Some six years after it was originally released this Korean classic has finally been made available in the UK – but has it been worth the wait?…
It’s hard not to be a bit of a conspiracy theorist where Miramax are concerned, however much you try to be balanced and fair…
Deservedly a big hit with it’s home country of South Korea and throughout Asia, My Wife Is A Gangster joined films like Shiri, Bichunmoo, Musa and Joint Security Area as one of the first films to establish Korea on the international market. It caused such a stir that Miramax became involved in a bidding war, paying almost a million USD for the rights to remake it, as well as obtaining distribution rights on the original film.
All of which should have been promising news, only at the time Miramax’s strategy towards Asian films can only be explained as bizarre. Purchasing the international rights to big budget, successful films like Hero, Shaolin Soccer and Legend Of Zu and then delaying their release – not just months, but years (and some, like Zu, never even made it on to the screen!)
Meanwhile, their rights limited the distribution of the original DVD releases, meaning that these films were nearly impossible to get hold of outside Asia.
The contention has always been that they were protecting their investment made in the upcoming release from their wunderkind Quentin Tarantino, the film that would become Kill Bill Volume’s 1 and 2, that somehow they might have been worried these films might overshadow Tarantino’s more overtly derivative kung fu homage.
Indeed Shaolin Soccer’s ‘Game Of Death’ inspired goalkeeper precedes and beats Kill Bill’s ‘Game Of Death’ inspired biker outfit. And with a little imagination, My Wife Is A Gangster also overlaps some of the themes explored in Kill Bill, but again in a cleverer and superior way… and the proposed remake has never surfaced!
But whether they were concerned about the similarities or just did not know how to market the films, sitting on them for that amount of time was only an effective way of ‘killing’ their appeal. And the saddest part is that My Wife Is A Gangster abounds in crossover potential. It’s simply a great idea, well told, and more than worthy of a much wider audience.
It tells the story of Cha Eun-jin (Shin Eun-Kyung, The Ring Virus), a legendary and very deadly gang leader known as Mantis who is finally reunited with her sister who she hasn’t seen since she was in an orphanage – only to find she is terminally ill.
Her dying wish is to see her sister married, which is going to be a pretty tall order – even her henchmen are far too scared to offer themselves as groom! Leaving Cha to go to great efforts to make herself attractive, she enlists a beauty therapist to teach her everything a life as a thug on the streets never did. How to wear make up, how to wear heals, even how to act on a date.
None of which actually helps, before a chance meeting with Kang Su-il (Park Sang-Myeon, The Foul King, Hi! Dharma!), who has been on over 50 organised dates without the other party having any interest at all. The perfect candidate then? Kang is besotted, even quoting The Bridges of Madison County when he proposes. But when the wedding itself is interrupted by a rival gang, you can bet it’s not going to be marital bliss.
Then Cha’s sister announces she would love to see her pregnant… and things get a whole lot more complicated!
From the outset director Cho Jin-gyu establishes just how vicious Cha’s gang members are, and how violent their world is, in a wonderfully choreographed fight sequence over the opening titles, all drenched in rain like the end sequence in Nowhere To Hide. The violence in these sequences often seems too harsh – particularly the sequence when Cha is kicked ferociously in the stomach whilst pregnant, juxtaposed with the broad comedy elsewhere, but is necessary in establishing some credibility to the characters.
Indeed, Shin Eun-Kyung is totally believable in a fantastic performance as Cha, masculine and handsome rather than dainty and beautiful, rarely smiling (and even then more of a grimace). From the expression on Cha’s face, her beauty therapist might as well be from a another planet for all her advice means to her.
That Cha has no idea how to ‘properly’ behave as a woman is the core aim of writers Kang Hyo-jin, Kim Moon-Saeng and Kim Moon-Sung’s script. The result is a clever comment on how Korean (and most Asian) women are expected to behave, and how ridiculous it is.
Park Sang-Myeon leads a wonderful ensemble cast as the husband who’ll never be as much of a man as she is, but at least ends up much closer than he began.
The fight sequences choreographed by Yuen Jung are a real treat and again unexpected. The highlight being Cha’s showdown with the rival gang Japanese trained assassin – beautifully filmed against a dramatic mountain backdrop, it could be from a classic old kung fu or Lone Wolf and Cub movie… before Cha stops for a wee!
The changing tone may seem a little awkward, particularly to Western audiences, but don’t let that put you off this thoughtful and very funny movie – it’s a real winner!
DVD details
Distributor: Premier Asia (UK)
Considering the amount of (unsubtitled) additional material available on the original Korean two-disc set, you might have expected Premier Asia/Contender to pull a bit more content on to this release.
The film is presented well and includes an audio commentary by Bey Logan and a Korean movie expert - though Bey must have all but exhausted all he has to say by now, and the conversation with his colleague takes far too many tangents and diversions to be truly useful!
From the sounds of Logan's co-host it appears more was planned for this release than actually materialised. But who cares, I'm just glad to see it's finally out there on the shelves where it belongs, and if you haven't seen it yet then do soon!
