HorrorSpeak---Terror Awaits You in Every Forum!!!!: Asian Zombie film Review Series 3: G.P. 506

G.P. 506 (2008)

For the third week of Asian zombie action, we find ourselves in South Korea for a strange sudo-zombie tale called GP506, the GP standing for Guard Post.

Warning, this review will contain a fair amount of spoilers, but that should not really matter for two reasons, firstly, this film is a long way away from getting a US or European release. I don’t think that the Korean DVD is even out yet, so you will probably have forgotten the details of the review way before any of you will actually see the film. Secondly, just about every event in the film is about as unexpected as a runaway freight train carrying a full load of dynamite while on fire is quiet.

The story begins with a group of Korean military police investigating a guard post (since the two Koreas are still technically at war, the guard posts are fully manned and are located along the DMZ) after contact with it had been broken. Inside they find two survivors and a lot of people parts.

Finding this situation out of the ordinary they call in a special military investigator who attempts to find out what the hell is going on.

Before long they notice people start to change. They develop symptoms that look similar to leprosy and become prone to violent outbursts.

At this point things get interesting. The infected attack the non infected and the moral of the troops suffers.

Finally everything comes to a head and there is much shooting things.

G.P. 506 is a very recent Korean zombie film, and in zombie premise its similar to 28 Days Later. Instead of its zombies the film really features the reactions and interactions of the MP’s who are investigating the scene as everything goes to hell. The story takes place during one long night and the current time flashes on the screen at the start of many scenes. This approach is interesting, but it begins to fall apart in a few ways.

The big problem seems to be the flashbacks. As the investigators find out new things it usually triggers a flashback which mixes with the action in a such a ill defined way that frequently you don’t know if you are watching the main story or another flashback. The story also has twists and turns that are not always logical. This was directed by the same person who wrote Tell Me Something, which is one of my favorite Korean horror film, and similarly that film felt fine with letting the narrative blur a little in favor of strange events and twists in the story. The same thing is done here, only will less style.

Don’t get me wrong, G.P. 506 is not a bad film, its just average. About as many people will like it as dislike it. But I feel it is worth seeing, they do have a few interesting ideas and their take on the zombie is at least slightly unique.

At the moment you cant really get this film the legal way yet, but it should become widely available in the future, either with purely a Korean DVD release, which could then be played in North American players, or with domestic releases in Europe and North America.

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