 |  | | | | | | ©2008 Showbox/KD Media | There are hundreds of guide posts (GPs) along the length of the North-South Korean border. South and North Korean troops stationed at them are at a constant state of alert, with heavy artillery pointed at one another. These installations, a cross between a military depot and an underground bunker, are almost self-contained worlds.
One of them, GP 506, has stopped sending messages to headquarters. An experienced MP investigator Sergeant Noh (Cheon Ho-jin, "A Dirty Carnival") and a cynical medical officer (Lee Jeong-heon, "Humming," "Silmido") are sent to find out what happened. They find the troops literally drawn and quartered: the video evidence indicates the murders were committed by Private Kang (Lee Young-hoon, "No Regrets"), a resident clown and the least likely candidate for going postal.
Further complications are introduced when they find the GP leader Lieutenant Yoo (Jo Hyun-jae, "Untold Scandal") hiding in the basement, half-crazy with fear and suspicion.
And things don't get much clearer after that. Kong Su-chang's "R-Point," a Vietnam-set supernatural horror film, garnered praise and box office clout with finely orchestrated ensemble acting and authentic Kampuchean locations. "Guide Post," his follow-up, is also set in the military environment, and again makes use of excellent male thespians, as they growl, banter and confront one another. Unfortunately, the similarities end there.
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Kong makes the fatal miscalculation of pushing his film toward another sub-genre of horror altogether, and then simply sitting on that (not uninteresting) premise.
Except for one explosive sequence where Lieutenant Yoo's victim, crushed beneath a van, suddenly comes alive to dispatch a hapless soldier, the "real culprit" behind the shenanigans is poorly handled by the filmmakers. What could have been an intriguing Korean variation on, say, "24 Days After," turns instead into a lugubrious, unimaginative splatter film, fatally devoid of any sense of humor, self-awareness, even political relevance.
Veteran Cheon Ho-jin and supporting players, including Jo and Lee, gamely wade through the bloody miasma, but they can do only so much with the one-dimensional characters they are given. The music score by Choi Seung-hyun lifts pieces from "J.S.A." to disastrous effects. (Why keep reminding the viewers of a superior film set in a similar background?).
One positive thing I can cite for this misguided project is the level of technical achievements, especially special makeup effects designed by L.C.M. (Lee Chang-man, Lee Myong-ok and others): they are as shockingly realistic as those found in medium-level Hollywood productions, if not better.
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"Guide Post" is recommended only to the diehard fans of horror cinema or military hardware buffs: those with a low level of tolerance for a murky, confusing narrative or gruesome, messy violence should stay away.
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