The Good, The Bad, The Weird
Manchuria, 1939, a puppet state of the Japanese Empire within the borders of China, and on the desert plains the strings are being pulled of three individuals tied together in their singular pursuit of either each other or a common goal, the thief Yoon Tae-Goo and the hitman Park Chang-Yi both seeking a map which supposedly leads to a treasure dating to the Quing Dynasty, the former hijacking the train on which the latter is travelling along with the officer of the Imperial Bank entrusted with the map.
Close behind them is sharp-shooting bounty hunter Park Do-Won, indifferent to the prize over which the others fight but instead pursuing Chang-Yi, his target managing to escape while leaving behind dozens of bodies and somehow finding himself in an awkward partnership of mutual inconvenience with Tae-Goo, leaving a trail of chaos and destruction behind them as other parties join the hunt, Manchurian bandits from the Ghost Market, agents of an independence movement funded through opium dens and even the Japanese army.
Described in the credits as an “Oriental Western,” Korean director Kim Jee-Won brought together his fellow countrymen to represent The Good, The Bad, The Weird (좋은 놈, 나쁜 놈, 이상한 놈), Beat’s Jung Woo-sung as the taciturn Park Do-Won, Terminator: Genisys’ Lee Byung-hun as the vicious Park Chang-Yi and Joint Security Area’s Song Kang-ho as the hapless Yoon Tae-Goo, always on the run but never sure where he is going, with The Host’s Yoon Je-Moon leading the Manchurian hordes.
Opening with an epic train heist on the desert sands, The Good, The Bad, The Weird jumps back and forth across the supposed borders between genres with energetic abandon, an action adventure buddy comedy where the multi-level sets, particularly those of the inn where Tae-goo initially hides out with the stolen map and of the Ghost Market, an outpost somewhere between Wild West and Mad Max, allow for stunts to be performed heedless of gravity.
At times entertaining and exhilarating but also exhausting, running to 136 minutes in the original 2008 Korean cut and 129 minutes in the international cut, both of which are presented on Arrow’s new Blu-ray of the film, with endless repetitive action interrupted by long pauses for quiet reflection the film could have been tightened further, and it is concerning that despite explosions in close proximity to horses the credits do not contain the customary assurance that the safety of the animals was monitored.
The new edition of The Good, The Bad, The Weird spread over two discs, it contains one newly recorded and two archive commentaries with contributions from Jee-woon, Kang-ho, Byung-hun, Woo-sung, cinematographer Lee mogae, lighting director Oh Seung-chul, and art director Cho Hwa-sung and others across them, an introduction by the director and interviews with Jee-woon and martial arts coordinator Jung Doo-hong as well as archive featurettes.
The Good, The Bad, The Weird will be released on 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray by Arrow Films and will also be available on the Arrow platform from Monday 9th December
