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47 Review by Dean Crawford KOREAN DVD CORNER THE SMALL SCREEN Directed by Kong Su-chang R With Christmas just around the corner, what better way to celebrate the festive season than by watching two of the best Korean horror films from the last 10 years? “That’s not very fes- tive,” I hear you say. Well, unlike Heo Jin-ho’s “Christmas in August” (1998), one of these films actually has some snow, so does that help? Growing up in the early ’90s meant there was no way of finding out about foreign cinema ex- cept for reading monthly magazines or spend- ing hours browsing a video shop. However, one way of ensuring you chose a quality foreign release was to look for anything distributed by Tartan Extreme, the foremost authority on bring- ing quality foreign movies to a British audience. I was particularly fond of their spin-off label Asia Extreme, and I would literally choose their films at random knowing that I would never be disap- pointed. It was through this method that I found out about several classics, including Takashi Miike’s fantastic “Audition” (1999), but one Asia Extreme release that passed me by was Kong Su-chang’s highly rated “R-Point” (2004). Set in 1972 during the Vietnam War, Lieuten- ant Choi Tae-in (Kam Woo-sung) is sent to the infamous R-Point site on a mission to recover a missing platoon. En route, his men engage in gunfire with a Vietnamese woman, who is killed. Forced to take shelter in an abandoned mansion, the platoon immediately gets a sense of unease as members of Lt. Choi’s squad start dying one by one. “R-Point” utilizes some of my favorite horror tropes and executes them very well. But I par- ticularly like the moment when a soldier fixes a tape player and the rest of the squad dances to music by ’50s instrumental band The Ventures. Suddenly, the music cuts out and is replaced by the sounds of Choi’s squad screaming and kill- ing each other. Very creepy stuff. I also love how the spirit plays with their minds; the soldiers all have secrets and the spirit knows them. You can run from a bullet, but you can’t run from yourself. As far as I’m aware, “R-Point” is the only Vi- etnam-inspired horror movie, which may come as no surprise because you’ll have a hard time bettering this one. Action / Drama / Horror 106 minutes R-Point 알 포인트 While wandering in the strange woods known as the Spider Forest, Kang-min (Kam Woo-sung) comes across an old cabin wherein his girlfriend, struggling for life, is laying beside a dead body. After seeing the unknown attacker hiding out- side the cabin, he gives chase but is hit by a car. The murderer lingers over Kang-min, watching his life slip away as he falls into a coma. Upon awakening, Kang-min tries to piece together the events that led to the death of his girlfriend, which proves increasingly difficult as his memo- ries seem to contradict the evidence at hand. Is Kang-min trying to cover his tracks or are the mysterious secrets of the Spider Forest real and trying to claim another victim? I feel like it’s almost a cliché to describe an art house film as Lynch-ian, but the mood and dream-like (or is that nightmare-like?) feel of this film bears a striking resemblance to “Eraserhead” (1977), and its Möbius strip narrative owes a debt to “Lost Highway” (1997). It’s a slow and foreboding film that challenges its viewer with unanswered questions. It’s no surprise that the film fared better overseas than in Korea upon its initial release 10 years ago, as it definitely has a European avant-garde sensibility running through its core. Song Il-gon proves himself to be an accom - plished independent director in terms of style and story, but he also manages to get some of the best performances I’ve seen in a Korean movie in a long while. The natural inclination for actors to overplay each scene is nowhere to be seen, so when Kang-min finally does explode it packs a punch, rather than feeling like another in a long line of over-the-top moments. I may have approached the movie as a tongue- in-cheek way of celebrating the festive season, but I ended up getting an excellent early Christ- mas present that I never expected. If you’re a fan of psychological thrillers and films that deal with identity, then “Spider Forest” (2004) is a must- see. Directed by Song il-gon R Thriller / Mystery 112 minutes Spider Forest 거미숲
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47page