The Good, The Bad, The Weird - 神偷:獵人:斷指客

The Good, The Bad, The Weird (神偷:獵人:斷指客) is a 2008 film out of Korea. The film stars Song Kang-ho, Lee Byung-hun, and Jung Woo-sung. The movie is based in Manchuria.

The Cast
Song Kang-ho - Yoon Tae-goo (The Weird)
Lee Byung-hun - Park Chang-yi (The Bad)
Jung Woo-sung - Park Do-won (The Good)

A map to a secret treasure from the Ming Dynasty has surfaced and is being sold to the Japanese by a Korean high official. However, the high official wants to double cross the buyer by stealing it back via his own bandits, Park Chang-Yi. On the train where the map is delivered to the Japanese buyer, a train robbery is in full effect. The robbery is carried out by Yoon Tea-goo, a bumbling thief that shows some signs of skill. Tea-goo inadvertently steals the map. Park Chang-Yi starts to carry out his double steal, but finds that the map is stolen. Park Do-won is a bounty hunter on the trail of both Chang-yi and Tae-goo as both have bounty rewards. But Do-won is set on taking in Chang-yi and getting the map as he's promised a handsome reward from the Korean Independence army. A cat and mouse chase ensues when they leave the train. Do-won and Tae-goo form a uneasy pairing to find the treasure. But they have 3 gangs on their tail, the Japanese army, the Mongolian bandits, and Chang-yi.

This movie was pretty crazy and exciting at the same time. The action was a little hard to believe for most of the movie. But it didn't detract from the main point of the movie. This is the first Korean western I've seen and it was a doozy. The three guys do give a pretty good performance. Worth a watch and worth the wait.

劍雨 - Reign Of Assassins

劍雨 (Reign Of Assassins) is a 2010 film. The film is a joint production of companies from China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. The film stars Michelle Yeoh and Jung Woo-sung. The supporting cast include Wang Xueqi, Barbie Hsu, Shawn Yue, Leon Dai, Kelly Lin, and Pace Wu. The movie is directed by Su Chao-pin. Parts of the movie were co-directed by John Woo.



The Cast
Michelle Yeoh as Zeng Ching
Jung Woo-sung as Jiang Ah-sheng
Wang Xueqi as The Wheel King
Barbie Hsu as Zhan Qiang
Shawn Yue as Lei Bin
Leon Dai as The Magician
Pace Wu as Kongdong Blue Sword
Kelly Lin as Drizzle
Chin Shih-Chieh as Doctor Li
Calvin Li as Wisdom
Angeles Woo - Eater Bear (John Woo's Daughter)
Jiang Yiyan - Lei Bin's Wife



The Story
A monk from India masters the highest level of martial arts. His remains are cut in half and a prized possession. If you have his body, you can also learn the highest forms of martial arts. Because of this, theres a scramble to get it whenever a rumor is confirmed. The Dark Stone gang is a group of assassins that blackmail people with power. When the upper half the monk's body appears, they go after it. In the heat of the battle, Drizzle of the Dark Stone gang takes off with the remains and disappears. Drizzle meets up with a soon to be monk in Wisdom. Wisdom tries to calm the evil in Drizzle and shows her flaws in her technique. However, Drizzle falls for Wisdom and kills him. Devastated, Drizzle gets a face lift and is now Zeng Ching, a fabrics merchant. Zeng eventually marries again to a absent minded foot guy named Ah Sheng. However, peace doesn't last long as the Zeng is found and forced to deal with the past she wants to leave behind.



My Thoughts
This was a amazing wuxia swordplay film. It contained all the elements that I crave. A mystery, martial arts that impress. A strong cast of characters to flank the main characters. Character development is exposed in fragments for the bit players, but mainly reserved for the main stars.



The movie featured plenty of characters. According to Michelle Yeoh's website film page, there could have been more characters, but it does not seem like there was enough time to explore them all. Here's to hoping that this develops into a wuxia drama in the future.

Pace Wu makes only a very brief appearance but her beauty stole the show during that time. Pace also ditches the makeup, but still looked amazing.

I was a little afraid that it couldn't live up to the hype, but it was a great film. I do have problems with the casting, but that can't be helped if you follow the $$.

The Restless - 中天

The Restless (中天) is a 2006 film out of Korea starring Kim Tae-hee and Jung Woo-Seong.

The movie is about Jung who's a demon hunter. However, Jung lands in midheaven and gets involved in a coup there. Helping the princess in power retain her life and kingdom.

The world created is lush and very colorful. The emotional strain of the pair is explored as the things continue to get more tricky.

I actually saw this movie while on a business trip in Kuala Lumpur back in October 2007. It's finally made it to the states. The movie received a lot of hype back in 2006, but I couldn't ever get my hands on it with English Subs. I had a Chinese subbed one, but I don't read enough Chinese to understand the movie.

The movie wasn't very good though, but I was glad I watched it as it was a unique concept and the sets were very nice.