Mi mujer es una gángster

A commercial hit back in its home market, Korea. From the looks of the sold out crowd in its early release here in Singapore, "My Wife is a Gangster" looks set to become a regional box office hit as well.

Take my word for it. Go into this film and have a great 2 hours of entertainment.

Separated during childhood both "Cha Eun-Jin" (Eun-Kyung Shin) and her older sister Yu-Jin (Eung-Kyung Lee) have tried to find each other ever since. Unfortunately, when Eun-Jin finally does find her sister she discovers that Yu-Jin has an advanced form of cancer and doesn't have long to live. Wanting to keep her sister's spirits up Eun-Jin hastily agrees to getting married despite the fact that she is an assassin for a local mob and has no interest in anything except her chosen profession. Since time is of the essence she pretty much has to settle for whoever will have her and in that regard she ends up marrying a man named "Kang Su-Il" (Sang-Myeon Park) who at first sight doesn't appear to be much of a catch. However, Yu-Jin sees him for the good man that he is and then as a dying request asks Eun-Jin to try to get pregnant. Yet Eun-Jin still has her profession to think of and the last thing she needs is a husband and a child. Now rather than reveal any more of this movie I will just say that this action film could just as easily be listed as a comedy because there are several hilarious scenes throughout the movie. On that note some of the comedy is a little raunchy but all things considered it wasn't too bad overall. In any case, I rate this movie as slightly above average.

MWIAG is an action comedy, based I believe on a Korean comic series. The blend is biased a little towards the comedy side, but what quantity the action might like is more than made up for by quality.

Backdrop: Cha Eun-Jin has been raised as a Jopog (gangster) since childhood, and has risen through the ranks to 'Big Brother', no. 2 in the organisation. She also happens to be a female, but this is a detail that is largely considered to be irrelevant - especially by her. She's smart, confident, ruthless, and as luck would have it a fantastic fighter. The movie begins with a fight, filmed in the rain with dark shadows and slow motion creating a very artful effect. Two gangster are up against a group of many, and about to get killed when their savior appears - Eun-Jin silhouetted against the light looking full on comic-book cool before she somersaults into the ground and spins, kicks, twists, rolls and slashes her way through all comers. The dark lighting, rain and camerawork create a wonderful look and mood for this, and the choreography is easily up to anything Hong Kong has offered us for years. Short, but very sweet.

Eun-Jin would possibly carry on like this happily for the rest of her life, but the discovery of her sister whom she hasn't seen since childhood introduces new complexity. Her sister has cancer, and may not live much longer. Her one wish is to see Eun-Jin get married before she dies.

Eun-Jin's sudden need to address her feminine side, and the fact that she wants the husband she chooses to remain unaware of her profession, is the basic dynamic from which any number of comic situations are derived. The transplanting of her gangster persona & gangster cronies into totally non-gangster circumstances is a cool 'fish out of water' scenario, and very effectively spoofs the gangster attitudes and conventions.

The main backbone of the movie, as with most strong movies, is the characters. Eun-Jin is a wonderful character, and the performance by Shin Eun-Gyeong is absolutely spot on. Tough, cool, mean and thoroughly hilarious. The supporting cast are all just as well developed too.

The movie is paced quite gently, shifting from amusing situation to amusing situation without feeling the need to hurry the plot along too fast. Action scenes break out quite frequently, but there is a marked difference between the 3 scenes in which Eun-Jin fights (beginning, middle and end) and the remainder of the action. Her men, the thugs, fight street - grappling, stumbling, beating with whatever they can reach. Sometimes this is played for laughs, sometimes not. Realistic, but not massively exciting. When Eun-Jin fights however... it is a thing of beauty. Clearly modelled on HK action, with a little Samurai thrown in too, these scenes are amazingly choreographed and filmed. Between this and Bichunmoo (which MWIAG easily surpasses), and hopefully Musa when it arrives, it looks like Korea is making a very strong bid for Hong Kong's action crown.

If you buy the movie just for the action, doubtless you'll love it - but really it's not the strongest part of the movie. The characters, the performances and the humour are all equally well developed and fill more screen time. If you buy it for these... doubtless you will love it also. Can't really lose out on this one in fact :)

First, let me explain that I don't speak or comprehend Korean. I also watched the only available version of this film, which just happens to be with Korean audio and no subtitles. Also, my knowledge of Korean history is pretty sparse, but serves me well enough.

With the caveats aside, I enjoyed this film as well as one can without understanding any of the dialog. I agree with the other reviewers who say this film is a good mix of action, drama, and comedy. Obviously, the action translates just fine. I understood a great deal of the comedy and was surprised to be able to get most of the dramatic happenings. That said, most of the drama was lost on me, I was only able to understand the basic gist of it.

This did not stop me from enjoying the film. I was surprised at how similar this film was to a Hollywood offering. The 'wife' does action well and the closing scene was a good laugh. Maybe if I understood the dialog I would have seen it coming, but it was a funny surprise to me. The hip-hop closing credit song surprised me. Funny how flexible western culture can be. I can understand how people of other nationalities can feel they are being 'invaded' and sense a loss of their own culture. Perhaps if I watch it again, the combination of reading other's reviews and having seen it once, I would get a lot more from it.

I am just starting to get into writing reviews and look forward to doing many more.

In contrast to the glowing reviews from other viewers, I would give this film a 6, maybe a 7, out of 10. While the fight scenes are well choreographed and entertaining, the humor in this film fits awkwardly with its melodrama. Humor there is and, when dealing with the misfit gangsters working for the protagonist, it is genuinely funny. However, Ms. Eun-Kyung Shin, in the lead role as the gangster wife, has the difficult job of trying to portray a character we are intended to feel sympathetic toward, in some scenes, while in other settings she presents as a vicious and ruthless sociopath. Her relationship with her husband exhibits tenderness a little too late for a credible attachment to develop. Her husband's nebbish character seems to capitulate more for the script than any believable budding affection, particularly after the abuse he suffers from her. We are asked to sympathize with the gangsters even though there is little reason to feel any sympathy for them, they are either clowns or killers. The fumbling attempts at injecting soap opera-like themes in the film gives the movie an asymmetry, not a richer story.