Joheunnom nabbeunnom isanghannom (2008)

Director:

Ji-woon Kim

Writers:

Ji-woon Kim (screenplay)
Min-suk Kim (screenplay)

Release Date:

17 July 2008 (South Korea)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Comedy | Western

Plot:

The story of three Korean outlaws in 1940s Manchuria and their rivalry to possess a treasure map while being pursued by the Japanese army and Chinese bandits. |

Plot Keywords:

Outlaw | Manchuria | Money | Shotgun | Spoof

Awards:

3 wins & 8 nominations

Cast

Kang-ho Song	...	Yoon Tae-goo / The Weird
Byung-hun Lee	...	Park Chang-yi / The Bad
Woo-sung Jung	...	Park Do-won / The Good
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Kyeong-hun Jo	...	Doo-chae
Kwang-il Kim	...	Two swords
Cheong-a Lee	...	Song-i
Dong-seok Ma	...	Bear
Dal-su Oh	...	Man-gil
Seo-won Oh	...	Chinese woman
Seung-su Ryu	...	Man-gil
Byung-ho Son	...	Seo Jae-sik
Young-chang Song	...	Kim Pan-joo
Ji-won Uhm	...	Na-yeon
Je-mun Yun	...	Byeong-choon

Also Known As:

Nom Nom Nom (International: English title) (informal short title)
The Good, the Bad, the Weird (International: English title)

Runtime:

South Korea:139 min | South Korea:120 min (Cannes Film Festival) | Argentina:130 min (Mar del Plata Film Festival) | Japan:129 min

Country:

South Korea

Language:

Korean | Mandarin | Japanese

Color:

Black and White | Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

South Korea:15 | Australia:MA (2008) | Singapore:NC-16 | Argentina:16 | UK:15 (cut) | Ireland:15A | Japan:PG-12 | Germany:16

Company:

Barunson

Trivia:

Most expensive movie in South Korean cinema history as per 2009.

Quotes:

Park Chang-yi: People must know that they're going to die, and yet they live as though they never will. Hilarious.

Movie Connections:

References Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo. (1966)

Some good, some bad, some weird - kind of like PotC with no plot

Okay, I've just seen the movie yesterday and I think I've had a fair amount of time to digest it. As of now in Korea, opinions about this movie are almost completely divided. Half of the people love this film, despite its errors; others are rather disappointed by its lack of plot. Me? I'm dwelling somewhere in the middle.

There are some good parts of the movie ...

- The desert scenery. Magnificent. Whoever was in charge of the cinematography did a really good job.

- Sets & props (particularly costumes). Also with the cinematography, I think the people who built the set and came up with costume ideas deserve some serious credit. The sets and props really added to the movie's visual appeal.

- The actors, particularly Lee Byung-Hun. All three actors were pretty good in their roles, and Jung Woo-Sung looked ridiculously good looking, but Lee really shined in his new "change of role". There was a strength in his eyes that almost literally jumped off the screen, and his character was chillingly convincing.

- Did I mention Jung Woo-Sung was hot? I'm a heterosexual guy in his 20's, but even I couldn't deny how ridiculously good looking he was. Despite all of his character's insane, ridiculous stunts (which I, for those of you who understand Korean, would like the refer to as "gae-pom"), I eventually ended up with the same conclusion: "Man, that guy look COOL!"

- The action scenes were pretty decent as well. Had to put that in.

Then there's the bad ...

- It's complete lack of plot. I mean it, not much plot.

- I'm kind of tired of seeing Song Gang-Ho in the same role AGAIN! I mean, I know the guy's a decent actor, and he really did a good job in his role, but didn't we see this guy in the "The Host"?!

- Violence does not equal comedy!! Not saying that the movie is really violent, but ... Ugh, you'll get what I mean after watching the movie.

Which leads me to my weird overall impression of the movie:

I'm quite PERPLEXED. I was pleased while watching the movie, and the film is rather enjoyable to watch, but leaving the theater, I was sort of like "Um... okay..." An odd, WEIRD feeling of satisfaction mixed with a sense of being robbed.

To give you a sense of what it was like, it's kind of like a Western Korean version of "Pirates of the Caribbean". There's a lot of action, nice characters, cool setting, rather enjoyable, but you leave the theater a bit perplexed. And while PotC leaves you perplexed and confused because of its abundance of plot, "The Good, the Bad, and The Weird" leaves you perplexed and confused because of its lack there of.

To sum it up, I think it's a decent, fun-to-watch movie (Nice effort, to say the least!). Good to kill time or just watch on a Friday night. But if you want something more serious or concrete, I'd recommend something else.