Over here in the states, Chan-wook Park is well known, and highly respected among foreign film fans. It baffles my mind why one of his peers, Ji-woon Kim, isn’t as highly touted. Don’t get me wrong, Park is great, but Kim is an equally fantastic director. Chalk it up to the fact that A Tale of Two Sisters is really his only highly-publicized film in the US (it’s a travesty that his amazing A Bittersweet Life is still not available on DVD on these shores), but Kim is just as deserving of your attention as any other Korean directors today. If the trailer for his upcoming film The Good, the Bad, and the Weird is any indication however, his name will be on the tip of everyone’s tongue very shortly. Read on for a synopsis, and an incredible trailer.

From All Movie Guide: “As the Koran peninsula falls into the hands of Japanese imperialists and countless Koreans seek refuge in the vast wilderness of Manchuria, a determined thief, a cold-blooded hit-man, and a mysterious bounty hunter all vie for an elusive map that could lead them to a buried treasure from the Qing Dynasty. Tae-gu is “The Weird,” a thief who comes into possession of the sought-after map while boldly robbing a train of Japanese military officers. But at the very same time Tae-gu attacks the train, relentless assassin Chang-yi and his violent gang of bandits beset the locomotive as well. Chang-yi is “The Bad,” and he’ll kill anyone who tries to come between him and the untold treasures of the Qing Dynasty. Just as the cloud of gunpowder begins to clear, a shadowy stranger suddenly appears and rescues Tae-gu from certain death. That stranger is Do-won, “The Good.” Do-won has been chasing Tae-gu in hopes that he can capture him and collect the reward money. Now, as these three resolute strangers converge in a sprawling landscape that none of them can truly call home, they quickly discover that Korean resistance fighters, resilient mountain bandits, and the Japanese army also covert the prized map. The fight on the train was only the beginning too, because when the stakes are this high the action is bound to get bloody.”

If this trailer doesn’t make you giddy with anticipation, you have no pulse!