The Guard Post (2008)

Wonderfully offbeat film!

From my favorite movies..

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Maybe some of you would say that this movie is good and appalling.Yes, they make the prosthetic faces disgusting enough for some of you. But, just that nothing more. With addition a little bit of action, many talks and talks again, and there even no a slightest humor in there: make this 2 hour long movie seems so boring.And for the plot, there so many obscurities about that: the origin of viruses, how they spread, etc etc.For us to know, that this film is a horror genre, there is no use to make the quasi-dramtical int there. The film should scare us in the context of amusement, instead of that, this film just makes me irritated. They makes the horror movie halfheartedly.And 2 hours seems like forever.

Ever since "Aliens" debuted in the eighties, I've been a rabid fan of the once subgenre: Military Horror. A once thoroughly unexplored branch of the general horror genre, films such as "Dog Soldiers" "R-Point" and "The Bunker"--to name a few, have excitedly fleshed out the intersection of military service and funereal goings on.A veteran myself, I can only laude the writer who understands the suitability of military life as border to the unexplainable and its fertility for forays into the unknown. That said, "The Guard Post" is a two hour tour de force foray into the realms of psychological and brutal corporeal terror.Presentation is amazing--a grey, iron hard military outpost manned by a handful of heavily armed soldiers daily humping live ammo just a few hundred meters from their enemy counterparts across a no man's land of concertina and landmines. The setting is great: the soldiers of GP 506 were living under immense tension long before their lives diverged into the unknown. Add to that brutal South Korean military taditions, accidental fire on enemy postions, and the stage is set for even a unit of elite paratroopers to come unglued at the drop of a spent shell casing.Some of the imagery alone is brutal enough to get you out of your seat, while psychological tension is ratcheted without mercy, building inevitably toward the next "incident". If you love a story that begins with an armed unit in solid control of a ghastly situation, with well armed men sweeping dark corridors where evidence presents of goulish goings on, and continues on toward the at first slow loss of control over said situation, you will thoroughly love this film. Additionally, the subtitles, and foreign sentence structures of an unknown (to most) culture serve to add further tension and alienation during the experience.While long for a horror film, I was continually watching the play time bar, willing it to slow down. This one is a great find, a gem among scores of so so to downright unwatchable films of the genre, and after viewing this one, I want more!

This Korean movie looked really promising and definitely has some great cinematography to offer. One thing is for sure, there must be a strange interest for war/army horror movies ... RPoint, Dog Soldiers, The Bunker and even remakes of those movies, well GP506 fits in between these movies fine. The movie is set on a guard post on the North/South Korean border where strange happenings occurred and a whole team of 21 soldiers got killed. The one surviving is killed when found blood drenched and wielding with an axe among the remains of the other soldiers. Since the army wants to cover up what happened one soldier is sent in to uncover what happened that night before 6o clock in the morning when an army troop arrives to cease the evidence. From here on the uncovering begins slowly (the movie is 2 hours long, so I expected it) and the new team of soldiers soon finds another surviving man who hesitates to tell his story. The movie is edited in an interesting way of flash backs telling the story fragments found in diaries and the movie soon turns out to be a mix of The Bunker and The crazies because whats behind it all is not the ghost movie you expect at the beginning. I don't want to ruin too much for you, because otherwise you'd spend 2 pretty slow hours to reach the final twist. The problem is that the movie is way to long and repetitive... the visuals are nice, the editing is interesting but it wears off soon. After all its a lot of drama elements in there and although there is some blood its rather on the sidelines for me. GP506 could have been a great movie but its way too long and fragmented for me and will sure not please the typical horror crowd with its ending. If you can't get enough of the movies mentioned before give it a try, but I think its not the same class even though the cinematography is superior to e.g. The Bunker.

Like many of you who've seen this flick or who are about to see it, you most likely have grown to really appreciate South Korea's brand of film-making. From the Chan Wook Park Revenge Trilogy to whacked out films like Save the Green Planet, S. Korea is certainly a lead runner in countries that are producing some of the best modern movies. So when I had the opportunity to check out G.P. 506, I pretty much jumped at the chance. And like the consistent output of this country's cinema, this is also another entry to add to their ever growing list of accomplished films.G.P. 506 is pretty weird. It's encompasses drama, mystery and horror, and does a pretty good job doing so. Going into the flick I was only aware of it's horror elements, so be fore-warned that this film is not solely horror. It's more so a mystery/drama than anything else, though horror elements are clearly present. Anyways, the story revolves around a G.P. aka Guard Post, that has fallen silent. An investigator and new team go in to investigate and what they find is horrific and completely puzzling. With a theme of infection, the movie eventually becomes a survival-type flick with lots of second-guessing. Which is most definitely a fresh take on this type of genre.Overall, G.P. 506 was a pretty good ride. The film delivers good acting, nice direction and solid atmosphere. But it also leaves you with too many questions when the film ends. And ones that you really can't just think of some philosophical answer for. It's more like: I wish they showed this or showed more of that.... Also, the flashbacks were somewhat hard to read. Only by the end did I begin to grasp them.Nevertheless, the flick was entertaining enough and is easily recommendable for people who enjoy a slow-burn type of flick. Being a fan of South Korean cinema wouldn't hurt either.