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29 out of 39 people found the following review useful: I spent half the time with my mouth agape and rest with a broad smile, 30 October 2008 Author: christopher-underwood from Greenwich - London
This is a real blast. A London Film Festival viewing this afternoon and my jaw dropped during the opening. This may have the most stunning opening of any film, I certainly can't think of any other contenders at present, with crazy music, a landscape out of a dream, soaring birds of prey and a great big steam train. The camera and hence the audience are everywhere, this side, that side above, below and even in the smoke from the engine. Previously there has been some set up to accompany the credits and then we are away. This film does not let up so if it is not non-stop action you are after you had best avoid. For all sensible folk this is a mind blowing exercise in action cinema. Loud, violent and stunningly shot this is awe inspiring stuff and with a comic edge too. I spent half the time with my mouth agape and rest with a broad smile. I have heard some criticise this for lack of storyline and certainly there is minimal narrative flow here as we are sped on by sheer excitement and amusement. Fantastic entertainment on a massive scale. Large screen viewing recommended.
27 out of 37 people found the following review useful: There's Good, little bad and plenty of weird..., 18 August 2008 Author: Stefan Bingham from South Korea/United Kingdom
I was lucky enough to see this film in a big cinema complex in the centre of Seoul, South Korea, yesterday. It is surprisingly difficult to find big Korean releases with English subtitles, so seeing Jin-Woon Kim's new film, which i have been looking forward to for well over a year, was a pleasant experience. Unfortunately everyone in the west will have to wait a little longer...As with all of Jin-Woon Kim's films i have very little criticism to give this film, from its fantastic and totally relentless action opening to the suspenseful ending, i was completely entertained.The cast, as expected from three of South Korea's most most talented actors were superb with in my opinion exceptionally notable roles from Lee Byun Hun and Song Kang-Ho. Lee Byung Hyun pulls off a villain superbly and fills this role with style and terror without fault. Song Kang-Ho in my opinion is the main force of the film, pulling it along with humour and perhaps the most interesting story as the film progresses. Woo-Sung Jung plays his 'good' role well but feels like the character with least depth. The film contains fantastic make-up and costume design, notably in my eyes, Lee Byung Hun's character, who looked fantastic and the on screen presence of this smart darkly dressed character set against the sandy desert was stunning.The cinematography in this film was superb with plenty of great flying panoramic desert shots, high octane action camera maneuvers, fast cuts and perfect editing as expected from the director of such fantastic action/thriller films.The soundtrack is fun and reminiscent of old western films with a new, modern twist to keep things up to pace. Although the story has been noted as being weak, the film really does not offer itself as an in depth period drama in the first place. The film is exactly what it calls for... Fun, fast and funny entertainment and what you can expect from some of the finest noted stars and workforce in South Korean cinema.
17 out of 24 people found the following review useful: Good Lord, this is fun., 21 December 2008 Author: Chung Mo from NYC
The Manchurian desert in the 1930's has become the Asian cinematic version of the American West. A number of action films have been set here but this is the first to make an outright reference to a classic western that I've seen. While taking off from Leone's "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" this film goes in it's own direction although the mix of horses, trains, motorcycles, Chinese and Western costumes and some very odd characters makes this film resemble the Mad Max films more than anything else. An extended chase scene towards the end really seems influenced by the George Miller films.Influences aside, the ingenuity in crafting the action scenes in this film makes it a joy to watch. Photography is great. The lead actors are good and the story while a little daft is easy to follow for the most part.The music is good but nowhere near the Leone films. The violence is typical for Korean action and might be a little hard to watch at times. Long but pure fun for the most part. This is probably the best action film I've seen in a while.
16 out of 23 people found the following review useful: Really good and really weird but not so bad., 30 November 2008 Author: Mastersh1t from Sweden
I went to see this movie during the film-festival and I have to say, if you take the free pringles into consideration, this was pretty much one of the best action-comedy-adventure movies I've seen this year. Lots of people complaining about the lack of story or plot, but thats where I believe its strength lies ( I will not spoil anything ). Because a movie doesn't have to be so complex for it to be good or entertaining. It doesn't contain any "forced" love scenes or unnecessary display of emotion. Its just an pure action movie with cool characters and an awesome soundtrack. It is kinda long, but never boring. The ones who made this should be really pleased.Great cinematic and capturing ( the cgi in the beginning is really well made and the overall filming is high class ), awesome fast paced and amusing action scenes which leave little to be desired and the movie progresses with a good flow and you never feel lost.- did I mention that its really really funny? I haven't laughed so much in a movie theater in a long time when it comes to "action-comedies". The actors were great as well and you don't even think about that its all in Korean. Not complicated nor overdone. A fresh breeze compared to the latest Hollywood productions nowadays. I cant wait to see what they'll do next.
8 out of 9 people found the following review useful: Too much action and not enough plot in a get the treasure map race across Asia, 22 February 2009 Author: dbborroughs from Glen Cove, New York
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Korean western set in 1930's Manchuria. The plot basically goes like this a Japanese official sends a treasure map off to one of his agents in China. He also sends a hired killer (the Bad) after the agent to steal the map so that he can get paid and keep the map. Unfortunately the map is stolen when a bandit (the weird) robs the train. Meanwhile a bounty hunter (the good) gets caught up in the mix.(I'd try to explain more but it would reveal too much and take up too much time.) Nominal homage to the Clint Eastwood/Sergio Leone films, this is a huge epic film that never stops moving. Its one long chase as the three leads dance around each other as well have to contend with Chinese and Russian Bandits, the Japanese, and other interested parties. The film just goes and goes and goes as the revelations come fast a furious. And its all done to a catchy flamenco score.The problem for me is that the plot, for as convoluted as it gets, is much too threadbare to sustain so much motion. The plot is basically get the map while we learn a bit about the characters, but not so much that the never ending chase and blood bath is really allowed to pause. It has enough motion for easily fifteen other films. In all honesty I looked at the clock at one point and was shocked that the film wasn't even half over. I was exhausted. To put it another way the problem is that the film pretty much is form over content and had the film not spun out so many bits that go really nowhere I wouldn't have minded the frenetic pace, but as it stands now the film seems to be promising more of a pay off then it gives us. I was going "is that it?" at the end. (I do understand the map is purely an excuse for the action, the MacGuffin of this film, but at the same time the film shades in details that are never finished) This isn't to say that film isn't spectacular. The set pieces are great and the action is amazing, the opening train sequence is one of the best train sequences on film. The film was filmed to beautifully use the wide screen so the idea that this is going to be seen on a small TV is frightening (and don't even mention pan and scan). You really need to see this as big as possible to really enjoy it.I like the film, I don't love it. I can recommend the film, but at the same time I wish it was better. If you can get past the plot problems and just concentrate on the action you're going to have a great time.Between 6 and 7 out of 10
32 out of 59 people found the following review useful: Some good, some bad, some weird - kind of like PotC with no plot, 28 July 2008 Author: paper-revolution from South Korea
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.
5 out of 6 people found the following review useful: Movies with lots of gun fights are...., 7 May 2009 Author: sitenoise from http://sitenoise-atthemovies.blogspot.com/
My expectations for this film were through the roof. It's basically a Korean all-star game: directed by Ji-woon Kim, he of A Bittersweet Life and A Tale of Two Sisters fame (not to mention The Quiet Family), and starring three of Korea's finest (or at least most popular) actors, Woo-sung Jung, Byung-hun Lee, and (one of my favorite actors, Korean or otherwise) Kang-ho Song.The production values are top notch, the direction creative and self-assured, the special effects worth the time and money spent on them. I love the kill scenes as directed by Kim, especially one of the first ones where a guy is running from train car to train car, bursting through doors like they don't exist and then BAM! He's five feet behind where he was. You have to see it to appreciate it, I guess. The timing and the focus on the result instead of the impact makes the impact seem more impactful. Whoever edited this film did a great job.Woo-sung Jung plays the Good, and he's a cute guy who oozes goodness, so that's good. His character is perhaps a bit under-played/under-developed but that's the nature of Good, isn't it? Byung-hun Lee as the Bad has a little bit too much contemporary in his swagger and look. He's more arrogant than Bad, but we're supposed to dislike him so that's good too. Not surprisingly, it's Kang-ho Song, as the Weird, who steals the show. He runs through this movie like a chicken or a turkey with its head cut off but never misses a beat. He's having a good time and makes sure that we do too. He's able to do things that many other actors are incapable of like delivering predictable lines with equal parts sincerity and irony so that we won't even think of groaning out loud. He's so adorably slightly plump and likable that even when ... well, I don't want to give it away ... we like him. We really do.Caught up in all the fun and excitement I almost forgot that, with very few exceptions, movies with lots of gun fights are stupid.
6 out of 8 people found the following review useful: Outstanding Western and action movie, 11 April 2009 Author: abisio from Miami
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.
3 out of 3 people found the following review useful: barely deeper than a footprint, but so much fun you'll forget you care, 12 September 2009 Author: gstoo513 from Japan
This movie is fantastic, exhilarating and fun. High dramatic art it is not.It's a movie about a chase for treasure, and it holds onto that and never forgets. In the pursuit of creating a chase, everything is crafted carefully. The cinematography is breathtaking, with huge elaborate sets that are used to their fullest. Most of the stunts and effects are real, CGI being kept to a minimum. It is an action movie with actual action instead of pixels, a rarity in movies from the past 10 years. Stunning candy for all the senses, it gets your adrenaline pumping! As far as acting goes, it is excellent. Korean comic actor Song Kang-Ho fills the "Weird" role of Tae-Goo, pulling off a combination of humanity and quirkiness. Lee Byung-Hun is the 'bad' character, brutal and insane as gangster Chang-Yi. Filling out the main three is Jung Woo-Son as the cool, collected and more than a little arrogant bounty hunter Do-Won. While Jung is eclipsed by the other two, his character ultimately became my favorite during the climax. The supporting cast is none-too-shabby either, playing everything from military dropouts to ninjas, all well. Particularly entertaining are the leaders of a group of Manchurian gangsters, who watch insanity take place and calmly discuss it from horseback.Now, while the acting is good...there is not a lot of it. I don't think anyone is going to try to pretend this is a character-driven piece. It could have been, maybe, but it wasn't try to be. It was trying to be fun. There is enough character development so that when the climax rolls around after two madcap hours of amazing action, you care that the characters lives are being threatened. That's...all.But the action is extremely well done, with a heart-pounding score that makes it all the well fun. For entertainment, you aren't going to get much more well-done for this. Supremely fun, with scenes shot with people, horses, cars and real pyrotechnics in the middle of the Gobi desert (too much CGI and spectacle just becomes yawn-worthy, I often fun). So get the DVD, get some popcorn, turn the sound WAY up and prepare for a beautifully-crafted action movie. Not for a complex character-driven masterpiece.
5 out of 7 people found the following review useful: The Entertaining, The Admirable and The Down Right Frustrating, 26 July 2009 Author: benjamin_lappin from England
With a film title such as this, it is unavoidable that Ji-Woon Kim's latest foray will be compared to Sergio Leone's epic masterpiece that is "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly", and while the comparison is not entirely necessary to write a critique without bringing it up is ignoring the obvious. In 2005, Ji-Woon Kim released the highly lauded and severely engaging film "A Bittersweet Life", in which he took the reformed gangster plot device and twisted it wonderfully to create an intelligent action-thriller. It is evident that in the aftermath of his unprecedented international success, Ji-Woon Kim was given free reign to create any film of his choosing, spawning the genesis to his latest endeavour "The Good, The Bad and The Weird".We all have films that we classify as being in our "top ten" or even "top five", films that speak to us on a level that we are so incredibly immersed within the story being told that we connect on a subconscious level to create unbound admiration. Ji-Woon Kim has a passion for the spaghetti western, and climax to the "Man With No Name" trilogy, "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" and with his free license has not intended to copy, parody or pastiche Leone's creation but to attempt to create an Easternised Western using the fore-mentioned film as a template. Inevitably, the director has had to update the story and transplant the time line for a completely new audience and to maintain historical plausibility which is admirable but his nature as an action film director proves to be the films Achilles heel.To say there is little plot in this film is to say there is too much, for after the films introductory, and satisfactory, skirmish the story descends into the chase of a map which is about as flimsy as the glue that, allegedly, holds the plot together. The story hops gleefully, and unashamedly, from one action scene to the next, and while the criticisms that the sequences are fifteen minutes in excess of what they should be are accurate, it is the overwhelming lack of perspective or objective that infuriates the viewer. It is all well and good having a twenty minute battle royale in the middle of a desert, incorporating all the warring factions within the story but to have nothing more than a simply cut and one of the protagonists to be miles away in complete isolation without one of the hundreds chasing him in sight is nonsensical and irritating. Perhaps though, the most frustrating is the lack of development in the three most important pieces of this puzzle. For example Woo-sung Jung, who plays "The Good", has studied the Clint Eastwood films thoroughly mimicking his stance, tone and style in his attempt to recreate the feel of his character, yet lacks the aura and gravitas of Eastwood to pull off the anti-hero role sufficiently. Not simply this, but at this stage in Leone's trilogy the "Man With No Name" while still fixated with obtaining his fortune had softened as an individual making it easier for the audience to connect with him come the final confrontation. With Ji-woo Kim's version it is unintentionally the case that the character traits of all three interchange at varying junctures making it nigh on impossible to sympathise enough with one individual character to make us care about the film in anything more than two hours of mind numbing action.As not to completely eviscerate the film there are notable plus points which must be mentioned as the score overlaying the film is perfect for a film of this sort carrying along the action elements with a slight undertone of Morriconne's iconic creation. Ji-woon Kim shows he is still a director worth worrying over as there are some luscious landscapes in his rich and vivid cinematography, showing he knows how to capture a film while Kang-ho Song shows his versatility as he adds zany charm to a list of roles which include his undoubtedly iconic revenge driven "Park Dong-jin" in Chan-wook Park's "Sympathy For Mr Vengeance". These noted exemptions aside, one cannot help but feel that "The Good, The Bad and The Weird" is an ultimately hollow experience, a concept which had all the tools to be a success yet escapes into the comfort of an action genre all too frequently. It leaves me personally wishing Ji-woon Kim would have shown the characteristics of his earlier work "A Bittersweet Life" and taken the arguably more pretentious but the more rewarding route of jettisoning some action and slowing the pace of the story down so as to allow the characters the time to develop and flourish and not be the mere cutout clichés that they occasionally turn out to be. What sums this film up perfectly is its ending sequence which utilises the same dramatic tension that Leone so wonderfully created, before shattering that illusion and choosing the most clichéd, ridiculous and unfortunately laughable of all the available alternate endings. "The Good, The Bad And The Weird" goes down in history, as of 2009, as being the most expensive South Korean film made, yet if Hollywood has taught us anything it is that bigger and more expensive does not always mean better. While "The Good, The Bad And The Weird" is unintelligibly watchable you do wonder if this, or another of South Korea's plethora of talented directors could have created a grander cinematic experience for a few dollars less.
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