Ever since the great Italian director Sergio Leone rode into town, it’s been clear that the Western is not solely the domain of American filmmakers. Leone’s Spaghetti Westerns boosted Clint Eastwood’s career and forever changed the genre. A new film from Korea, what many are calling a Kimchi Western, may change the genre once again. Kim Ji-Woon’s The Good, the Bad, and the Weird is in many ways an homage to Leone’s The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, but is also an excellent example of the energy and originality emerging in Korean cinema.
The Good, the Bad, and the Weird, set in Manchuria in the 1930’s, follows the story of three bandits, all in pursuit of map that leads to an untold amount of treasure. Woo-sung Jung (the Good), Byung-hun Lee (the Bad), and Kang-ho Song (the Weird) all give excellent performances. Cool and outrageous enough for an action comedy, but not overdone. Kang-ho Song, who you may recognize from the hit Korean monster movie The Host, is particularly good at playing his own brand of lovable dork.
