Oriental cowboys, glass-eating fakir -- Asia beguiles Cannes

0 Comments | AFP, May, 2008

CANNES, France (AFP) — A mega-budget South Korean "kimshi" western and a glass-eating fakir at the heart of a shoestring Singapore production rolled onto the screen Saturday as the Cannes film festival prepared to wind up.

"The Good The Bad The Weird" is an action-packed "oriental" western inspired by Italy's "spaghetti" variation, set in 1930s Manchuria, then under Japanese occupation.

Director Kim Jee-woon sent the crew trekking nine months from Seoul to the Gobi desert and across the interior of China for the open horizons and endless plains that backdrop the 17-million-dollar (11-million-euro) movie, said to be the country's biggest production ever.

Selected to be screened at Cannes but not competing for the festival's Palme d'Or top prize, the...