She's On Duty
Director: Park Kwang-choon.
Year: 2005
Production Company: Mine Entertainment
Running Time: 111 minutes
This is a convivial mix of sassy girl attitude, physical comedy and
light action that never taxes your brain cells in any meaningful manner,
but is difficult not to like. I might have a bit more respect for it if I
hadn’t seen basically the same film years ago in a Stephen Chow vehicle called
“Fight Back to School” (1991), but if you are going to borrow, borrow from
the best and that they do. They also make a gender switch which certainly
adds some fun new dimensions to the film. Actress Kim Seon-ah is of course
no Stephen Chow (but then who is?), but she is considered perhaps the best
film comedienne in Korea and her surly belligerent slow burn lower lip attitude
is the best thing about the film by far.
Here she plays Jae-in, a tough smart mouthed cop who would prefer smacking
someone to talking to them – at one point she suggests to her superior/uncle
(Noh Joo-hyeon) to just beat the information out of a young girl since that’s
what they do best. The film begins with her in undercover mode as a high
school girl in school uniform and ponytails about to be sent to Japan as
part of a sex trade trafficking delivery – she is mildly insulted when one
of the other girls doesn’t believe she could possibly be that age. When it
looks like her backup isn’t coming, she goes into action to arrest the crooks
with a few whirlwind kicks and twirls, but is saved from being killed by
another undercover cop, Joh (Ha Jeong-woo) who berates her for blowing the
operation to snag the big boys behind this.
Sulking, she goes back to headquarters just in time to be spotted by senior
brass who think she will be perfect to go undercover full time in high school.
Her assignment is to watch Seung-hee (Nam Sang-mi), the daughter of the second
in command of the Whacker Gang. Her father (Kim Kap-soo) had planned to turn
state’s evidence but has now gone into hiding in fear for his life. The police
think he will contact his daughter and so Jae-in has to get close to the
girl – a difficult task. In the meantime, she develops a school girl crush
on another high school student (Gong Yoo) who is suspiciously adroit in martial
arts.
The comedy comes in the form of a fish out of water – the horror of high
school – one student says she must have “aging disease” for looking so old
(in fact, Kim is nearing 30 so playing a high school student is a bit of
a stretch!), she is terrible in her studies and has to have much of the police
force helping her pass a test, she is punished for poor behavior like drinking
and has to deal with a gang of girls who have it in for her. It is an easy
film to digest with a small smidgeon of melodrama thrown in near the end
as well as a big brawl that leaves everyone bloody and beaten. The only real
disappointment is that it seems that a big fight is being set up between
her and a sizzling femme fatale in the Whacker Gang, but it never really
happens.
My rating for this film: 6.5
Trailer
Reviewed: 03/06
Previous films from the Director:
Madeleine (2003)
The Soul Guardians (1998)
