Alright, today’s request is from Vangeist, who you heard on the recent podcast.
The Good The Bad The Weird is a 2008 film from South Korea directed by the guy who more recently did I Saw The Devil, and stars the slightly retarded dad from The Host/the vampire from Thirst as the Weird, the cop from I Saw The Devil/Storm Shadow from the GI Joe movies as The Bad and a guy who you probably know for nothing playing The Good. I listed the characters in reverse order from the movie title since that is the actual significance of them in the movie.
Now, if you guessed this movie is a remake of Sergio Leone’s The Good The Bad The Ugly, you are sort of right but not entirely. The movie does take elements from that but not quite.
The movie is set in 1920s Manchuria and story of the movie is that The Weird is a robber/treasure hunter who robs a train and steals a treasure map from a japanese government representative. This map was the target of The Bad, a hitman/gang leader, who in turn is hunted by The Good, a bounty hunter.
The rest of the movie is The Weird (who, by the way, dresses like a troll airplane pilot) following the map, traveling through the desert while being hunted by The Bad and his gang, as well as local bandits and the Imperial Japanese Army.
This movie has a lot of energy and is quite exciting. I didn’t expect that much of a focus on The Weird (since he is the last character in the movie title), and the Good is barely in this movie. The Bad is just totally badass, but I don’t think he has enough dialogue.
My favorite part is when The Weird is being chased by all of the forces through the desert in a jeep while Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood plays, that being the song from Kill Bill vol 1 that plays when The Bride fights O-Ren.
The sort of dissapointment was that the version of the movie that I saw was the version shown in South Korea, where the movie has 15 extra minutes with an extended, altered ending which is more upbeat and happy but at the same time kind of ruins a better ending in my opinion.
RECCOMENDATION STATUS : YES
RATING : 4.5/5
Have you watched the popular Korean drama broadcasted in Summer 2007 – The First Shop of Coffee Prince ????? 1??? In this drama starred by Yoon Eun Hye (???) & Gong Yoo (??), the story revolved around a cafe run by Gong Yoo with cafe staff Yoon Eun Hye & others. The cafe used by this drama has gained much popularity since then & it has now become a tourist spot in Hongdae vicinity, Seoul.
Figuring out that you love Geography before you go to university is fantastic!
And thank you! Although, the Great Rift Valley is pretty freaking great. Maybe this blog is merely as grand as the Grand Canyon ;-).
Restaurant menu in Seoul by Hyunwoo Sun
?? (Kongbul, the restaurant) by Hyunwoo Sun
Yong-San Electronic Market and Movie Theater - Seoul by Seoul Korea
IDK if anyone blogged about this…. so here I am posting this interview with an AMBW married couple in South Korea. ^_^
-Note- it is a little hard to hear the guy, though.
Busan Cinema
Gwangan Bridge