The Good, the Bad, the Weird (2008)

Synopsis

What better way to start a rollicking adventure than with a double cross. A wealthy businessman orders his assistant to deliver a map to a Japanese official named Kanemaru and collect payment. He’s arranged for an assassin to then steal it back from Kanemaru during a train trip. They’ll get the money and keep this valuable map too.

It won’t go as planned. Never does.

The assassin is Park Chang-yi (Lee Byung-hun), renowned for his ruthlessness and unerring success rate. But when Chang-yi and his gang stop and board the train (via the classic “train blasts through burning logs blocking the tracks set piece”), it interrupts petty thief Yoon Tae-goo (Sang Kang-ho) as, just coincidentally, he’s holding up Kanemaru and his cohort of military escorts and female traveling companions. As the train jerks to a stop, Tae-goo inadvertently shoots up the place, astonished at his luck at having survived. Tae-goo franticly begins collecting whatever booty he can find, which includes … hmm … a map. Chang-yi’s efforts to stop Tae-goo from escaping with the map are frustrated when bounty hunter Park Do-won (Jung Woo-sung) begins popping off shotgun blasts at the both of them.

Well, there you have it. The good, Do-won. The bad, Chang-yi. The Weird, Tae-goo.

Let’s backup; like the movie, I’m going pretty fast. Here are the broad stokes: It’s Manchuria, circa 1939. It’s the wild west, as viewed through the exaggerated lens of celebrated Korean director Kim Jee-woon. Though Manchuria is officially ruled by the Chinese, the Japanese have been there for many years, long before the official start of hostilities in July 1937. Besides the roaming Chinese and Japanese armies, Manchuria is awash in Russian opportunists, Korean freedom fighters, competing gangs of bandits, and opium dealers, but seemingly nothing like the equivalent of the local sheriff sporting an iconic tin badge.

At the center of the whirlwind is “the map,” which Tae-goo learns the Japanese believe reveals the location of treasure that can save their empire. To everyone who wants to get their hands on the map, that can mean only one thing: it leads to the lost, fabulous treasure of the Qing Dynasty. Which would be riches enough to fund the Japanese war effort, help the Korean freedom fighters succeed in their struggle, or make Tae-goo or any bandit horde wealthy beyond their wildest dreams. Through double crosses, madcap chases, and chaotic shootouts, the map changes hands as Chang-yi chases Tae-goo and Do-won chases them both, with rival gangs and soldiers nipping relentlessly at their heels.

Though the title The Good, the Bad, the Weird announces its intentions as few movies do, it’s more than just an homage to the Spaghetti Westerns of Sergio Leone and Clint Eastwood. Director Kim himself coined the term Kimchi Western, and indeed he’s offering a spicier pastiche than the standard adventure recipes. There’s a frenetic shootout in the Ghost Market (the bandit’s hideout) as Do-won swings around rooftops on dangling ropes ala Spiderman. During a madcap, motorized pursuit in the desert, you’ll feel echoes of Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Road Warrior, and even Stagecoach. Watch Do-won riding a horse while shooting a rifle; tell me it doesn’t remind you just a bit of John Wayne. There’s even Jackie-Chan-esque prankish gunfight choreography when Tae-goo dons a diver’s helmet. And then, oh yes, the finale: the classic three-way Mexican standoff. The blocking and camera work tracking the eye movements of the three manages to be just mirthful enough without descending into over-the-top ridiculousness.

See It

In my personal pantheon of Westerns, TGTBTW earns a much higher ranking than TGTBTU. I found myself rooting for the characters more, particularly the boastful, clumsy Weird, who has a dark secret and yet takes time out to rescue children from an opium den. Kim Jee-woon’s non-stop action made for a far more enjoyable experience than Sergio Leone’s self-indulgent, ponderous saga. (TGTBTU’s soundtrack gets the nod, though TGTBTW is still atmospheric and fun.)

Jung Woo-sung, Lee Byung-hun, and Song Kang-ho were already stars when TGTBTW premiered in 2008, and each has gone on to even greater stardom in Korean historical dramas, adventure movies, and serious cinema. Each has worked again with Director Kim. Jung’s physicality and horsemanship elevates his turn as the bounty hunter who remains uncorrupted by the map’s allure. Lee is just mesmerizing as the seriously psychotic, peanut-munching assassin with the irritating haircut. Song is perhaps the most recognizable to Western audiences as the scheming father in the Oscar-winning film Parasite. He’s endlessly entertaining, the master of the wide-eyed look of surprise, the boastful posture, the clumsy pratfall. It’s fun to think of comparable Hollywood casts in their younger days: maybe Brad Pitt, Keanu Reeves, and Steve Buscemi; or Tom Cruise, Leonardo DiCaprio, Johnny Depp. (But oh gosh, no, we don’t need a Hollywood remake!)

In 1939, Korea had been suffering under the yoke of Japanese colonial rule for four decades. In many South Korean movies and series of today, Manchuria in this period is a refuge where Korean freedom fighters go to hide or recoup, and Kim includes enough references to let Korean audiences know he hasn’t lost sight of that dark period. Characters talk wistfully about being able to get away from it all. In one of the few quieter moments, he also offers a bit of a tongue-in-cheek coda about centuries of struggle against neighboring superpowers as Do-won observes: “Life is about chasing and being chased. There is no escape.” To which Tae-goo replies. “Let me sleep, man. Stop making me think!” I think Korean audiences will catch even more hints of underlying resentment than I’m able to grok.

For those who want to think more deeply about their movie watching, TGTBTW isn’t perfect. Anyone who obsesses about continuity errors could probably have a field day. The tone shifts chaotically from slapstick to brutal violence (I made the mistake of doing the latest rewatch with my 81-year-old stepmom, and had to fast forward through the scene featuring a dull knife and a finger.)

Still, judging TGTBTW against its obvious intent, it’s an honest piece of entertainment that does not pretend to be anything more than it is. I first saw it circa 2010 via a DVD without subtitling. I actually didn’t need much interpretation; the action pulls you along with the story. It sits in a short list of movies to rewatch periodically.

Final hint: Make sure to watch into the credit roll for an epilogue of sorts. For the true fan, TGTBTW also has alternate endings with slightly different twists that you may want to track down.