Joheunnom nabbeunnom isanghannom (2008)

Director:

Ji-woon Kim

Writers:

Ji-woon Kim (screenplay)
Min-suk Kim (screenplay)

Release Date:

17 July 2008 (South Korea)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Comedy | Western

Plot:

The story of three Korean outlaws in 1940s Manchuria and their rivalry to possess a treasure map while being pursued by the Japanese army and Chinese bandits. |

Plot Keywords:

Outlaw | Manchuria | Money | Shotgun | Spoof

Awards:

3 wins & 8 nominations

Cast

Kang-ho Song	...	Yoon Tae-goo / The Weird
Byung-hun Lee	...	Park Chang-yi / The Bad
Woo-sung Jung	...	Park Do-won / The Good
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Kyeong-hun Jo	...	Doo-chae
Kwang-il Kim	...	Two swords
Cheong-a Lee	...	Song-i
Dong-seok Ma	...	Bear
Dal-su Oh	...	Man-gil
Seo-won Oh	...	Chinese woman
Seung-su Ryu	...	Man-gil
Byung-ho Son	...	Seo Jae-sik
Young-chang Song	...	Kim Pan-joo
Ji-won Uhm	...	Na-yeon
Je-mun Yun	...	Byeong-choon

Also Known As:

Nom Nom Nom (International: English title) (informal short title)
The Good, the Bad, the Weird (International: English title)

Runtime:

South Korea:139 min | South Korea:120 min (Cannes Film Festival) | Argentina:130 min (Mar del Plata Film Festival) | Japan:129 min

Country:

South Korea

Language:

Korean | Mandarin | Japanese

Colour:

Black and White | Colour

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

South Korea:15 | Australia:MA (2008) | Singapore:NC-16 | Argentina:16 | UK:15 (cut) | Ireland:15A | Japan:PG-12 | Germany:16

Company:

Barunson

Trivia:

Most expensive movie in South Korean cinema history as per 2009.

Quotes:

Park Chang-yi: People must know that they're going to die, and yet they live as though they never will. Hilarious.

Movie Connections:

References Per un pugno di dollari (1964)

Good Lord, this is fun.

The Manchurian desert in the 1930's has become the Asian cinematic version of the American West. A number of action films have been set here but this is the first to make an outright reference to a classic western that I've seen. While taking off from Leone's "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" this film goes in it's own direction although the mix of horses, trains, motorcycles, Chinese and Western costumes and some very odd characters makes this film resemble the Mad Max films more than anything else. An extended chase scene towards the end really seems influenced by the George Miller films.

Influences aside, the ingenuity in crafting the action scenes in this film makes it a joy to watch. Photography is great. The lead actors are good and the story while a little daft is easy to follow for the most part.The music is good but nowhere near the Leone films. The violence is typical for Korean action and might be a little hard to watch at times. Long but pure fun for the most part.

This is probably the best action film I've seen in a while.