Dec
21
2008
The Good, The Bad, The Weird
Posted by luna6 9 Comments
Movie: The Good, The Bad, and the Weird
Release Date: July 17, 2008
Country: South Korea
Director: Ji-woon Kim
Starring: Byung-hun Lee, Kang-ho Song, Woo-sung Jung
Runtime: 137 min.
Editor Rating: 9.0
Users Rating: 7.84 
(61 votes)
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“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.
buy The Good, The Bad, The Weird from YesAsia>
Cast:
Kang-ho Song – Tae-gu Yun (train bandit / weird)
Byung-hun Lee – Chang-yi Park (killer / bad)
Woo-sung Jung – Do-wan Park (good / bounty hunter)
Ji-won Uhm – Na-yeon
Cheong-a Lee – Song-Lee
Seung-su Ryu – Min-gil
Ri-geo Deol – Jang-choi
Je-mun Yun – Byeong-chun
Byung-ho Son – Jae-sik Seo
Kwang-il Kim – Ssang Kal
Dong-seok Ma – Bear
Young-chang Song – Pan-ju Kim
Chang-suk Ryu – grandmother
Dal-su Oh
Seon-yeong Kim
Hakuryu – Ishihara
Shoken Kunimoto
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2008 Movie Reviews, Korean Movies, Movie Reviews, Movies |
Comments
9 Comments so far
lol, didn’t read the comments before I post mine, someone already said “hands down”, so I have to change mine to “two thumbs up” instead, can’t edit my previous comment so I just post a new one…hihihi =)
Oh my… Song Kang Ho is truly one of the finest & versatile korean actors out there. He’s definitely the best actor for me because I always admire versatile actors than one-genre-uber-great actors in entertainment industry. Woah, and another superb performance by Lee Byung Hun, I thought I would only appreciate this film because of Jung Woo Sung but then it slap me directly & got hit badly because the bad & the weird came on top of him… I must say that this film is really cool!!! Hands down!
Tons of fun ! Great oriental western.
A cross between Sergio Leone and Robert Rodriguez on steroids.
My top 3 from 2008 would be;
The good the bad the weird
seven days
The chaser
or
The Game
I watched this one again over the weekeend and must say two things became clearer when watching it for the second time
1.) Visuals are stunning
2.) In the review I kind of gave a lukewarm response with Woo-sung Jung’s performance as “the good”, but on second viewing his performance came out a lot more appealing.
Severence : I would think the time of day and who you are going to watch the film with, but certainly can’t go wrong with either film.
Cheers Rico..
the best (korean) movie of 2008 hands down !
Arg I’ve torn between the Chaser and The Good, the Bad, The Weird for the best movie experience of the year.
Hello Aurora,
I actually lived in Marion, Ohio for a few years so I just wanted say hi on that aspect. “The Good, The Bad, and the Weird” is likely to be released in Korea this July, expect the movie to be available for purchase (DVD/Blu-Ray) 3-5 months after that…. cheers….
i just started watching lee byung huns movies and dramas and i cant wait to see this movie. im in ohio USA so im trying to find it online to buy here soon i cant wait