Saw The Good, The Bad, The Weird, a Korean take on the Good/Bad/Ugly western film. Like that film, it too is set in the middle of a civil war, this one the war for Korean independence. We follow three dudes (the titular good, bad, and weird guy) who are hunting for a treasure map. The good dude is an American-style cowboy, complete with stetson and six-shooter. The bad guy is a gangster, with starched suit and hair fetchingly combed over one eye. The "weird" guy most closely resembles a mongolian bandit (though I'm probably misinterpreting things.) This anarchic, collage-ish mixture of genres and styles mirrors the entire film, which merrily bounces along from town-wide shootout to tense standoff to jolly train robbery. Even the nature of the central treasure map is confusing. Does it show the way to Japanese war treasure or to Qin-dynasty riches? Or is it actually a map of military positions? Does it really matter?
the film is a lot of fun, always upping the ante and trying to top itself. Somewhere near the climax of the film, the three protagonists are chasing each other, each with their associated gang of mongolians, gangsters, and sheriffs trailing behind, and behind them, the entirety of the Japanese army, and behind them artillery. Amazing bullshit. This is not a film to take tremendously seriously, but it's a lot of freewheeling, mashed-up fun.
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