s legs and audience can see that lights go through the park’s legs, which means park does not have legs, and park is a ghost already.
The tombstone in the island says that people cannot go back if they killed someone. The individuals seem to be kind, but as soldiers, they had killed numerous people including Vietnamese prostitute. Their guilty and fear must remain in their mind. In r point, their guilt and fear visually appeared as ghosts, and made themself crazy. During the movie, ghost does not physically attack people, but people kill themselves, alike they killed people during the war. In the island, everyone but Mr. jung, the youngest could survive. There are two reasons of his survive. The boy is the one who was the most pure through the soldiers. He was young, so he might not kill anyone unlike other soldiers. Also he was blind which did not visually confuse him. Normally people believe what they see, but director is telling us that what we see is not always true. We could see 10th soldiers and Vietnamese lady but they all did not exist. Mr. Jung who became physically blind, could not be blinded by ghosts. Because he was blind, he could survive.
Korean history of Vietnam War and horror are greatly combined tin this film, R-point. Many of famous horror films in Korea have Japanese atmosphere. However this one is very Korean at the same time, it is very calm compared to other horror films.
Jae Young Lee
ReplyDeleteThe movie, R-point, is story about that soldiers reach to romeo point in order to look for their vanished soldiers during vietnam war and 8 of 9 soldiers die misteriously. Also, the ghost does not come out many times and the sound is not like dreariness in this movie. R-point attracts audiences to offer scary places.
R-point is very comparative with other horror movies. This movie shows different horror in the war which is made by human. Vietnam war is especially the example that explains a lot of citizens in vietnam were murdered with no reason during the war. In this movie, 8 soldiers are covered with the ghost by turns and they kill each other. The ghost does not join to murder directly. Personaly, i am very scared to see that the ghost stands in front of me or runs into me.
Therefore, R-point offers the place to show terrible horror. Firstly, one of the horros in this movie is the background of terrible war. Secondly, the ghost goes inside of human and control to murder.
Gayoung Park
ReplyDeleteR-Point is a well made Korean horror film written and directed by Su-chang Gong. This movie used interesting camera techniques which attracted people to focus more on the scene and aroused many questions from the audience.
The green filtered effect played very important role in this movie. It hints that some mystery thing is watching at soldiers which was interpreted as the view of the ghost. This view appeared either when soldiers were having conflicts or frightened by horrific mood. This effect insinuated that they were in danger and that they felt mental insecurity. Transition between green-filtered and unfiltered scene also let audience to understand both human and ghost perspectives.
Some close shots were also used in this movie. For instance, close shot was used to highlight the important object such as the woman's bracelet, the radio transmitter, and the bleeding eye of female ghost.
There were few things that I did not understand. I was bewildered by the survival of Sergeant Jang since everyone died except him, so I came up with possible personal explanation. When soldiers enter the island, they see "People who have touched people's blood cannot go back" This would have applied to every soldiers;however, Sergeant Jang lost his military serial number chain which meant life to soldiers and this might have caused him to escape from the spirit of the ghost and death. Moreover, if this was meant to people who have killed or touched people's blood in R-point, Sergeant Jang was never take part in killing people. He was the only one who was not applied to this saying. Last of all, grenade explosion made Sergeant Jang completely blind and it would have hurt his hearing sense as well. Therefore, he was able to escape from auditory hallucinations, visual hallucinations, and delusion of possession. As Sergeant Jang was excluded from these fear factors, he would have been able to keep himself alive.
I felt a bit disappointed due to the unclear closure to the mystery of R-Point. I could not understand why all the corpses are disappeared except Sergeant Jang; I was unsure if I should interpret this scene as everyone was ghost except Sergeant Jang or the spirit of the ghosts took their corpses. There are many unanswered questions throughout the film, and I felt like this happened because the director wanted to show too many things in the limited time. However, I still enjoyed watching this film and wish to find out the meaning of some mysterious scenes through class discussion tomorrow.
The movie, "R-Point" set in Vietnam War, vividly describes how one party of Korean army invades one Vietnamese town killing Vietnamese and recognizes that their party are already all dead as time passes. As a horror movie set in war,this movie shows scenes in a way maximizing human fear about untouchable objects seen as Vietnamese ghosts. All people in Korean army party are given the changes in his point of view. Their views turn green and each Korean army gradually realizes that they are not alive anymore but their spirits stayed in the old place for some reasons. The change of color in background in scenes implies that each character gets varied and distrusting point of view. So, it is proved that the change in background color of scenes can indirectly shows each character's emotion and feeling without narrations.
ReplyDeleteOther than the background color change of scene, instant and urgent movement in viewpoint between scenes gives the audience the feeling of potential scariness about invisible but hostile objects. The blurring scenes in this movie properly depict how each character's fear gets bigger. For example, the point of view projected by camera mostly heads toward back of each character. While these scenes effectively show how each character loses his mind and feels awful, the audience cannot concentrate on whole sequence of these scary scenes without suspension of extreme changes in each character's feeling. So, it seems that the balance between urgent scenes for rising fear and illustrating scenes for movie story is important to help the audience understand the storyline in this movie.