Matt Shea
RubySoho
Morgan Bell
Cibbuano
David O'Connell
Mountain Fog
The Good, the Bad, the Weird
September 30th 2009 05:52
One of world cinema’s divinely luminous talents, director Kim Jee-woon, reinvigorates a fading genre in his masterful ‘Oriental Western’, The Good, the Bad, the Weird, a much-awaited follow-up to his bravura Korean crime drama A Bittersweet Life in 2005. Amalgamating inferences from a host of genre trendsetters, Kim applies his own visionary talents to a tale of three men in search of a buried treasure in the lawless plains of 1930’s Manchuria.
When a thief, Yoon Tae-goo (Song Kang-ho), boards a train hurtling through the desert to rob its inhabitants, he has no idea the trouble he’ll invite with his takings; for also converging on this moving target are two men with like-minded ambitions - Park Chang-yi (Lee Byung-hun), the charismatic leader of a group of ruthless bandits, and Park Do-won (Jung Woo-sung), a stoic bounty hunter.
Dispatched from conflicting factions in search of an elusive treasure map buried after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, attention is soon directed solely at Tae-goo as he eludes the others with his prize. A manhunt begins with the delirious Tae-goo leading the way, the Japanese army joining the fray too as the notorious trio manufactures ways of avoiding death even as the toll around them swiftly rises.
As with all of Kim’s films, the stunning visual aspects of his work are worth the price of admission alone. His dazzling technical proficiency reaches its apex here, a liberal sprinkling of humour filling gaps between the series of extravagant, meticulously choreographed set-pieces. In each, Kim maintains the sensory stimulation with a barrage of bullets, deploying balletic grace amid the brutal, kinetic gunplay. The train robbery is but the first of these memorable scenes; after a breather, the visual assualt then spills over into a monumental showdown at the Ghost Market - where thieves come together to sell their wares - before an epic, frame-bursting desert chase on horseback in the film's latter stages.
Though the narrative is filled with unpredictable turns, the prowess of its director is not: audacious, fluid camera movements are becoming a hallmark of Kim’s approach to storytelling and he immerses you in the dusty barren wilderness of this bygone era with a pace that rarely slackens.
Somehow the director and his co-writer Kim Min-suk achieve a perfect balance in their writing too, each of the characters empathetic in their own idiosyncratic way. Flavourful music adds another nostalgic angle, the score providing telling nods to Ennio Morricone whilst snippets of big-band and modern instrumental beats complete the occasionally eccentric, but never jarring sensory overload.
The three actors are all magnificent, thriving on the physicality of their roles, each performing their own stunt work. Kang-ho, best known from his roles in international hits Memories of Murder (2003) and The Host (2006) is typically superb as the benign Tae-goo, a man with a skill for continually dodging a meeting with his maker. He has an implied history with Chang-yi which may provide answers as to who will eventually prevail.
Byung-hun, star of Kim’s A Bittersweet Life, is perfect as the stylish, inscrutable bandit, whilst attired in the iconic greatcoat Do-won somehow evokes sympathy despite a rigid exterior and ruthless means of negating his enemies.
The Good, the Bad, the Weird is an absolute joy, never wasting a minute on superfluous sidetracking. Admirably sustained over a thrilling 125 minutes, it proves to be cinema in its purest form, from a director whose flair and technical capabilities are as intoxicating as his love of the medium itself. Lose yourself in this latest masterpiece from a prodigious talent and you’ll be helpless to prevent a widening grin as the end credits roll.
by David O'Connell
The Good the Bad the Weird is screening at ACMI (Australian Centre for the Moving Image) in Melbourne from October 1 to October 20
When a thief, Yoon Tae-goo (Song Kang-ho), boards a train hurtling through the desert to rob its inhabitants, he has no idea the trouble he’ll invite with his takings; for also converging on this moving target are two men with like-minded ambitions - Park Chang-yi (Lee Byung-hun), the charismatic leader of a group of ruthless bandits, and Park Do-won (Jung Woo-sung), a stoic bounty hunter.
Dispatched from conflicting factions in search of an elusive treasure map buried after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, attention is soon directed solely at Tae-goo as he eludes the others with his prize. A manhunt begins with the delirious Tae-goo leading the way, the Japanese army joining the fray too as the notorious trio manufactures ways of avoiding death even as the toll around them swiftly rises.
As with all of Kim’s films, the stunning visual aspects of his work are worth the price of admission alone. His dazzling technical proficiency reaches its apex here, a liberal sprinkling of humour filling gaps between the series of extravagant, meticulously choreographed set-pieces. In each, Kim maintains the sensory stimulation with a barrage of bullets, deploying balletic grace amid the brutal, kinetic gunplay. The train robbery is but the first of these memorable scenes; after a breather, the visual assualt then spills over into a monumental showdown at the Ghost Market - where thieves come together to sell their wares - before an epic, frame-bursting desert chase on horseback in the film's latter stages.
Song Kang-ho as Yoon Tae-goo
Though the narrative is filled with unpredictable turns, the prowess of its director is not: audacious, fluid camera movements are becoming a hallmark of Kim’s approach to storytelling and he immerses you in the dusty barren wilderness of this bygone era with a pace that rarely slackens.
Somehow the director and his co-writer Kim Min-suk achieve a perfect balance in their writing too, each of the characters empathetic in their own idiosyncratic way. Flavourful music adds another nostalgic angle, the score providing telling nods to Ennio Morricone whilst snippets of big-band and modern instrumental beats complete the occasionally eccentric, but never jarring sensory overload.
Lee Byung-hun as Park Chang-yi
The three actors are all magnificent, thriving on the physicality of their roles, each performing their own stunt work. Kang-ho, best known from his roles in international hits Memories of Murder (2003) and The Host (2006) is typically superb as the benign Tae-goo, a man with a skill for continually dodging a meeting with his maker. He has an implied history with Chang-yi which may provide answers as to who will eventually prevail.
Byung-hun, star of Kim’s A Bittersweet Life, is perfect as the stylish, inscrutable bandit, whilst attired in the iconic greatcoat Do-won somehow evokes sympathy despite a rigid exterior and ruthless means of negating his enemies.
The Good, the Bad, the Weird is an absolute joy, never wasting a minute on superfluous sidetracking. Admirably sustained over a thrilling 125 minutes, it proves to be cinema in its purest form, from a director whose flair and technical capabilities are as intoxicating as his love of the medium itself. Lose yourself in this latest masterpiece from a prodigious talent and you’ll be helpless to prevent a widening grin as the end credits roll.
by David O'Connell
The Good the Bad the Weird is screening at ACMI (Australian Centre for the Moving Image) in Melbourne from October 1 to October 20
Jung Woo-sung as Park Do-won
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