THE GOOD THE BAD THE WEIRD
5 out of 5 stars

‎"i like to call this a kim-chee western. it's spicy and full of flavor just like the korean ppl and the korean culture." - director ji-woon kim


this was my first time watching an oriental western, and i think this is the first of its genre... in case you were wondering...it's BRILLIANT. enough said... ;)

just kidding. this wouldn't be a proper review without some type of blog entry, wouldn't it not? so, here we go. the movie starts simply with a train robbery during the occupation of korea by the japanese, where yoon tae-goo (kang ho song from the host- another korean horror flick) decides to stick up the first class passengers of a train crossing the manchurian desert. little does he know that one of the train passengers happens to be japanese imperial banker kunihara who is carrying a valuable treasure map. tae-goo steals the map from kunihara, but park chang-yi (the gorgeous byung-hun lee with an awesome faux-hawk badass haircut) is already on his tail to steal the map back from a korean collaborator who commissioned it in the first place. then, to add to the mix of things, there's park do-won (woo-sung jung- GORGEOUS tall korean man i've ever seen!) following the bounty trail of both tae-goo and chang-yi for their respective rewards. problems start rising as the ghost market gang decides to steal the map tae-goo is carrying as well as the japanese army, who believe the map is the key to occupying china and beyond...

like i said, this is the first of its kind, and it's a wild west ride in manchuria! lots of action, bullets, good kung fu fight scenes, knife fights, and explosions! there's even a good plot twist at the very end, and you find out what the real treasure is... the movie was inspired by the sergio leone film, the good the bad and the ugly, but i have to say that both the plot and the characters in this one are much more vivrant! it's not your typical wild west film, but one that speaks to history and culture of my ppl... IF YOU ARE KOREAN, SEE THIS NOW! ;)