‘The Good, The Bad, The Weird’ Favors Spectacle Over Story

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HollywoodChicago.com Oscarman rating: 3.5/5.0
Rating: 3.5/5.0

CHICAGO – “Any guess what’s going on?” asks Zhang Qi, the befuddled leader of the Tri-Nation gang, as he observes a nearby train erupting into utter chaos. This line earns the first big laugh in Kim Ji-woon’s breathlessly entertaining “The Good, The Bad, The Weird,” precisely because it mirrors the thoughts of audience members during the film’s delirious opening sequence.

After inventively working within the genres of horror (“A Tale of Two Sisters”) and the noir thriller (“A Bittersweet Life”), director Kim now turns his attention to the “oriental western” with technically impressive though decidedly mixed results. Kim is a major talent, and his exuberance is intoxicating, but he often gets so focused so exploring a given style that he forgets to tell a coherent story. That curtain-raising scene aboard a train is so confusingly staged and frantically edited that it’s difficult to tell who’s good, bad, etc. Like many action set-pieces in the film, it works on a visceral level more than a dramatic one, and is guaranteed to leave your adrenaline pumping but your heart unstirred.

The Good The Bad The Weird.
The Good The Bad The Weird.
Photo credit: IFC Films

The plot centers on the pursuit of a treasure map in the desert of 1930s Manchuria, and combines the brooding atmosphere of Sergio Leone with the screwball energy of Stanley Kramer’s “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.” Some scenes are aggressively comic to a fault, as various deadpan gags land with a bone-crunching thud. But other scenes soar to the heights of inspired lunacy, such as when train robber Yoon Tae-goo (Song Kang-ho), aka “The Weird,” frees himself from rope restraints, and ends up running right past his captor, Park Do-won (Jung Woo-sung), aka “The Good.” When the Good asks him if he’s escaping, the Weird innocently answers with the priceless line, “No of course not. Just gave the rope a tug and it fell out. You folks shouldn’t be so careless.”

As was true of Leone’s 1966 classic, “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” the most interesting character is the Ugly—or in this case, the Weird. His flawed humanity and endearing quirks make him infinitely more human than the rather perfunctory representations of Good and Bad. To Kim’s credit, none of the three leads in his film are as one-note as they initially seem, and each harbor their own complexity. Yet the film never pauses long enough to make any of Kim’s attempts at character depth credible. What’s more problematic is the fact that the performances by Jung and Lee Byung-hun (as “The Bad” Park Chang-yi) never really catch fire. With his bulging eyes, alcoholic swagger and black hair straight out of an anime cartoon, Lee certainly looks like a memorable villain, but the character is all set-up and no payoff. As the mustached “hero,” Jung barely registers, though the actor does what he can with his weak role; his best moments simply require him to play straight man to the cheerfully vibrant Song, who’s no Eli Wallach, but he walks away with the picture anyway.

The Good The Bad The Weird.
The Good The Bad The Weird.
Photo credit: IFC Films

The most ingenious thing about the script (co-written by Kim Min-suk) is the way in which it uses elements of the American western to visualize a volatile period in Asian history. All three of the leads are Korean men forced out of their country during the Japanese occupation. Their new home is Manchuria, a land ruled by the kind of lawlessness and fear that John Wayne became famous for vanquishing. Yet none of Kim’s characters represent a pure vision of “good,” and thus are susceptible to the power of greed. The film’s consistently surprising soundtrack makes inspired use of American music ranging from Glenn Miller to a rousing rendition of “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” during the truly amazing climactic chase sequence, which is easily worth the price of admission.

This stunning example of epic-scale choreography involves the Weird zooming through the desert on his trusty motorcycle, while being pursued by the Good, the Bad, the Tri-Nation gang of bandits, and the Japanese army (I wouldn’t be surprised if the seven samurai were thrown in there for good measure as well). It’s such a superlatively executed sequence that it gets the audience high off of the sheer “movie-ness” of its spectacle. There are enough similarly thrilling moments in “The Good, The Bad, The Weird” to warrant it a solid recommendation despite its flaws. It kicks off the summer movie season with an excitement and vigor that few of this year’s mainstream blockbusters will have a prayer of equaling.

‘The Good, The Bad, The Weird’ stars Song Kang-ho, Lee Byung-hun, Jung Woo-sung, Ryu Seung-soo, Yoon Jae-Moon and Deligeer. It was written by Kim Min-suk and Kim Ji-woon and directed by Kim Ji-woon. It opens on May 7th at the Music Box. It is not rated.

HollywoodChicago.com staff writer Matt Fagerholm

By MATT FAGERHOLM
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
matt@hollywoodchicago.com

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