Runtime:
130 minutes
Directed
by: Kim Jee-Woon
Starring:
Kang-Ho Song, Byung-Hun Lee, Woo-Sung Jung, Seung-Su Ryu
From:
CJ Entertainment
I
know, this is up really late, but things happen... at least I'll be
talking about an awesome film that I do give the highest
recommendation to those that enjoy action/adventure movies that are
light in spirit but have some great setpieces, plenty of humor, a
wacky and yet great musical score, and a grand prize that many people
want. The director of this made his American debut with The Last
Stand (review here) which I know has a mixed reaction but I did enjoy
it a lot; not like this movie, but by the end of the year I am pretty
sure it'll be in my Top 10 of the best of the year. To give a plot
description of this version of The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly,
time to go to the IMDb, with some modifications:
“Three
Korean gunslingers are in Manchuria (Northeast China) during the
1930's: Do-wan (The Good), an upright bounty hunter, Chang-yi (The
Bad), a thin-skinned and ruthless killer, and Tae-goo (The Weird), a
train robber with nine lives. Tae-goo finds a map he's convinced
leads to buried treasure; Chang-yi wants it as well for less clear
reasons. Do-wan tracks the map knowing it will bring him to Chang-yi,
Tae-goo, and reward money. Occupying Japanese forces and their
Manchurian collaborators also want the map, as does the Ghost Market
Gang who hangs out at a thieves' bazaar. These enemies cross paths
frequently and dead bodies pile up. Will anyone find the map's
destination and survive to tell the tale?”
The
three leads dress distinctively: The Good like a cowboy crossed with
Indiana Jones (boy is this better in every way than the 4th
Indiana Jones movie), The Bad real stylish, and The Weird wears goofy
clothing, including aviator goggles. That is just one sign of the
light tone of this. Things start off great with action in a heist of
a locomotive and there's plenty of action scenes and adventure to see
after that.
I
should mention that the setting of Manchuria (I do not know where it
was actually filmed, but it was a rocky dusty desert setting; I would
compare it to the deserts of Chile) was pretty great to me as it
looked cool and I had never seen it before. To give a brief history
lesson, during the time period Japan occupied the peninsula of Korea
so in the Manchurian area you could find many Koreans, and that was a
plot point here, with frequent questions of, “Are you Korean” or
“Can you speak Korean?” and Korean characters did mention how
they felt displaced where they were now and they wished they could go
back and have their country be what it was before it was occupied.
That was also interesting to me.
Like
I said, this is great as an adventure film and as a badass Western
movie. If you haven't seen it then you really should, as I say it's
one of the most enjoyable and fun action movies of recent years
anywhere in the world (it kicks the ass of many big-budget Hollywood
action films in the same time period) and also one of the best.
There's a section near the end (where you hear a re-recording of
Santa Esmeralda's version of Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood) that is
epic and I heard it described as “The Blues Brothers with horses”
and I'll go with that.
I'll
be back Sunday night and I should be more punctual.
No comments:
Post a Comment