As a fan of "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" I was intrigued when I saw a film entitled "The Good, The Bad, The Weird", when I saw it was a Korean western set in the deserts of Japanese occupied Manchuria I just had to see it even though I was sure it wouldn't be as good as it sounded... thankfully I was wrong, the plot may have been slight but the action was relentless and frequently very funny.

While it was obviously inspired by "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" it was not a remake, the main similarities where the three main characters; Once again The Good was a bounty hunter, The Bad was a sadistic killer and The Weird replaced The Ugly as the comic relief. The plot involves The Weird robbing a train, amongst the items he steals is a map... a map The Bad was planning to steal as well although he is interrupted when The Good arrives with the intent of collecting the bounty on him. In the confusion The Weird escapes and the rest of the film follows the attempts of The Bad, a group of bandits and the Imperial Japanese Army trying to get their hands on the map.

The action is spectacular and well done with numerous gunfights, knife fights and chases on foot, horseback, motorbike and car. While there is a focus on action the characters are fun too, especially The Weird who stole the show. While it is a comedy it does feature a few violent scenes which some viewers expecting only laughs might not like, I know I winced when one character tried to cut off another's finger with a knife.

I'd definitely recommend this to fans of westerns who are looking for something different as well as to fans of Asian cinema.

It's the wild desolate Manchuria in early WWII. Chief of Japanese Imperial Bank Kanemaru is on a train with a map to find a Qing Dynasty treasure. Yoon Tae-goo, The Weird (Song Kang-ho) holds him up and steals the map. Park Chang-yi, The Bad (Lee Byung-hun) has been hired to steal the map and stops the train to find Yoon escaping with it. Park Do-won, The Good (Jung Woo-sung) is a bounty hunter tracking Park Chang-yi.

This has crazy action and the desert spaghetti western style. Song Kang-ho is fun as always. The action is outrageous. It does get a bit confused with so many people coming after the map. Confusion aside, this remains a fun action-packed weird western.

While the title suggests, that this might be an eastern version of the Leone Classic "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly", it is actually an amalgam of many other things too. The director was influenced by many films as he stated himself. So quite a few set-pieces (scenes) might remind you of some other movies and that is intentional and pretty well executed too.

While I only could watch the International version, I'm looking forward to get my hands on the Korean version. Even if the changes seem to be marginal and IMDb has stated that the international version "is better paced", I'm sure it will be an exciting watch. If you an Eastern-Western mix sounds good to you, than this definitely will be worth a watch!