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The Good, The Bad and The Weird

Genre: Oriental Western
Format: 35mm
Estimated Running Time: 120 min.
Budget: US$10,000,000 (HK$78,000,000)
Funds Secured: US$8,000,000 (HK$62,400,000)
Producer: CHOI Jae-won
Writing Credits: KIM Jee-woon (screenplay), KIM Min-suk (screenplay)
Production Company: Barunson Co. Ltd. / Grimm Pictures
Partner Attached: Showbox, South Korea

Introduction

Korean filmmaker Kim Jee-woon has created box office hits in Asia with The Foul King (2000), A Tale of Two Sisters (2003) and A Bittersweet Life (2005). This time he would take on the challenge of a new genre: an “Oriental Western". 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.

Synopsis

In the 1930s, the world is in chaos. In Northeast Asia, the Korean Peninsula has fallen into the hands of the Japanese Imperialists. Many Koreans have flocked to Manchuria, the vast terrain of horses and wilderness bordering their homeland and China. Some of them, inevitably, have turned into mounted bandits to earn their living in this barren
wasteland.

Tae-gu (The Weird) is a thief. He robs a train of Japanese military officers, but the incident is not as simple as it first seems. In the middle of this fierce gun battle against the Japanese, he obtains a mysterious map that leads to a treasure from the Qing Dynasty, buried somewhere in Manchuria.

Yet, the map is also sought by Chang-yi, the cold blooded hitman (The Bad). Tae-gu must fight not only the Japanese but also Chang-yi and his fellow thugs, who happen to attack the train at the same time. At the end of this intense gunfight, a mysterious man jumps into the center of the battle from nowhere and rescues Tae-gu with astonishing gunplay.

Having survived the battle, Tae-gu thanks the man for saving his life. Yet, he does not know that this stranger is Do-won, the bounty hunter (The Good), who has been chasing Tae-gu to turn him in for a reward.

These three men - Do-won (The Good), Chang-yi (The Bad) and Tae-gu (The Weird) - will soon discover that the map they are battling for is also a magnet that attracts others as diverse as the Korean resistance, Chinese/Russian/Korean mountain bandits and the Japanese army. The blazing gun battle in the train proves to be merely the beginning of the rollercoaster ride to the final showdown to come.

Director's Statement

The broad plains of Manchuria offer a seemingly boundless landscape of earth and sky, long ruled by wild men and their horses. It became a battle field for great powers in 1930s. And it also became a land of exile for Koreans wandering there.

Do-won, the bounty hunter, Chang-yi, the cold-blooded hitman and Tae gu, the train bandit, are players in an epic story staged against Manchuria’s striking, exotic landscape. I would like to express the overflowing emotion filling the endless landscape with a matter of life and death, but I also want to do it in a rather humorous way. On yet another level, I want to show the audience the faces of Koreans of that era who had been abandoned by their homeland and by the insurmountable tide of history.

Personally, this film also represents a genre that I have envisioned during my previous filmmaking endeavors. With this never-before-seen genre of the “Oriental Western”, I want to create cinematic excitement and the sensation of wild action staged on a vast and exotic landscape.

Director

Kim Jee-woon began his career as a stage actor, then stage director, and finally has become one of the most popular and acclaimed figures among modern Korean directors/screenwriters. His second screenplay, The Quiet Family (1998), won him the Best Screenplay prize in a local contest, and Kim went on to make his directorial debut with this screenplay. The film was invited to many film festivals. Kim’s films, from The Quiet Family (1998) to last year’s A Bittersweet Life, have been hailed by critics and audiences alike for his unique style and storytelling. His second feature, The Foul King (2000), drew more than 2 million spectators, while his astounding horror film of true visual elegance, A Tale of Two Sisters (2003), reached 3.5 million viewers nation-wide. It went on to be remade by Dreamworks in the US.

Kim is now working on his next project, The Good, The Bad and The Weird, an oriental western that will surprise
the film world once again.

Producer

Choi Jae-won founded I Pictures Inc. in 2000 and has executive produced globally-acclaimed films such as Memories of Murder (2003) by Bong Joon-ho; Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring (2003) by Kim Ki-duk; A Tale of Two Sisters (2003) by Kim Jee-woon; Chihwaseon (2002); Volcano High (2001); My Beautiful Girl, Mari (2002) and Take Care of My Cat (2001), to name a few.

Since changing the company name to Barunson Co. Ltd. in 2005, Choi has taken the initiative to produce a number of projects by world-renowned directors such as Kim Jee-woon (A Bittersweet Life, A Tale of Two Sisters), Bong Joon-ho (The Host, Memories of Murder), Yim Phil-sung (Antarctic Journal) and others.

In addition to these projects, Choi is seeking to expand project development with other producers abroad with efforts focused mainly on family-oriented animation and feature films.

Production Company

Though Barunson film division is a newcomer in the film industry, its founders have been involved in producing for the last decade, with various kinds of films, including The Host (2006) and Memories of Murder (2003), by Bong Joon-ho; A Tale of Two Sisters (2003) by Kim Jee-woon; The President’s Barber (2004) and Volcano High (2001).

Employing a system of "Synergetic Producer Groups" that unites producers of different backgrounds and specialties to maximise productivity, Barunson Film Division’s primary objective is to make films that convey Asian originality while meeting world-class production standards. This ambitious vision has resonated deeply among the directors currently preparing their next projects with Barunson – Bong Joon-ho, Kim Jee-woon, Yim Phil-sung and others – and they represent the rare filmmakers who can make this vision come true. The ability to attract these talents to the banner is testimony to Barunson’s goals and visions.

Source: http://www.hkiff.org.hk/