The Good, the Bad, the Weird: Ji-woon Kim interview

Korean director Ji-woon Kim is best known in the west for the small but perfectly formed horror, A Tale of Two Sisters. That's about to change, however, with the release of his latest film, noodle western The Good, the Bad, the Weird, which just happens to have the largest budget of any live action film in Korean history. As the title would suggest, The Good, the Bad, the Weird is a remake of Sergio Leone's spaghetti western masterpiece The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, but given an Asian flavour. We caught up with Mr Kim towards the end of last year while he was in the country for the London Korean Film Festival and asked what inspired him to take on such a classic?

LOVEFiLM: What inspired you to make this film?

Ji-woon Kim: For the western audience, the western is a very familiar genre. However, for the Korean audience, it’s not a familiar genre. So I wanted to make it easier and more comfortable for Korean people. That was my main intention.

I worried that the western is a slightly outdated genre, so I considered how I could make it more entertaining and make it appeal to the modern day audience. I follow a traditional narrative, but as the film goes along I twist the situation and the characters. I put more action in than a normal western because I wanted to create a spectacle. And in between the action I put a lot of humorous scenes. I wanted that balance.

LF: Is that what makes it an eastern western?

JWK: The very first reason I made this as an eastern western is that a lot of people asked me “What is your next film going to be?” and when I mentioned “a Manchuria-set action film”, nobody understood. So when I said, “eastern western”, then everybody understood. I think that phrase is very dynamic.

LF: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is obviously an important reference. What was it about Sergio Leone’s film that really captured your imagination?

JWK: I like the traditional westerns. Films like High Noon, Rio Bravo and Gunfight at the OK Corral. But they always include too many American values and too much American ideology. So when I first saw a Sergio Leone film, I was amazed at how unconventional it was. It gave me a very fresh and strong feeling, and that’s what I wanted to translate into my film.

But also, when I saw The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, the way the facial expressions of the characters became the whole landscape for the film, that also gave me a special feeling that I wanted to translate.

Also, in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, it’s Good that leads the story until the end. So I thought, what if Ugly led the story? I thought it would be more interesting and trigger your imagination.

LF: What other western and eastern films influenced The Good, the Bad, the Weird?

JWK: Other than Sergio Leone, there is a very important film that influenced me, a Korean film called Break the Chain. It’s a 1971 film.

Also, in the chase scene, I refer to Mad Max. When I prepared this film I showed clips from Mad Max to my director of photography and said, “We should make our film faster than this, more superb and more exciting.” And he said, “Just what kind of film are we making?!”

And also the space, Manchuria, was very multicultural at the time. It’s the same atmosphere as Blade Runner.

LF: Did you encounter any problems filming on location?

JWK: The most difficult thing was the heat. We filmed in the desert in August, so the heat was like 40 Celsius and the actors' costumes were all very thick.

And also the chase scene where the horses speed along this endless landscape was very difficult. Actually, for that we had to make 30 kilometres of new road for the camera truck.

LF: As a director you’ve refused to stay in any particular genre for too long. Is that deliberate on your part? What’s next for you?

JWK: I’ve worked in a wide range of genres because at first I didn’t know what I’d be best at.

The genres that I haven’t worked in yet are thriller, sci-fi and espionage. I want to do those.

This year I really enjoyed the film No Country for Old Men. I thought that film got as much out of its genre as it possibly could. So I’m also considering making a film in a genre that I’ve worked in before, but making it in a much more naturalistic way, like No Country for Old Men.

LF: Do you think there are any themes that connect your films?

JWK: [Laughs] I don’t know! Just working with a wide range of genres gives me more cinematic energy and inspires me. One common thing all of my films have is lots of wind. Wind isn’t a direct metaphor for the film, but for me it’s very important. But if you ask me, “Why? Why Wind?”, I’m not sure!

Alexander Pashby