The Good, The Bad, The Weird

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  • Movie: The Good, The Bad, The Weird
  • Revised Romanization: Joheunnom nabbeunnom isanghannom
  • Hangul: 좋은 놈, 나쁜 놈, 이상한 놈
  • Director: Ji-woon Kim
  • Writer: Ji-woon Kim, Min-suk Kim
  • Producer: Jae-Won Choi
  • Cinematographer: Mo-gae Lee
  • Release Date: July 17, 2008
  • Runtime : 137 min.
  • Production Budget: US$ 15M
  • Studio: Barunson Film Divsion, Grimm Pictures
  • Distributor: CJ Entertainment
  • Country: South Korea
  • Language: Korean
  • Available Online:

Plot

In the 1930s, the world is in chaos. In Northeast Asia, the Korean Peninsula has fallen into the hands of the Japanese Imperialists. Many Koreans have flocked to Manchuria, the vast terrain of horses and wilderness bordering their homeland and China. Some of them, inevitably, have turned into mounted bandits to earn their living in this barren wasteland.

UTae-gu (The Weird) is a thief. He robs a train of Japanese military officers, but the incident is not as simple as it first seems. In the middle of this fierce gun battle against the Japanese, he obtains a mysterious map that leads to a treasure from the Qing Dynasty, buried somewhere in Manchuria.

Yet, the map is also sought by Chang-yi, the cold blooded hitman (The Bad). Tae-gu must fight not only the Japanese but also Chang-yi and his fellow thugs, who happen to attack the train at the same time. At the end of this intense gunfight, a mysterious man jumps into the center of the battle from nowhere and rescues Tae-gu with astonishing gunplay. Having survived the battle, Tae-gu thanks the man for saving his life. Yet, he does not know that this stranger is Do-won, the bounty hunter (The Good), who has been chasing Tae-gu to turn him in for a reward. These three men - Do-won (The Good), Chang-yi (The Bad) and Tae-gu (The Weird) - will soon discover that the map they are battling for is also a magnet that attracts others as diverse as the Korean resistance, Chinese/Russian/Korean mountain bandits and the Japanese army. The blazing gun battle in the train proves to be merely the beginning of the rollercoaster ride to the final showdown to come.

Director's Statement

The broad plains of Manchuria offer a seemingly boundless landscape of earth and sky, long ruled by wild men and their horses. It became a battle field for great powers in 1930s. And it also became a land of exile for Koreans wandering there. Do-won, the bounty hunter, Chang-yi, the cold-blooded hitman and Tae-gu, the train bandit, are players in an epic story staged against Manchuria’s striking, exotic landscape.

I would like to express the overflowing emotion filling the endless landscape with a matter of life and death, but I also want to do it in a rather humorous way. On yet another level, I want to show the audience the faces of Koreans of that era who had been abandoned by their homeland and by the insurmountable tide of history.

Personally, this film also represents a genre that I have envisioned during my previous filmmaking endeavors. With this never-before-seen genre of the “Oriental Western”, I want to create cinematic excitement and the sensation of wild action staged on a vast and exotic landscape. -- Ji-woon Kim

Notes

  1. During mid-production Showbox/Mediaplex pulled out as distributor and replaced by CJ Entertainment.
  2. "The Good, The Bad, The Weird" used the novel approach of wiring their cameramen and having them follow the actors in unison.

Cast

Kang-ho Song Byung-hun Lee Woo-sung Jung
Tae-gu Yun Chang-yi Park Do-won Park

Supporting Cast

Trailer

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Image Gallery



Comments

  • Comment #1
    lunapark6 Says:
    Dec 22 2008 12:54 am

    “The Good, The Bad, The Weird” is easily the most anticipated Korean movie of the year and, for once, the movie lives up to all the hype. The film has had some rough spots in its early production stages, losing investor/distributor Showbox during mid-production and encountering numerous delays after that. Even with these problems, the film features director Ji-woon Kim (The Quiet Family/The Foul King/A Tale of Two Sisters/A Bittersweet Life) and three of Korea’s most recognized acting names (Byung-hun Lee, Kang-ho Song, Woo-sung Jung) in the lead roles. It’s also an unique Asian Western film. Now that’s a lot to get excited about.

    Set in Manchuria, China, during the 1930’s, a legendary map leading to priceless buried treasures is sold to the Japanese Army by an unscrupulous Korean criminal organization. The Korean crime gang then hires notorious killer Chang-yi Park (Byung-hun Lee) to steal back the map, so they can retrieve the buried treasures for themselves. Meanwhile, the Korean Independence Movement hires bounty hunter extraordinaire Do-won Park (Woo-sung Jung) to steal the map from the Japanese Army before killer Chang-yi Park is able to do so. Both of these men then descend upon a train traveling through the Manchurian desert to retake the legendary map.

    A hitch is thrown in both of these men’s plan when train bandit Tae-gu Yun (Kang-ho Song) descends upon the train and takes the map while these two rivals fight among themselves. Now a race is on between killer Chang-yi Park and bounty hunter Do-won Park to find Tae-gu Yun, before he takes the buried treasures and disappears into the Manchurian dessert.

    Holy Kimchi Western! “The Good, The Bad, The Weird” is the action picture of the year and provides the kind of popcorn entertainment not seen since Joon-ho Bong’s “The Host”. The film takes inspiration from the Spaghetti Westerns of yesteryears and incorporates that style into the backdrop of Manchuria, China circa 1930’s, a chaotic time not so dissimilar to the days of the wild west in America. The visuals are stunning, with colors as bright as a comic book and action sequences that are exhilarating. Some of the reasons for the action scenes having such a unique look lies with director Ji-woon Kim’s unique technique of incorporating wired cameramen following the actors as they ride & fly through the dessert.

    The actors, especially Byung-hun Lee and Kang-ho Song, give the type of performances that stays in your head long after the end credits roll around. Although Woo-sung Jung’s ultra-cool persona may have been just too precise, Byung-hun Lee simply gives the most charismatic performance of his career & Kang-ho Song gives a performance that will make non-Koreans understand why he is so revered by Koreans.

    Make note that Kim doesn’t hold back on the violence and the movie sheds enough blood to fill up two Asian horror films. I found the level perfectly acceptable and needed to keep the movie from straying too much into comic book land. While the script isn’t very deep, there’s enough depth to make the film work.

    “The Good, The Bad, The Weird” offers fun & excitement on a level not found in many recent Korean films. Action fans will simply love the film, while most others will find there own different reasons to love the movie. For myself, what I gleamed from “The Good, The Bad, The Weird” is: 1.) director Ji-woon Kim is on par with Chan-wook Park & Joon-ho Bong 2.) Byung-hun Lee is way better than originally thought 3.) Kang-ho Song is the man! - can’t think of another Korean actor on his level right now. Check out “The Good, The Bad, The Weird,” for pure popcorn fun you’re going to be hard pressed to find a better movie.

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