Pun Salad

The title, of course, is a reference to The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. While that was an Italian movie with American actors shot in Spain, this is a Korean movie with Korean actors shot in China. Is this a great country or what?

It's set in (I think) 1930's Manchuria, shortly after the Japanese invasion. As in the the original, Good is a bounty hunter, Bad is an amoral ruthless killer, and the Weird is a small-time thief who is seemingly thrown into a scheme way over his head. All three are at odds over a mysterious treasure map, which Bad has been hired to snatch from a Japanese big shot on a train. Good is on the scene to either kill Bad, or get the map himself. And Weird just is there to score some loot from the train passengers, but he winds up with the map. And the chase is on.

The movie is inventive, funny in spots, with some truly spectacular scenery, cinematography and production design. The plot, however, is muddled: there are huge holes, loose ends, inexplicable occurrences. (Who are those guys? Where did those other guys go? Why are those guys doing that? Who has the map right now? What happened to those kids? And so on.)

Also, the ending sucks. (I see rumors of an alternate ending, which they should have used.)