abisio Review of The Good the Bad the Weird

The Good the Bad the Weird (2008)

Outstanding Western and action movie

[9/10 · 11 April 2009]

Considering that the best Western's movies came from Italy; it should not be a surprise to find an excellent one coming from Orient. Remaking "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly " was a risky task; the beloved classic, packed three extremely efficient and loved actors (Eastwood, Wallach and Lee Van Cleef), Ennio Morricone's music and a legendary director Sergio de Leone; however the Korean director, Ji-woon Kim took the risk and accomplished it gracefully; sometimes even better than the master itself. The story is different than the original (there is some homage to "A Fistful of Dynamite "also ). Instead of focusing on the Good, this time is the Weird who gets protagonism (though Eli Wallach carried most of the original movie too). There is a map (really a MacGuffin ) after which the three main characters plus other thieves, opium dealers and Japanese army are after; thus becoming an spectacular and very violent chase over Manchuria. There is some political innuendo about Korean freedom but never flights too high. Aside from the non-spot action with bullets, knives, hammers and a little of martial arts the cinematography is outstanding. There are takes requiring craftsmanship and preparation that recent USA movies only do through computer generated imagery but almost never with cameras. This quality makes the action far more believable and involving. The acting is very good. Most of the movie is carried by Kang-ho Song (The Host) as The Weird but Byung-hun Lee as The Bad creates a very interesting psycho; Woo-sung Jung as The Good gets what he can with an underwritten character and the rest of the cast if above average; far from the overacting in typical Oriental movies. In brief, pure entertainment; and if you have problem with subtitles; do not worry because dialogs are of little importance here.