The Good, the Bad, the Weird

The Good the Bad the Weird was directed by Kim Jee-Woon. He was born in 1964 and grew up to become a very well known screenwriter and director for South Korea. In addition to The good the Bad the Weird, he also directed 8 other movies. The most recent one called "I saw the devil" (2010). He wrote 9 different movies but half of the movies he directed and wrote. Such as "A Bitter Sweet Life," "The Good the Bad the Weird," "A Tale of Two Sisters," "3 Extreme II," "Coming Out," " The Foul King," "Choyonghan Kajok."

The main actors starring in this movie are Song Kang-ho, Lee Byung-hun and Jung Woo-sung. Song Kang-ho known as Yoon Tae-goo aka the Weird. He is portrayed as the thief who steals the map to find the treasure for himself. Lee Byung-hun who plays the role of Park Chang-yi aka the Bad is hired by the Japanese to steal the map. Jung Woo-sung who plays Park Do-won aka the Good is not after the map but after the bad in order to claim the bounty on the Bad. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Good,_the_Bad,_the_Weird)

Although majority of the people loved or liked the movie and its thriller seeking ways, there were those few who where pretty disappointed and even stated that Kim jee-woon hit a new low with this movie, others stated that his filmmaking is rather cartoonish in a bad way. However, looking at majority of the ratings who liked the movie stated that it delivered a slam-bang western set in Manchuria after the Japanese invasion in 1931. It caught some viewers eyes from the beignning to the end. (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/good_the_bad_and_the_weird/?name_order=asc)

This movie consist of major themes that deal with money, outlaw, cavalry charge, treasure hunt, gunfight, Manchuria, bounty hunting, and individuality. The film's genre would be considered an action, adventure, comedy and western. This movie was nominated for 9 different awards and received 4 of the them. In order for the film to appeal to viewers internationally, the film released an alternative ending. one for the Korean native market and the other for the international market. The Korean ending was longer, more up beat and ended with the weird surviving the ending stand off. In the international ending, more scenes were cut off due to the thought of animal cruelty laws. This movie has a lot of fun gun fighting scenes with a lot of chasing involved.

The films main genre would be the western genre. The western genre is mostly about like in the 19th century in the American old west. Most western stories deal with the showing the conflict between the natives and the settlers. It also focuses on the values of honor and sacrifice. In most western films there are the gunfighters, the cowboys, damsels in distress, and the natives, however, in this film in particular, the story is not about the damsels in distress but about treasure hunting and gun fighting. The typical attire in westernized films are Stetson hats, bandannas, spurs and buckskin. This film is well known for the revival of the Western emerging in Italy with the "spaghetti western" or "Italo-western" style. The western film has certain codes such as the hero wears a white hit and the villain typically wears a black hat. Also when there are two people face to face with no one in between them, there is typically a shot out and its a fight till the death. However, this film breaks the typical shoot out with having three people instead of two. Western films were highly influenced by the Japanese samurai films and long before motion pictures, the genre was more popular in literature. The western genre was really popular in the United States and Italy due the the Pioneering history of the culture. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_(genre)

In a typical western genre film the plot mostly consist of good versus bad, the best man is left standing through a shoot out. most films show simple mortality tales, shows the views the style of music, women (mostly portrayed as prostitutes), gambling, shooting and drinking in saloons. Kim jee-hoon shows a lot of these typical western styles in his films with the way some of the characters are dress, they way the men settle their differences, and the surroundings of their environment.