THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE WEIRD (2008)

A.K.A.: Joheunnom Nabbeunnom Isanghannom

Country: South Korea

Genre(s): Action / Adventure / Comedy / Epic / Western

Director: Jee-woon Kim

Cast: Kang-ho Song / Byung-hun Lee / Woo-sung Jung

Plot

A mysterious treasure map leads an eccentric thief, a legendary bounty hunter, and a psychotic assassin on a violent race across war-torn 1930s Manchuria, with a motley gang of bandits and the Japanese Army in pursuit.

What I Liked

It’s been a long time since I watched a movie that was this much fun!  A genre-melding shoot-‘em-up that detonates the screen with tumultuous action sequences, mind-blowing cinematography, and outrageous characters, “The Good, the Bad, the Weird” has not one single dull moment.  Actually, it continually tops itself, scene after scene, with more action, more laughs, more corpses, and more craziness.  I spent its entire two-and-a-quarter hours of length either with my jaw dropped, laughing to the point of tears, or just shaking my head in disbelief.

For stylishness in an action film, I’d have to go back to “Kill Bill, Vol. 1” to remember an action film I’ve seen that so mesmerized me.  Like Tarrantino, director Jee-woon Kim brings a gorgeously post-modern slickness to a tumultuous brew of movie genres.  Also like Tarrantino, he takes a lot of his cues from Sergio Leone’s films (as can be inferred from the title, which, if it isn’t obvious, is a reference to Leone’s “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly). Like Leone, he reinterprets the conventions of classic American cinema with a foreign perspective and reinvigorates archetypical characters with addictive coolness.  In this film at least, he surpasses both Tarrantino and Leone for quality cinematography.  His cinematographers Mo-gae Lee and Seung-Chul Oh put together some fantastic camera movement that will have your eyes in shock while also featuring some of the best larger-than-life landscape shots I’ve seen in motion pictures.  On a simpler note, the picture constantly shimmers with crisp color.

On to the performances.  The film features three characters that are obviously inspired by the main three characters in “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.”  In this version, it is the crazy bandit Yoon-tae Goo (“The Weird,” played by Kang-ho Song) that really stands out and ultimately proves to be the film’s main protagonist.  Song is hilariously goofy and quirky in the role, yet never so much so that we lose the ability to relate to the character.  Yoon-tae Goo is such a zany mix of likable qualities: childlike, violent, clumsy, and cool, that we can’t help but root for the lovable underdog the whole way through.  Almost as fascinating is the villain of the piece, Park Chang-yi (“The Bad,” played by Byung-hun Lee), a near-invincible ego-maniac whose unpredictability and blood-thirsty charisma hijack the audience’s attention any time he’s on screen.

What I Didn’t Like

I can’t say that I really disliked Woo-sung Jung’s performance of bounty hunter Park Do-won (“The Good”), who is ostensibly a copy of Clint Eastwood’s Man with No Name from “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,” enhanced with the reflexes of a superhero.  But I will say he was nowhere near as menacing or convincing as Eastwood, who is admittedly a hard act to follow.  Part of it would be the fault of the costume design.  Do-won is always clean shaven, constantly garbed in immaculate clothing, and looks more like a pretty boy than a bad ass desert bounty hunter.

My only other complaint is that, at the film’s climax, the filmmakers attempt to throw in a twist involved with the Yoon-tae Goo’s past that basically falls flat.  I think it is meant to provide some meaning behind all the events we have just witnessed and up the ante for the showdown to come, but ultimately it just serves as a distraction from the otherwise flawless fun.

Most Memorable Scene

Wow, this is a tough one.  While a scene involving an old diving suit helmet still makes me chuckle, I have to say that the final chase through the desert, with all three main characters harried by a band or brigands and the Japanese army takes the cake for the most outrageously good action scene I’ve witnessed since “Kill Bill.”  From its opening montage, with a map tracing the movements of each faction to the same spot, to Park Do-won’s murderous ride head-on into through the ranks of the Army, the whole sequence entertains with mounting tension and a mounting body count.

My Rating: 5 out of 5