Can a man who is a failure at romance find happiness with a woman who is a vicious gang boss? This is the comically-framed premise of MY WIFE IS A GANGSTER, a Korean action film with endless, genre-bending potential that partially delivers the goods.
Cha Eun-jin (Shin Eun-kyung), aka Mantis is a gang leader who is more than capable of proving herself in a fight. But her criminal lifestyle has left her a little rough around the edges when it comes to romance. This presents a problem when a long lost sister surfaces with a terminal illness and urges Eun-jin to find a husband. Out of respect for her sister, Eun-jin goes about it the only way she knows how, by having her thugs find her a suitable suitor.
A chance encounter with Kang Soo-il (Park Sang-myeon), a lovelorn man who tries vainly to defend Eun-jin from thugs results in a hasty and somewhat violent wedding. Soo-Il’s enthusiasm turns to dread as he finds her refusing sex, offending guests and doing nothing around the house.
Eun-jin makes a vow to her dying sister to have a child and begins an emotionless series of rigid sexual encounters with her bewildered husband. As the couple’s marriage deteriorates, a conflict with a rival gang escalates when one of Eun-jin’s men is killed. A brutal fight ensues that puts Eun-jin in the hospital. Having recently learned of his wife’s real identity, Soo-il pays a visit to the rival gang.
The premise really is terrific and the two leads play their parts well. Shin Eun-kyung has the butch, tough girl shtick mastered and its evidenced best in a scene where she makes an attempt to doll herself up in a red dress and make-up. It looks so intentionally artificial that you can’t wait to see her get back into a formless suit. Park Sang-myeon is the perfect foil to her character. He’s insecure, emotional and seemingly of weak stature. No couple could possibly appear more incompatible and this creates much of the fun in seeing them make an attempt. This is where the bulk of the humor and drama takes place, but several of the supporting characters add substance to the gangsters’ lives as well. But having watched the outtakes and deleted footage on the DVD, it’s clear that the emotional content in the story was watered down after its conception and this is a shame.
The film’s greatest flaw surfaces near the end as the couple’s relationship looses immediacy to the climatic gang battle. Having the husband join the gang war in defense of his wife is fine, but it seems more like an exercise. As a postscript, the pair is shown fighting side-by-side, thus declaring their union I suppose. But the ending feels hollow, much like the Hollywood formula of cheerfully tying up loose ends to have audiences leave the theater smiling. A carefully constructed tension between the couple was simply tossed away as was my interest in the characters.
Although the plot and characters take center stage for the majority of the film, the action scenes are plentiful enough and receive competent direction from Hong Kong veteran and Korean native Kim Wong-jin. Comparisons can be made to PRINCESS BLADE, choreographed by Donnie Yen. A lot of the scenes seem to take inspiration from Yen’s previous films with rapid editing and limited use of wires. There is a hip, rough-edged veneer on the direction that lends itself well to this film without being clichéd. None of the lead actors are martial artists and the use of wires and doubles is a given. Some of the scenes look less convincing than others. Yet Eun-kyung performs a lot of her own stunts and does so admirably. With her strong onscreen charisma she could develop into an action heroine not unlike Bridget Lin if given more opportunities.
MY WIFE IS A GANGSTER is a fine film that offers solid action and a better than average story with a great comedic concept. I still can’t help but lament the fact that the filmmakers failed to fully capitalize on this by not keeping the film’s focus on the couple.
by Mark Pollard
