I saw a short trailer for this Korean film at the time it was released, and then I heard it was formerly an entry in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, it was certainly a Chinese film I was intrigued to see, from director Kim Jee-Woon (The Last Stand). Basically set in the 1930's in the desert wilderness of Manchuria, bandit and hit-man Park Chang-Yi aka The Bad (Byung-Hun Lee) is hired to board a train and steal a treasure map a Japanese official travelling on it, but before he can thief Yoon Tae-goo aka The Weird (Kang-Ho Song) steals it and gets away during the derailment of the train. Eagle-eyed bounty hunter Park Do-won aka The Good (Woo-Sung Jung) shows up the scene to claim the bounty on The Bad, but after the action he catches up with The Weird and they form a near partnership, Machurian bandits will also want the map to sell on the Ghost Market, The Weird meanwhile hopes to follow it and find what could be gold and riches gathered before the collapse of the government buried by the Qing Dynasty. The map possession becomes a battle as the various characters try to reclaim it, with bounties placed on heads and the Imperial Japanese Army apparently wanting "save the Japanese Empire", and following many chases and shoot-outs, the final battle takes place the army, the Manchurian bandits, The Good, The Bad and The Weird all gathered all at once. Most of the bandits are killed by the Japanese army, many of the troops of the army are killed by The Good and an explosion drives the rest away, and the gang members of The Bad are slowly killed off while the leader himself kills the rest who try to get away, and after all this only The Good, The Bad and The Weird remain to find the "treasure", which turns out to be nothing more than a boarded over hole in the desert. The Weird is recognised by The Bad and the "Finger Chopper" who cut off his finger off five years ago, The Good assumed The Bad was this criminal, in a final act of vengeance on each other for their slights the three characters turn on each other in a prolonged Mexican standoff, and other their guns fire they all lie in the sand dying, after a few moments this "useless" erupts with valuable crude oil, The Good and The Weird survive, but a new bounty is put on The Weird and a new chase is on. Also starring Seung-Su Ryu as Man-Gil, Zhang Qi as Deligeer, Yun Jae-Mun as Byeong-Chun, Sohn Byung-Ho as Suh Jae-Sik and Song Young-Chang as Kim Pan-Joo. The three actors playing the title characters were all chosen well and look the parts, the story is perhaps a little less thought out as the fight and chase sequences, but it doesn't matter, this works as a really cool and amusing homage to the classic Sergio Leone Spaghetti western trilogy, put in a new scenario and culture, with more explosions and stunts, and the finale obviously works best, overall it's a fun period action adventure. Good!
Review of The Good the Bad the Weird
