The Good, The Bad, The Weird (Joheunnom nabbeunnom isanghannom - 2008)

First we had spaghetti westerns, then, one of my favorites, Tampopo, a noodle western, and now Korean writer/director Kim Ji-woon calls this his "kimchee western:" spicy, sour, colorful, and creative. A tad long (2:10) and quite bloody, it's nonetheless pretty funny and entertaining. Only one guy, The Good, wears a cowboy hat. He swings from ropes like Spider-Man in shanty-towns that crumble in the gunshots. From the opening train robbery (there's a steam engine--it takes place in Manchuria between World Wars I and II) to a spectacular shootout near the end, there's plenty of property damage, dental disparities (the three main characters have gleaming white teeth, and some of the lesser ones gray and mottled), and crazy people doing crazy things. The colors are bright and saturated and the music is fabulous, by Dal Palan and Jang Yeong-gyu, evoking, of course, Ennio Morricone, composer for The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly (1966), which I didn't see but have listened to the soundtrack many times. I'm not up to date on Korean movies, so the stars, Jung Woo-sung as The Good (AKA Park Do-Won), Lee Byung-hun as The Bad (AKA Park Chang-yi), both handsome hunks (the latter has a great haircut, too), and Song Kang-ho as The Weird (AKA Yoon Tae-goo), are not familiar to me. Note: the Korean standard is like the Japanese and Chinese, with family names first, e.g. Doe John, so I have observed that standard in this post, although imdb lists the names the other way, e.g. Ji-woon Kim. There are few women in the cast, with few lines and little purpose other than window dressing, but that's in keeping with the macho tone of the picture.

The soundtrack is available in Asia now (available as an import on amazon), set to come here later, and the movie will be released on DVD this August. It's a good time if you're in the mood for a violent spoof.