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THN's Korean Cinema Style Week 5: Kim Jee-woon - The Good The Bad The Weird

With Gangnam Style destroying the charts the world over, we will soon see a second wave of the Korean invasion taking place. Three of South Koreas most commercially successful and critically acclaimed directors have their English language debuts set for next year. Kim Jee-woon ("THE LAST STAND"), Park Chan-wook ("STOKER"), and Bong Joon-ho ("Snowpiercer") have already proved themselves in their homeland, and here at THN we are taking a look back over their past efforts. Starting with the films of Kim Jee-woon, join us each week over the course of the next few months as we explore The Land Of The Morning Calm.

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"The Good, the Bad, the Weird"

Director: Kim Jee-woon

Year:  2008

Cast: Song Kang-ho, Lee Byung-hun, Jung Woo-sung, Yoon Je-moon, Ryu Seung-soo, Song Young-chang, Son Byung-ho, Oh Dal-soo

Plot: Three men; a bounty hunter, a mercenary, and an opportunist, fight over a map they believe will lead them to treasure. However, they may also have some personal issues to resolve along the way.

"The Good, the Bad, the Weird" is what director Kim Jee-woon would like to be referred to as a 'kimchi western'. Like spaghetti westerns in the past, this is certainly a western, but with a unique Korean flavour. It's spicy, it's different, and it takes a while to get used to. Kim jumps into the western and action genre would all the confidence of a pro. Although he has handled violence in a spectacular fashion in the past, "The Good, the Bad, the Weird" is a pure unadulterated action adventure of the highest calibre. At the time this was Korea's most expensive film, and it certainly looks it. But still it only cost $10 million. Someone should give the producers a lot of credit for good budgeting because not once does this look like such a cheap film. It rivals, and greatly exceeds many Hollywood heavy hitters.

The film wastes no time in setting up the plot as we cut between The Good (Jeong) and The Bad (Lee) as they are asked to steal a very important map. The Bad is asked to steal it for the man who sold it to Japanese officials, so that he can have both the money and the map, whereas The Good is asked to retrieve it by the Korean Independence Army. It's simple enough, and feels like the final moments before the climax of a separate film. Things would all go swimmingly if not for The Weird (Song Kang-ho) who boards the same train that the map is on, and is out to steal from the wealthy passengers. The opening 20 minutes on the train is an incredible way to start a film. Having skipped over a real introduction to the main protagonists, you would think that the action would lose some of its bite. That is far from the case, as Kim pulls out a wide range of different cinematic techniques. Remember how people complain about the amount of slo-mo Zack Snyder uses? Well Kim varies his techniques, and never seems to use them more than once. It adds to a constant feeling of progression and kinetic energy. The violence is fun in an INDIANA JONES kind of way, but also packs the same punch as Sergio Leone's westerns.

Another thing that is clear from this opening is how much loving detail has gone into every facet of design. As The Weird walks through the carriages you could pause it on any frame and revel in the detail of the individual costumes. Brightly coloured dresses, smart uniforms, traditional Manchurian garments, and more are all represented. Although yellows and oranges are very dominant throughout the film, they are accompanied by many other beautiful and strikingly warm colours, which do add to the feeling of heat and allow us to feel the blistering sunshine of the desert settings. One scene has a character's eyes suddenly turn to yellow, with the kind of contacts usually reserved for werewolves of demons. Kim also uses these early scenes to instil his underlying themes of Korean identity and independence, as a man waves the Taegukgi (Korean flag) and shouts for the independence of Korea. Something that is echoed later when The Good mentions "Every Korean has a sad story". And the fact that The Weird has left Korea for Manchuria in search of a new identity.

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