Written and directed by Jee-woon Kim this is a “kimchi” western. The Good, The Bad, The Weird is a homage to the spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone. It stars Kang-ho Song (Sympathy for Mr Vengeance, The Quiet Family), Byung-hun Lee (I Saw the Devil, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra) and Woo-sung Jung (Demon Empire, Daisy) The Good, The Bad, The Weird is Jee-woon Kim’s loving homage
Winning four awards and receiving nine nominations, TGTBTW is the second highest grossing film from South Korea. Only being beaten by Speedy Scandal.
The Story
Set in 1930’s Manchuria, the film begins with The Bad(Byung-hu Lee) being paid to steal a Japanese treasure map. It is being transported by train. Unfortunately for The Bad, someone else has just beat him to it. The Weird (Kang-ho Song) is already on the train. Disguised as a snack vendor, he makes his way into the guarded rail car that has the map.
The train is stopped by The Bad and his cronies who have blocked the track. The Weird uses this opportunity to escape from the train, with the map, on his side car motorcycle. The Good, a bounty hunter (Woo-sung Jung) attempts to shoot both The Bad and The Weird.
The Good finally decides to chase after The Weird. They all wind up in a village where the Ghost Market operates from. The Ghost Market is a black market meeting place. Everyone, it seems, know about the treasure map, a gang of Manchurian bandits also want it.
Cue a brilliantly choreographed shoot out between all of the warring factions.
It Works
This film does mimic the Sergio Leone classic The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly to a degree. but only in rough terms of characters and the overall plot. Byung-hun Lee is the Lee Van Cleef of the picture. Kang-ho Song is the Eli Wallach, and Woo-sung Jung is the Clint Eastwood.
Jee-woon Kim adds just the right amount of pathos and humour to the film. The pacing is perfect and does not waste a single frame of film. The only complaint that I might possibly have about the film is the casting of Byung-hu lee as The Bad. He was so charismatic and charmingly bad that I actually liked him.
Kang-ho Song as The Weird, almost steals the film. He is both comic relief and deadly enemy. He is the slowest of the three mentally. What he lacks in brain power he makes up in sheer enthusiasm. He is a bumbling bad man and only chances upon the Japanese treasure map by accident.
Woo-sung Jung is very, very good…as The Good. He lacks the stoic ability of Clint Eastwood’s Character. He makes up for it, though, in his taciturn attitude about bringing the bad guys in for the bounty.
The group of bandits also provided a lot of comic relief. However, they are also very deadly, if somewhat dense, foes.
It’s a Wrap
The Good, The Bad, The Weird is Jee-woon Kim at his finest. He has so far done a couple of horror films, a gangster film, a psychological thriller and an epic western. I cannot wait to see his next venture. I sincerely hope that is has room for Byung-hun Lee, Kang-ho Song, Woo-sung Jung and maybe Min-sik Choi.
It really feels like South Korean Cinema is leading the rest of the world in producing brilliant films. I also think that they are one of the few countries that still see the director as Auteur. That French invention that likens the director to a sort of demi-god status.
Asian Cinema seems to have more than its fair share of writer/directors auteurs. The accolades received for their films are well deserved. I think that Jee-woon Kim has earned the title Auteur and may he continue to make films to prove it. This is solid 5 star entertainment. It is streaming on AMC Plus right now.
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