The Good, the Bad, the Weird (좋은 놈, 나쁜 놈, 이상한 놈, Jongheun Nom, Nabbeun Nom, Isanghan Nom) is a 2008 South Korean western film by Kim Ji-woon, it stars Song Kang-ho, Lee Byung-hun, and Jung Woo-sung. It premiered on May 24, 2008 at the Cannes Film Festival.
Inspired by Segio Leone's 1966 spaghetti-western "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly", set in Manchuria in 1930s, the story deals with three Korean men and their entanglement with the Japanese army, Chinese and Russian bandits, accompanied with many exciting action scenes.
Chang-yi (played by Lee Byung-heon), a dandy hit man is hired to retrieve a certain map in the hands of a Japanese banker. Meanwhile, bounty hunter Do-won (played by Jeong Woo-sung) is sent by the Korean independence army for the same mission. To their frustration, however, the map is snatched by the train robber Tae-gu (played by Song Kang-ho), who is convinced that it leads to the fabled treasures of the fallen Qing dynasty.
Kim Ji-woon, who has an impressive track record of having successfully tackled a wide range of genres, from sports comedy ("The Foul King") to horror ("Tale of Two Sisters") and European-style film noir ("Bittersweet Life"), now turns his sight on the western.
From the opening credit sequence to busy shootouts in the rain-drenched marketplace Kim and his technical staff (cinematographer Lee Mo-gae, production designer Jo Hwa-seong, and composer Dal Pa-ran) are fully in control of the film's aesthetic and technical elements. This piece of work is truly an impressive work of art not because the screenplay but the non-CG element of its action sequences. The amount of care and detail that was put into each of the action sequences and set is worthy of admiration. All of the action sequences from the train robbery, to the ghost town, to the showdown at the end were all shot fast paced in almost real-time without the usual slow-motion shots often characteristic of most action films.
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