It seems that every few months I hear about a western film emerging out of Asia and ever since I saw The Good, The Bad, The Weird I make damn sure I pay attention to them in case another amazing gem surfaces. The next Asian western to make it to the states, and also happens to be Korean, is Ji Ha-Jean’s chill revenge film, Bloody Fight in Iron-Rock Valley.
Bloody Fight follows an unnamed man (Lee Moo-Saeng) who just got out of prison. He drives around on his motorcycle wearing a red bandana looking for a man named Ghostface and his fellow gang members. You don’t know exactly what this group of guys did but you know it involves a woman related to this pissed off mysterious man and a ballerina spinning music box. After brutally killing a guy for information, he heads down to the countryside and ends up at a Buddhist temple. It is there where he learns about an illegal land development scheme which the Buddhist monks are trying to prevent. Besides the temple, the village is now full of illegal gambling halls which are run by Ghostface’s boss, a man who now wants the temple gone so he can have the land. Our mysterious rider is obviously not going to have any of that so his mission is not only revenge for himself, but revenge on behalf of the Monks as well.
Though set in the present day, Bloody Fight in Iron-Rock Valley is a spaghetti western revenge flick where the main character is essentially the Korean version of the “Man with no Name.” I say this because he is a skilled fighter, he rides in with a calm demeanor on his motorcycle, he has some worthy principles, is relatively quiet, and actually doesn’t have a name. I think Clint Eastwood would be proud of this tribute to him and the performance that Lee Moo-Saeng delivers.
Earlier I mentioned that this was a chill revenge movie and you were probably wondering what that meant. Our lead, while eager to hunt down his killers, is very laid back and patient with regards to everything that’s unfolding around him. He is willing to give people a chance to survive but when they refuse to comply he aggressively makes his move and brutally takes them out. First time writer/director Ji Ha-Jean has crafted some fine fights that end in some particularly brutal deaths, though they lacked intensity due to our lead’s personality. There is one kill that genre fans will love and that’s when Lee Moo-Saeng puts a flamethrower in a guys’ mouth, duct tapes it closed and then burns him from the inside. Pretty bad ass, eh?
For the most part, I really enjoyed the style of this film. Though a bit fragmented, Ha-Jean took a very d
ifferent approach to the revenge thriller genre and his risk mostly paid off. I do have two issues with the film. The first has to do with Ha-Jean’s inability to create tension. There was maybe one scene where I clenched my fists due to the intensity on screen but other than that it failed to grip me in that way. I understand the main character doesn’t lend himself to that style but the tension could have still been created as it is, first and foremost, a revenge film. Secondly, there is one important character who gets stabbed and is somehow unaffected by the wound after 20 minutes (film time, not our time). He manages to fight a guy, travel across town twice, and could still stand up straight without wincing. For a movie set in reality this really pissed me off.
Bloody Fight in Iron-Rock Valley is definitely a movie worth seeking out. It’s a film that mashes the classic “Man with no Name” westerns with one of my favorite genres, the modern day Korean revenge genre. This is a serious movie about a serious man on a mission, so don’t expect any laughs, only bodies dropping and blood spilling.
Rating: A laid-back modern day revenge western with some quality kills (7.3/10)
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