The Good, The Bad, The Weird (Joh-un Nom, Nappun Nom, Isanghan Nom)

We're in Japanese-occupied Manchuria in the 1930s, and the MacGuffin is a treasure map. Everyone wants it: Chang-Yi, leader of a bandit gang, who's hired to seize it from a train across the plains; his nemesis, the bounty-hunter Do-Weon; and the accident-prone train robber Tae-Gu, who seems to have a charmed life; not to mention the Japanese army, émigré Korean freedom-fighters and assorted Chinese bandits. But MacGuffin it is, because the meat of Kim Jee-Woon's tribute to Sergio Leone is in the virtually non-stop action – and in the shifting balance of power between the three main characters, played by Korea's top male stars.

Kim has been exploring different genres since he launched his career a decade ago (he's done black comedy, social comedy-drama, psycho-horror and a gangster movie) and he's loaded this extravaganza with everything he loves about Italian Westerns, from three-way duels to opium dens. It's a measure of his smarts that all three 'heroes' are capable of goodness, badness and weirdness interchangeably. It's been the hit of the year in Korea, and here's betting you'll find it a blast too.
Tony Rayns