Entertainment

Full-throttle thrill ride with buckets of blood

‘The Good, the Bad, the Weird” is a rip-roaring Korean homage to Sergio Leone’s spaghetti Western “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,” which memorably featured Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, and Eli Wallach.

Perhaps the new film should be called a noodle Western.

The Good (Jung Woo-sung) is a bounty hunter, the Bad (Lee Byung-hun) is a merciless bandit chief, and the Weird (Song Kang-ho, the vampire priest in “Thirst”) is a train robber.

They vie with each other in a desert pursuit of a mysterious treasure map. That’s not exactly a new idea, but the plot doesn’t much matter.

What’s important is the dizzying wide-screen carnage. There are chases and gun battles galore featuring a cast of thousands of men and horses — and a few women, who serve mostly as eye candy.

“The Good, the Bad, the Weird,” the fourth feature by director Kim Ji-woon, is one of the most expensive films ever made in South Korea, where it was a box-office success.

A favorite at festivals, it became the most eagerly awaited Asian film of 2010.

Set in 1930s Manchuria, the proceedings open with an exciting, mega-violent train robbery during which the three main characters meet.

The middle of the film provides comic relief, including a visit to an opium den and a killing set to the strains of Glenn Miller’s “Moonlight Sonata.”

The movie pulsates again in the closing half-hour as the Good, the Bad and the Weird have a thrilling showdown with Manchurian bandits and the Japanese army. Men and horses drop as oceans of blood flow.

Although mostly indebted to Leone’s 1966 actioner, Kim’s film has references to “Mad Max,” “Ben Hur” and the Indiana Jones flicks. One of the most exciting scenes — in which one character hangs by a rope as he flies through the air, riddling his foes with bullets — was inspired by John Woo’s “Hard-Boiled.”

“The Good, the Bad, the Weird” may owe a lot to other films, but it is always fresh and never boring.