The Good the Bad the Weird

Joh-un Nom, Nappun Nom, Isanghan Nom

(South Korea, 2008, 127 mins)

Selected Filmography:  

PRODS: Choi Jae-Won, Kim Jee-Woon
SCR: Kim Jee-Woon, Kim Min-Suk
CAM: Lee Mogae
ED: Nam Na-Young
MUS: Dal Palan, Chang Young-Gyu
Cast: Song Kang-Ho, Lee Byung-Hun, Jung Woo-Sung, Ryu Seung-Soo, Kim Pan-Joo, Kim Gwang-Il, Deligeer

We’re in Japanese-occupied Manchuria in the 1930s, and the MacGuffin (as Alfred Hitchcock would have called it) is a treasure map. Everyone wants it: Chang-Yi, leader of a bandit gang, who’s hired to seize it from a train across the plains; his nemesis, the bounty-hunter Do-Weon; and the accident-prone train robber Tae-Gu, who seems to have a charmed life; not to mention the Japanese army, émigré Korean freedom-fighters and assorted Chinese bandits. But MacGuffin it is, because the meat of Kim Jee-Woon’s exhilarating tribute to Sergio Leone is in the virtually non-stop action--and in the shifting balance of power between the three main characters, played by Korea’s top male stars: Song Kang-Ho (The Host, Secret Sunshine), Lee Byung-Hun (A Bittersweet Life) and Jung Woo-Sung (Motel Cactus, Mutt Boy).

Kim has been exploring different genres since he launched his career a decade ago (he’s done black comedy, social comedy-drama, psycho-horror and a gangster movie, all of it showcased in VIFF since he visited us with The Foul King) and he’s loaded this extravaganza with everything he loves about Italian Westerns, from three-way duels to opium dens. It’s a measure of his smarts that all three "heroes" are capable of goodness, badness and weirdness interchangeably. It’s been the hit of the year in Korea, and here’s betting you’ll find it a blast too.

-- Tony Rayns

---

---

---

For ticketing information please phone 1-604-685-8297 or email boxoffice@viff.org