Review of My Wife Is A Gangster

Introduction

This particular title has taken its time coming to the UK market, especially when you learn that there have been two subsequent sequels since its 2001 release. It also becomes apparent that Premier Asia have had it hibernating in their catalogue for quite some time. You can divide their parent group Contender`s timeline into pre and post Bey Logan eras, and the presence of a Bey Logan commentary on this disc indicates that My Wife Is A Gangster has been over a year in getting to the shop shelves. The title alone points toward one of those mismatched pairing so beloved of comedies the world over, like in So I Married An Axe Murderer, and it`ll be interesting to see a Korean take on the genre.

Eunjin is a leading figure in the Korean underworld, a legendary gangster, deadly with blades and unrelenting with her enemies. She comes from a tragic past, orphaned at an early age, and separated from her sister. It`s only now that she has been able to find Yujin again, and their reunion comes when Yujin has only a few months to live, stricken with cancer. Yujin`s dying wish is that her sister lives the life that was denied her, and that she finds a nice husband and settles down. So Eunjin sends her henchmen forth to find a likely candidate. This turns out to be hapless civil servant Kan Soo-il, whose hardheaded Good Samaritan nature gets him noticed when he foolishly tries to protect Eunjin during a street brawl. Trying to be a dutiful wife is downright impossible for Eunjin, but then her sister announces that she would like to be an aunt. Meanwhile, the gangster life isn`t ready to let Eunjin go.

Video

A perfectly passable 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer graces this disc. The colours are strong, and the image is sharp and clear throughout. There is a fair degree of grain, but nothing detrimental to the film, and no print damage worth mentioning. The opening sequence is striking, and will ring more than a few bells for those who have seen The Matrix Revolutions.

Audio

You get a choice of DD 5.1 and DTS Korean, as well as a DD 5.1 English dub. The surrounds are put to good use conveying the action and ambience of the film, and the dialogue is clear throughout. The dub is worth mentioning, if merely for the fact that rather than the host of usual generic US voice actors, this one was actually recorded with English actors, with English accents. It causes a moment or two of head scratching, but is not the immediate travesty that most of these dubs turn out to be. I did feel that the dub overwhelmed the soundtrack to a degree though. There are Hard of Hearing captions, as well as a translated subtitle track to choose from.

Features

My Wife Is A Gangster gets a budget release of sorts from Premier Asia, and with a low retail price, you`d expect a scarcity of extra features. You would be right.

Aside from the usual Contender gallery of trailers, all that you will find is the audio commentary. As mentioned, this was obviously taped before Bey Logan and Contender entertainment parted company, and indeed for the commentators, the third film is still a vague future possibility. Bey Logan is more associated with Hong Kong commentaries, so for this film Korean movie expert Mike Leeder joins him. Still, Bey Logan always does his homework, and this track is just as information dense as his HK tracks. Sadly, there are plenty of references to extra features that didn`t make the final disc, deleted scenes, outtakes, a making of documentary as well as interviews. It`s a shame as what they do discuss is tantalising. This track is also a little disappointing as both Bey Logan and Mike Leeder very much approach this film from a Hong Kong perspective, and there is a fair amount of compare and contrast in the commentary, rather than taking the film on its own merits.

Conclusion

My Wife Is A Gangster is a curious film, one that I found thoroughly entertaining. However I`m uncertain how broad its appeal will be, especially with its mix of comedy, drama and action. What makes it curious is that rather than maintaining a single tone, the drama is played straight, the action is brutal and elegantly choreographed, while the comedy is broad and even crude at times. There are three distinct tones to the film, three very separate genres it plays with, that shouldn`t go together, indeed there is little attempt to reconcile them, yet it all manages to work somehow. Your average action comedy will lighten the tone of the action, or make the humour black. There is none of that here.

The performances help to make it work, Shin Eun-Kyung is perfectly cast as Eunjin, with a brutal and uncompromising nature that comes unglued when she has to try living in the real world. Park Sang-Myeon plays her husband in a role that could have been comically buffoonish, but he manages to strike an honest and sympathetic note. The comedy works very well, with the culture clash as Eunjin tries to mellow and find her feminine side, while Soo-il finds it hard to get to grips with his outspoken and unconventional bride. There is also a second string to the humour, with the interplay amongst the loyal underlings contrasting the main plot well. The drama is what motivates the story, Eunjin`s dying sister wishes her to marry, and what could have been just a plot device comes across with honesty and depth of feeling. You can see why Eunjin agrees to find a husband. The action on the other hand is brutal and uncompromising. The awesome opening sequence is matched by other such moments, violence also has consequences in the film, and the climax perhaps cuts a little close to the bone for the usual Western multiplex sensibilities.

My Wife Is A Gangster was a box office hit in Korea, and it`s easy to see why. It has the necessary elements of humour, action and emotion that will appeal to a wide audience, as it`s very much a popcorn movie. Whether UK audiences will like the same flavour of popcorn is the million-dollar question. If you are looking for something different in style and tone from the usual Hollywood action flick, then My Wife Is A Gangster is well worth watching. I clicked with the film, and found myself laughing, thrilled by the action and moved by the drama at all the appropriate moments. If your timing is off though, then I guess this film will be a harder sell. Recommended, but with one or two reservations, not least of which is the proposed Miramax remake with Queen Latifah!