Saturday, September 25, 2010

Playlist: The Good, The Bad, The Weird


It's 1930s Manchuria and everyone's fighting everyone in Director Kim Ji-woon's kimchi western. Add a treasure map to the mix and, well, everyone ends up fighting everyone even more. A Korean thief inadvertently steals the map from a Japanese army official during a train robbery before a notorious bandit and take it for his employer. The thief takes off chased by the bandit, a bounty hunter after the bandit, a local Manchurian gang, and of course, the Japanese army. Several highly choreographed shoot-em ups and a good helping of goofy Asian film humor later, it comes down to a three way duel between the title players. The lead actors are all very good: deadeye hero Jung Woo-sung (The Good), slick & nasty Lee Byung-hun (The Bad), and deceivingly schlubby Song Kang-ho (The Weird).

It's all fun up to a point. That point is around the 90 minute mark. Unfortunately, it doesn't end for another 40. Even with the conversion rate, that's too long.

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