Review of The Good, the Bad, the Weird / 좋은 놈, 나쁜 놈, 이상한 놈 by Kim Jee-woon

Once upon a time, I was a freshman in college who had just moved back from a study abroad experience in South Korea, as a high schooler, to a fashion school in New York City. In an attempt to connect with the culture I had just studied and left behind, I signed up for a contemporary Korean cinema course.

And that was how I ended up being the only person who was younger than junior year in a 300-level film class. I will say, it was a great introduction to college, and that class taught me to appreciate Korean cinema in so many different ways.

It’s why I ended up creating this blog in some ways, which is largely dedicated to Asian entertainment and literature (although I have diverse tastes and often branch outside of it).

So we did not watch this movie in the class specifically, but I watched the film independently on my own around the same time. I was so eager and didn’t have a job, so I went ahead and just found all of the moveis I could watch on the streaming platforms I had access to on my limited budget.

After all of these years, I decided to return to this movie. Here’s my review before I start rambling too much in the introduction alone!

Three individuals, with wildly different backgrounds, chase after each other for a single treasure map.

This movie is set in 1939, pretty much in the middle of nowhere Manchuria, right before World War II consumes most of East Asia. We first meet the character designated as The Bad: Park Chang-yi. Portrayed by Lee Byung-hun, he’s a bandhit and hitman who has a new task.

He’s been hired to steal a treasure map from a Japanese official on a train in Manchuria. Just as he goes in to sweep the map off of this guy’s hands, The Weird (Yoon Tae-goo, portrayed by Song Kang-ho), another thief, snatches the map. The Bad derails the train, getting The Weird caught up in a new conflict.

Fights break out, and Manchurian and Japanese guards are killed along with some innocent civilians as The Weird tries to get away from everything going on. At the same time, The Good (Park Do-won; portrayed by Jung Woo-sung) appears on the scene to try and get the bounty on The Bad.

The Weird sees this as a moment to get out there, despite now being pursued by both The Good and The Bad. We then learn a bunch of Manchurian bandits also want to get ahold of this map, as they want to sell it on the back market.

The Weird starts looking at the map, and tries to figure out its secrets. He hopes it leads to the secret riches of the Qing Dynasty, as he’ll be set for life. But as he tries to follow the map, he now has three different kinds of pursuers, and the Japanese Army soon is going to get involved as they think this will save the empire.

Eventually, this is all going to culminate in an epic final battle in which all five sides are going to meet and duke their way out to the top. The army ends up killing most of the bandits, while The Good slaughters quite a few Japanese soldiers on his side of the battle.

He also rigs an explosion, which then calls off the rest of the army. The Bad comes with his gang, but most are killed off, leaving him alone with The Good and The Weird.

They follow the map and find a boarded up hole in the desert. The Bad then realizes he knows The Weird, as The Weird cut off his finger years ago. This leads him to then turn on The Weird, creating a three-man standoff. As all three engage in a gunfight, they end up laying on the ground dying.

But just then, the hole erupts with oil. The Weird and The Good survive the battle, but The Weird has his bounty raised, meaning The Good will now chase him all over Manchuria for some extra cash.

Overall Thoughts

I never saw the original Spaghetti Western, but I know quite a bit about the genre and what they often stood for. I thought converting it to 1939 Manchuria was a brilliant and such a compelling decision, as it has so much loaded history in itself.

Anyways, this is such a good movie. There are moments to laugh over, the action moments, and then some classic drama. It’s a little bit of everything, and such a Kim Jee-woon movie.

Go watch this one if you haven’t already. It’s such a fun movie to watch on an actual screen.

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