"Throne Of Blood" Mixes "Macbeth" with Japanese Noh Theater

An adaptation of Shakespeare's "Macbeth" (or "The Scottish Play" as superstitious theater folk like to call it) set in feudal Japan, "Throne Of Blood" (though it's real title "Kumonosu-jo" translates to "Spider Web Castle") from legendary director Akira Kurosawa is a wonderfully moody and atmospheric ghost story and morality tale that features intense acting and more internal conflict than many other samurai films.

Kurosawa's favorite leading man Toshiro Mifune plays military man Taketoki Washizu, a general under feudal lord Kunimaru Tsuzuki (played by Hiroshi Tachikawa). As Washizu and his friend and fellow general Yoshiaki Miki (played by Minoru Chiaki) traverse the maze-like Spider Web Forest to get to their lord's castle Spider Web Castle, they become lost and encounter a potentially evil spirit (played by Chieko Naniwa) that tells them their futures. The two laugh it off until things the spirit foretold start coming true.

Having been promoted to lead an entire garrison, Washizu is urged by his cold, ambitious wife Asaji (played by Isuzu Yamada, who actually died less than a month ago at age 95) to actively ensure a certain prophecy the spirit gave, that Washizu would be lord of Spider Web Castle. But this would mean betraying both his lord and potentially his friend Miki. He is reluctant to be as conspiracy-minded and untrusting as she. But with what the spirit said always in the back of his mind, coupled with his wife's cajoling, his own ambition is inflamed. This sets of a series of betrayals that make up the bulk of the movie. The spirit's prophecies are fulfilled but not in the way any of the characters predict or want.

The acting in "Throne Of Blood" is top notch, especially from Mifune and Yamada. Intensity was always his forte but Mifune really digs deep for this one. The mental struggle and anguish he feels for his actions is written on his face throughout the entire movie. He exudes this quality even without speaking and when it's time for Washizu to snap the desperation he portrays is palpable. Yamada perfectly captures the essence of a character like Asaji. The white make-up she wears and her ever-so-proper movements are expertly shown as a mask for the heartless, conniving person inside. These somewhat fixed expressions are where the Noh theater elements come in. It takes expert acting to portray complexity from behind a "mask."

Like with all of Kurosawa's films, "Throne Of Blood" is a visual treat. There are less wide shots than in some of his other films but the close-ups expertly mirror the theme of these characters being metaphorically walled in by forces outside their control as well as self-fulfilling prophecy. The frequent use of fog also does a great job of setting the bleak, foreboding and uncertain tone. And the forest spirit is downright creepy. Even though this movie was made over fifty years ago, there is still nothing more unnerving than a Japanese ghost. The spirit is dressed in all white with long, unkempt hair. The first time you see it it's absently turning a spinning wheel and staring straight ahead, telling Washizu and Miki their "fortunes" in a delicate monotone. But the second time it speaks in a menacing voice that is artificially lowered deeper than a normal human voice for that extra scariness.

"Throne Of Blood" is definitely a character-based film and it thrives because of it. While the action scenes are necessary they thankfully don't overtake the character development. Whether or not certain parts are similar or dissimilar to "Macbeth" is honestly irrelevant. This movie succeeds on its own merits.

"The Legend Of The Black Scorpion" is a "Hamlet" Adaptation That Bites Off More Than It Can Chew

First of all, it is a bit annoying how many Asian films get English titles that are widely different from the movie's actual name. In this case, "The Legend Of The Black Scorpion"'s real title is "The Banquet" ("Ye Yan" in Mandarin Chinese) and although it does take over an hour and a half to get to the actual event the title refers to, it's a little misleading. Scorpions do play a role as a motif but the interjection of "legend" erroneously suggests there's more to it than that. The word "legend" is thrown around too liberally with English titles for Asian films in general. I guess the distributors felt "The Banquet" was too plain of a name and wasn't flashy enough for American audiences. This insults both the American viewer, who if they're watching this is probably at least a casual fan of Chinese/Hong Kong cinema already, and the movie itself.

But to get back to the film, this movie is a loose adaptation of Shakespeare's Hamlet set during the tumultuous end of the Tang Dynasty in the 10th Century. You have the king who murders his brother in Emperor Lin (played by Ge You), his dead brother's wife who he takes as his own in Empress Wan (played by Zhang Ziyi) and the conflicted son of the murdered king in Crown Prince Wu Luan (played by Daniel Wu). There's even the play to "catch the conscience of the king" at one point.

The movie opens up with a musical drama performance in a round theater made of bamboo nestled in a bamboo forest. It's a beautiful visual like you'd expect from a quality modern Wuxia film. All the players are wearing spotless white robes and expressionless white masks. The song is a haunting one and the marionette-like dance is a bit unsettling, but in a visually interesting way. White is a very symbolic color in many Asian cultures. It can mean death but it can also mean purity. In this case, it seems to mean a little bit of both. Distraught over his lover Wan marrying his father, Wu Luan has fled to this place to study song and dance, all but abandoning his royal life. So in this sense, the white could represent the death of his former self and the purity of his studies. This movie is heavy on symbolism in general. Even the characters talk about what certain colors, images, etc. mean. The death part shows up again when imperial guards clad in black armor storm the theater, on orders from the new Emperor Lin, to assassinate the Crown Prince. He hides while his fellow actors perish. This is one of the better action sequences visually thanks to the sloping tiers of the bamboo theater and the stark color contrasts.

What follows is unfortunately often a jumbled give and take that trips over it's own shoes. It's often unclear what the motivation of the characters is. Wu Luan returns to the imperial palace, portrayed with fantastic set pieces of gold, red and black, and in what is supposed to be a harmless sparring demonstration with wooden swords, the Crown Prince is once again nearly murdered on his uncle's orders. The problem here is that all these machinations are too direct and it's not believable that there wouldn't be immediate consequences, even if it involves a royal family where people look the other way. Empress Wan seems to go back and forth over favoring her new husband, her former husband, her former lover or her own selfish desires for power. It is established that she wears many metaphorical masks and costumes to suit her needs of the moment but instead of being an interesting, complex character, this just adds more confusion. You don't know who Empress Wan is. However, Zhang Ziyi makes the most of what she's given and provides the best acting the film has to offer. She plays jealous, lonely, angry, calculated, cruel, sad and seductive all well. Most of the other characters are played far too straight to be well-rounded though Ge You does do a pretty good job of playing a man who goes through the motions of being emperor but is truthfully unsure of his position.

Everything comes to a head at a banquet that the emperor has for all the courtiers. He once again thinks his nephew dead after making him "ambassador" to a neighboring kingdom with no intention of having him complete the journey there alive. But Wu Luan shows up in disguise as part of a similar song and dance routine to the opening scene. The empress plans to poison the emperor at the banquet with a concoction of arsenic and black scorpion venom mixed into wine. Her plans don't turn out like she hopes and the film climaxes in the misery well known to Shakespeare tragedies. The final scene of the film is quite unexpected though, a fatality where the source of the killing is highly ambiguous.

There is a lot less fighting action in this movie than in many other Wuxia films. Most of the scenes that do have this are very dance-like, which does nicely reflect Crown Prince Wu Luan's hobby. Modern Wuxia movies do a wonderful job of bringing out the beauty in martial arts but when too much emphasis is put on style, like in this movie, it loses believability as fighting in the context of the story. Also, if the majority of the movie flowed better and the interplay between actors was less awkward than the lack of extensive fighting scenes wouldn't be missed.

In some ways, "Hamlet" is simpler than the story told in "The Legend Of The Black Scorpion." There are some characters in this movie that clutter the plot up and make the movie a tad overlong. While this movie certainly has the colorful and highly detailed depiction of imperial China that's expected of these types of films , the rigid pacing and the too direct dialogue and symbolism give the movie much more of a Western feel. The liquidity, vastness and subtlety that characterises the best Chinese Wuxia films is all but missing.

"Big Man Japan" Is More Than Just A Parody Of Monster Movies

Monster movies are just as quintessential to Japanese cinema history as the samurai films and quiet character pieces of Akira Kurosawa and others like him. "Big Man Japan" is billed as a monster movie parody, and while it does still have plenty of that, it also has many elements of minimalist character-based narrative. While the wacky comedic action and the more down-to-earth documentary/mockumentary-style sections work independently, there are times when the movie does not mesh the two well. However, the sheer uniqueness, oddity and excellent writing and acting do mostly make up for the jarring contrasts.

"Big Man Japan" opens up with Masaru Daisato (played by Hitoshi Matsumoto, also the film's writer and director), the current Big Man Japan, a government-approved superhero who fights the giant monsters that love to invade Japan, being interviewed for a documentary. Daisato is a 40-something man with long hair that somewhat obscures his face. The interviewer asks mostly simple, mundane questions about the weather, what he likes to eat, etc. What this section of the movie does brilliantly is emphasize just how ordinary and monotonous Daisato's life is even though he's a superhero. His utterly defeated demeanor is portrayed very well. Many films from the west that attempt to be smaller, character/dialogue driven pieces are too caught up in forcing witty words and verbose banter. This portion of "Big Man Japan" is a great example of how the Japanese do this style of film making best. It's more about what's not said than what is. The characters in this movie talk like real people talk so the audience is more likely to identify and sympathize with them. While these mockumentary scenes are light on plot, which might bore some viewers, Masari Daisato becomes one of the best-developed characters of any movie. Period. He is a thoroughly sad figure and it's almost painful at times to watch how depressing his life is, from the public not appreciating him to the strained relationship with his estranged wife and daughter to his turmoil-filled childhood. 

The role of Big Man Japan is a hereditary one. Daisato is the 6th man in his family to take on the role. But while his predecessors were worshipped as celebrities, the people of Japan have turned against Daisato, blaming him more than the monsters for property and environmental damage. Throughout the movie his shabby house gets more and more vandalized because of this. Much of the comedy in this movie does come from when he "suits up" as Big Man Japan. Following a ridiculously over-the-top and unnecessary Shinto ritual, Daisato crawls into gigantic undies and is shot through with electricity which causes him to grow into a chubby sumo wrestler-like giant with Dragonball Z hair. The scenes with Big Man Japan fighting monsters feature intentionally bad CGI to amp up the cheese factor. However, many of the monsters are genuinlly creepy, thanks to many having human faces, as well as being goofy (one has a comb over and one has a extendable/retractable eye where it's penis should be). Godzilla and Mothra these are not. 

Daisato's life is made worse when he runs away from a surprise attack by a devil-like monster. His agent is worried about his plummeting TV ratings and losing sponsors (who have ad space on Big Man Japan's giant body a la Captain Amazing in "Mystery Men"). His heart is clearly not in it anymore and some unethical moves later by various people in his life force a confrontation between him and the devil monster. This is where the movie gives up on the plot it has built up in favor of a hilarious but unexpected parody of cheap '60s-style Japanese TV film making with no CGI, cardboard sets, a Power Rangers-like gaudy superteam, Big Man Japan in a rubber suit and the monster in what looks like a sports team mascot reject outfit made of felt. While this ending does emphasize that this movie is indeed a comedy, the negative side is that it disrespects the excellent character development and the social commentary about hero worship, exploitive government and the pervasiveness of capitalism. "Big Man Japan" is both silly and serious but can't decide which one it wants to be most. 

"The Legend Of The Tsunami Warror" Is A Cross Between "Pirates Of The Caribbean" and "Star Wars"

Cannons, pirates, supernatural powers, sword fights. "Pirates Of The Caribbean"? Try the other side of the world. "The Legend Of The Tsunami Warrior," or the more accurate Thai title of "Queens Of Langkusaka," a 2008 action adventure film, delivers on many fronts established by that certain pirate franchise, among other movies, while keeping a Thai identity. But like many movies of this genre, at times spectacle is valued over a cohesive narrative.

There are several character arcs that the story follows and sometimes, especially in the beginning, it's unclear who the plot is trying to focus on more. This is often a detriment because not every main character gets developed as fully as they could be. Character threads get introduced and all but abandoned for others and so on and so forth.

The movie starts out with a battle between pirates and a Dutch ship carrying a master of cannon building, his Chinese apprentice and some very special, very innovative and very large cannons meant for a small seaside Thai kingdom. Unfortunately for the pirates, the cannons sink to the bottom of the sea before they can successfully steal them.

Cut to several years later. The Chinese apprentice, Lim Kium (Jakkrit Phanichphatikram), is living in a laid back fishing village not far from where the ship carrying him was wrecked. The plot tries to paint him as eccentric because he keeps building inventions like artificial wings and flippers. But other than that, he's not the least bit weird. An orphan boy takes to the inventor and his creations. The lives of both intertwine in action later in the movie. Having shown an affinity for the sea greater than others, the boy's uncle takes him to a master of Du Lum, ocean magic, to be trained. But the master refuses, saying it's too dangerous. Here's where the "Star Wars" similarities begin.

Cut again to several more years later. The orphan boy, Pari (Ananda Everingham) has grown into a handsome young man and is still an expert swimmer and has a rappore with ocean life, again more so than others. Insert "Strong with the Force" line here. Pari and a girl he grew up with begin a romance.

The pirates, led by captain Black Raven (Winai Kraibutr), have allied themselves with rebel prince Rawai (Ake Oree) and have a renewed interest in retrieving the Dutch cannons to overthrow Queen Hijau (Jarunee Suksawat) and her two princess sisters. They and the pirates find out that Lim Kium is living in the fishing village. The princesses, along with swordsman Lord Jarang (Dan Chupong) go to ask him to build cannons for them. But the pirates get to the village first and kill everyone, including Pari's girlfriend, except for Pari and Lim Kium, who were away. The inventor is between a rock and a hard place because the princesses and Jarang are trying to forcibly talk him to come with them but then the pirates violently kidnap him. In the fight it appears as if tom-boyish Princess Ungu (Anna Ris) dies but has actually been whisked away to safety in the ocean by Pari.

The island Pari and Ungu end up on is the same remote rocky crag where the Du Lum master White Ray (Sorapong Chatree) lives. He still refuses to train Pari, who already shows Du Lum skills on his own, because of the corrupting influence of it. The two stay on the island for some time, trying to figure out what to do. Pari encounters Black Ray, an evil version of White Ray, who agrees to train Pari if he will open himself up to anger and hate. Clearly another "Star Wars" moment. When White Ray finds out about Pari's encounter with Black Ray, he finally agrees to train him if only to undue any dark influences. In the meantime, Lim Kium is being forced to build cannons for the pirates, in a very "Iron Man" kind of way, which he keeps sabotaging to stall them. He manages to escape with the help of Pari, Jarang and the princesses.

The final battle is an epic scene involving many swords, arrows, ships, Lim Kium's wing contraptions and the Dutch cannons that the pirates manage to retrieve with the help of Black Ray who has defeated White Ray. Watch the movie to truly understand their connection. And of course there's plenty of Du Lum Aquaman Force powers at work in this fight too. The ending is very final as important characters on both sides die.

While there is some sub-par CGI, a badly developed romance between Pari and Princess Ungu and a generally disjointed plot there are a few bright spots. The costumes are fantastic, from the appropriate sparse coverings of the fishing village people to the elaborate gleaming gold and silver battle armor of the Queen and princesses. The worst thing that can happen with a period film is to make the costumes look too costume-like. In this movie they are believable. The script doesn't give a lot of room for character development but the best acting probably comes from those playing White Ray and Lim Kium. Chatree, as the Du Lum master, expertly portrays a conflicted man desperately trying to hold onto inner peace and Phanichphatikram, as the inventor, does a good job showing a man doing his best to distance himself from weapons making though he knows that's what he's best at.

"The Legend Of The Tsunami Warrior" is a movie with a grand concept that is never quite realized. On paper, many of the characters are interesting but there's not enough time devoted to their development. Even the action isn't exactly mind blowing as you might hope it would be for an adventure movie. Though the look of this movie is still very Thai, if the filmmakers spent less time copying themes from American movies and more time polishing the script better this would have been as strong a movie as it deserves to be.

"Come Drink With Me" Set The Bar High For Future Wuxia Films With Equally Great Action, Sets and Story

"Come Drink With Me" is a wuxia film from 1966 produced by the legendary Shaw Brothers studio. They practically invented the martial arts movie as we know it today and effectively started the Hong Kong film industry in the 1930s. Credit also goes to the talented directors and actors involved in their films. This particular movie is an early example of the beautifully detailed, beautifully choreographed action movie style that clearly influenced the martial arts epics of recent years by directors Ang Lee, John Woo and Zhang Yimou, among others. In Come Drink With Me, sets and story development are just as important as the fighting.

The film opens up on a conflict between a regional governor during Ming Dynasty China (which was a 300-year period beginning in the 1300s) and a bandit gang. They capture the governor's son because the governor has captured the gang's leader. Golden Swallow (played by Cheng Pei-Pei), the governor's daughter, is sent to settle the matter. She stops at the inn the bandits frequent and asks for liquor. Smiling Tiger Tsu Kan (Lee Wan-Chung), a smarmy man who reflects his namesake well, attempts to negotiate with Golden Swallow but the two do not come to an agreement about prisoner hand-over. That's when "the dance" starts. Each of the bandits, all having a particular weapon speciality of course, start to circle up on her, making "distracting" small talk. She doesn't appear armed but the bandits soon learn what she can do with two short swords she has hidden. Incidentally, Cheng Pei-Pei's nickname is "The Queen Of Swords." This battle ends in somewhat of a stalemate.

The inn scene is also where the main male protagonist enters. Drunken Cat Fan Tai-Pei (Yueh Hua), who appears to be a drunken beggar fool, bangs on the inn door, trying to get in as the fight is going on. As the movie progresses. his true nature begins to show itself. In barging into Golden Swallow's room and expertly stealing her weapons through slight of hand, he gets her out of the room before the bandits can capture her. Then he doles out secret messages in song with a chorus of kids.

Golden Swallow learns that the bandits make their headquarters at a Buddhist monastery. While praying there she encounters the bandit's leader Jade Faced Tiger Yin Chung-Yu (Chan Hung-Lit), a man who's pure white robes contrast with his cruelty (earlier in the movie he kills a young monk with a poison dart to the eye). His face is also covered in white make-up making him look like a cross between David Bowie and The Joker. There's an excellent creep factor with this guy. This encounter leads to another fight but with more bandits this time. Golden Swallow even loses her weapons at one point but a hidden Drunken Cat secretly throws them back to her. Jade Faced Tiger hits her with a poison dart and she barely manages to escape the monastery.

More revelations about Drunken Cat surface when he finds Golden Swallow and nurses her back to health. He has a connection to the corrupt abbot of the monastery and needs to defeat him in the name of justice and honor, which is the reason why he has been helping Golden Swallow. They agree to work together to accomplish each other's goals. Drunken Cat's arc exemplifies the story within a story element common in Asian cinema.

The next big battle happens when the prisoner exchange doesn't go as planned. Golden Swallow and a band of other female fighters take on the bandits, including Jade Faced Tiger and Smiling Tiger, while Drunken Cat settles his score with Abbot Liao Kung (Yueng Chi-Hing) and shows off his impressive kung fu skills. This is also the point where the movie gets a bit cheesy. Drunken Cat and Lioa Kung have chi powers which manifest themselves as what appears to be icy wind from their fingertips. Since the Force in "Star Wars" is modeled after things like this it's impossible not to think of it as such. The 1966-level special effects don't look that great. You can see the chi powers coming from nozzles in their sleeves. This really isn't necessary to the plot or even the action because the two adversaries easily distinguish themselves through hand-to-hand fighting. It kind of takes you out of the movie a bit because there's no indication of an fantasy-like elements in the rest of the film.

Like any good action movie, the good guys defeat the bad guys. The contrast between the more one-on-one fight of Drunken Cat and the Abbot and the pitched battle between multiple forces with Golden Swallow and her warriors versus the bandits provides a nice well-rounded conclusion.

One calling card of wuxia films as opposed to some other martial arts movies is the attention to detail in the world outside the fighting. This is probably due to wuxia's origin as literature. This movie is not the expansive epic of say "Red Cliff" or the emotion-filled "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" but you do get to know most of the characters as people and not just as fighters. "Come Drink With Me" is clearly an influence on and important precursor to the modern wuxia movie like the aforementioned films. Director King Hu had a background in set design and it shows in this movie. The buildings, inside and out, are both intricate and look used. Their fully-realized nature enhances the viewing experience and transports you into the Ming Dynasty. Nothing feels too much like a set. Also, the costumes each character wears are distinctive and reflect their personalities. Possibly the most important triumph of this movie is that there's a strong female protagonist in Golden Swallow. This was not something seen much in 1960s films of any genre.

Despite the hiccups, the half-baked chi powers and an altogether poor subtitle translation that lends an air of confusion to certain scenes (which really isn't the movie's fault itself though),"Come Drink With Me" is a great movie. The vastness of it's scope for the time period it was made in, plus the fully-formed plot and the great kung fu and sword-fighting action, make for a film where all the pieces fit.

"The Good The Bad The Weird" Revives The Classic Western In 1930s Manchuria

"The Good The Bad The Weird" is a 2008 Korean western. Yes, you read that correctly. Or rather, though the movie is a tribute to classic spaghetti Westerns, it would be more appropriate to call it a Northeastern as it takes place in 1930s Manchuria.

First of all, a little history lesson. Manchuria was a geopolitical region that now mostly encompasses northeastern China. Parts of it are or have been in Russia as well. It is an ethnic melting pot of sorts as Han Chinese, Mongols, Russians, Koreans and Manchus (whom the area is named after) among others, all live there. In the 30s, the time period this movie is set in, Manchuria was a puppet state of Japan with Puyi, the last emperor of the last dynasty in China, the Machu-led Qing Dynasty, as "Emperor," though he was only a ceremonial head of state. At the same time, the Japanese occupied Korea and forcibly suppressed Korean culture. The Korean independence movement was just as prevalent among Koreans in Manchuria at the time as it was for Koreans in Korea.

From the start this movie let's the viewer know exactly what kind of film it is. Every classic Western trope it utilized and in the beginning the one employed is a train robbery. The Bad, Park Chang-yi (Lee Byung-hun), a gang leader with a crazily intense fiery stare as well as a hipster mullet and emo bangs, is hired to steal something from Japanese military officials on board the train. He doesn't count on two other parties entering the fray. The Weird, Yoon Tae-goo (Song Kang-ho), a pudgy, goofy thief is after the same thing. The Good, Park Do-wan (Jung Woo-sung), a stoic bounty hunter in cowboy hat of the Clint Eastwood type, is after both of them.

The prize the two outlaws are after turns out to be a treasure map made by the Chinese before the Qing Dynasty fell. What the treasure is the map doesn't specify. But since the map was in the hands of the Japanese officials it is believed to be worth a hefty sum. After a heated gun battle aboard the train between the three adversaries, The Weird gets away with the map. A group of Manchu bandits witnessed the train robbery from afar on a hill and want the map to sell on the black market "Ghost Market." After they attack The Weird he attempts to flee into the desert but is caught by The Good. They strike up a deal to find the treasure together though it's revealed that The Good only agrees to root out The Bad, who he believes committed horrible crimes in Korea as "The Finger Chopper." Some of his actions certainly seem to lend evidence that he is that notorious criminal.

The movies is basically one long chase of some kind of another and ends with all parties, The Good, The Bad and his gang, The Weird, the Manchu gang and the Japanese army racing towards the treasure. This scene is somewhat reminiscent of "Raiders Of The Lost Arc" in that there's elaborate gun play on horseback against military vehicles with big automatic weapons and cannons. The Good manages to take a lot of the soldiers out with his twirling rifle and shotgun skillz but they still decimate The Bad's gang and the Manchu bandits. Like any great Western, the movie ends in a classic stand-off showdown between the main adversaries. Revelations about The Bad and The Weird comes to light, like why the Bad has a vendetta against The Weird and why he wears gloves throughout the whole movie. The truth about the treasure is also revealed. In other words, nothing is as it seems. The Weird's sheer dumb luck ends up looking more and more like actual skill as the movie progresses.

A lot of the comedy in this movie comes from the interactions between these two. The Good's matter-of-fact demeaner works as a great jumping off point for the Weird's motor-mouth silliness. Also, The Weird wearing a heavy diving helmet as armor during a labyrinthine urban gunfight is hilarious. Some side characters provide funny moments as well, like the Japanese agent posing as a Chinese opium den proprietor pretending to be a Korean freedom fighter who's sexual proclivities announce themselves following a sword injury to a particular bodily area or a placid forgetful old women who lives among thieves.

The sets and costumes help portray the Western vibe as well. The Good's brim-over-the-eyes cowboy hat and long coat perfectly capture the Western hero archetype. The Bad's slim-fitting black suit and popped collar work for the gangster look and the Weird's ear-flapped motorcycle hat and knee-high pants fit the oddball nature of the character well. Much of the movie was filmed on location in the area of China formerly known as Manchuria. It's nice to see that kind of authenticity. The buildings that make up the urban scenes look appropriately hodge-podge and weathered, as you might expect a frontier Asian town to look like in the early 20th century, one foot stubbornly in the past and one racing too fast into the modern age.

In once sense, there is not a lot of character development in this movie. There is absolutely no back story for The Good and very little for The Bad and The Weird. But in another sense, though, ending twists aside, you don't know these characters' pasts, who they are as people in the here and now is done very well. Each have distinctive personalities that are believable, a testament to the actors' skills. The best way to look at this movie is not a life story for The Good, The Bad or The Weird but as a singular adventure in their lives.

"The Good The Bad The Weird" is writer/director Kim Ji-woon's baby. In an interview on the DVD, he said he always wanted to make a Western but didn't think a Korean Western was possible. He proved himself wrong with this one. The attention to detail, the non-stop interesting action scenes, the archetypal but unique characters and the touch of comedy, history and politics provide a very well-rounded and, possibly most importantly, a very fun movie. Pulling out all the stops could have had the potential to be negatively chaotic and disjointed but the talent of the cast and crew molded this concept into a loving homage, rather than parody, of the Western genre and just a great movie in it's own right despite genre labeling.