The film Text copyright (c) Filmverdict 2006-present. Any film titles and artwork used are copyright of their respective owners.
From the title alone, it's pretty easy to guess the prime source of inspiration for this energetic Korean actioner. Yes, Sergio Leone's fingerprints are all over the film, from the mythical-reality setting, to the central thrust of the plot, and with a score that sounds distinctly Morriconean at times. But it isn't, despite what the title and all these similarities may imply, merely a harvesting of the best bits from the legendary director's most iconic films. The Good, the Bad, the Weird has a personality all of its own, and is thoroughly, exhilaratingly entertaining from start to finish. It's sort of a cinematic love child of Leone and 80s Steven Spielberg, replete with three-way Mexican standoffs and astonishingly kinetic action. Rarely since Raiders of the Lost Ark have action scenes been put together with such verve and playfulness; it was a quality sorely lacking from the last Indiana Jones adventure.
The plot, such as it is, is basically one big MacGuffin. It revolves around a map: in the film's opening set-piece on a train steaming through the Manchuria desert (which perfectly sets the tone for the insanity to come), a petty thief - the Weird of the title - unknowingly gets his hands on said map, and runs off with it. In hot pursuit are a heroic bounty hunter and an evil triad-type - you know he's evil because he wears black, while the good guy sports a Once Upon a Time in the West-style duster jacket. Thus a frantic game of follow-the-map is set in motion. It's not exactly deep stuff then, but with such little plot-centric exposition needed, it can simply skip straight to the fun. All three leads are hugely charismatic, particularly Kang-ho Song (of The Host and Memories of Murder, amongst other Korean breakout hits) in the Eli Wallach-esque role.
The Good, the Bad, the Weird is reportedly the most expensive Korean movie ever made, and it shows, with every last penny up on the screen. It even makes many Hollywood blockbusters (hello, Wolverine) look cheap, even though they were surely exponentially more expensive to make. Director Ji-woon Kim (A Bittersweet Life) films everything in a pseudo-Tony Scott style, with ludicrously saturated colours and ever-active camerawork, without overdoing it like Scott himself has been guilty of in the past. There's a wonderful texture to the settings, particularly a marketplace that looks positively teeming with life, and which is riddled with bullets in a mid-film shootout. And so we come back to the action scenes. It's impossible not to go on about them - yet another highlight plays like the climactic chase from Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, only with horses as well as vehicles - as they are just so irrepressibly exuberant.
The summary
An absolute blast from start to finish. Seriously close to 5 stars.
Agree? Disagree? Say so in the Guestbook!