My Wife is a Gangster 3
Year: 2006
Director: Cho Jin-gyu
It appears that Hsu Chi’s (Shu Qi) plan to dominate the world is still on
track. First she took Hong Kong by storm, then the Asian art film world with
appearances in projects by critical darlings Hou Hsiao-hsien and Stanley
Kwan, then landed on the shores of America with The Transporter and a theatrical
run of So Close and has now added Korea to her list of conquests with My
Wife is a Gangster 3. Of course, considering that her agent passed on a little
film called Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon a few years back, she has still
managed along with Zhang Ziyi and Gong Li to be one of the more visible Asian
actresses at a global level. Something that drives her detractors nuts! Speaking
of Zhang Ziyi, she was initially suppose to star in this Korean action comedy
and had a small cameo at the very end of the second film in the series. But
for whatever reason, she pulled out as did Shin Eun-Kyung, the Korean star
of the first two films. So Cho Jin-gyu who directed the first in the series
basically had to start from scratch for this third outing.
This film has gotten banged around a bit on
the Internet for reasons that escape me, but I have to confess that I have
had a thing for Hsu Chi since I first saw her years ago in Viva Erotica (1997)
and have remained a fan of hers through some pretty bad films as well as
some good ones and some really painful singing in Young and Dangerous 5 (which
didn’t prevent me from picking up her CD). I am not entirely sure why but
lately whenever I see her famous mutant lips at full mast I get a craving
for peanut butter – just a big spoonful of it – the crunchy kind. Anyway,
all this as a way of saying that when it comes to a film with Hsu Chi in
it I don’t even pretend to be critical or objective – I am a fawning sniveling
admirer. Nevertheless, I found this to be wonderfully silly and entertaining
– pure popcorn brainless fun – and admittedly somewhat forgettable within
an hour. Throw in two more of my favorite Hong Kong stars in small roles
– Ti Lung and Ken Lo – and I was more than happy watching a film that felt
more Hong Kong than Korean in many ways.
Aryoung (Hsu Chi) is the daughter of a Hong
Kong triad leader (Ti Lung) and when she is accused of killing a rival gang
head (after one of his men insults her by making her do the Sword Dance on
broken glass), she is forced to find refuge outside of Hong Kong. She chooses
Seoul as her destination and is met by three bumbling members of a Korean
gang whose boss has ordered them to take good care of her. These three headed
by Ki-chul (Lee Beom-su) could audition for the Three Stooges. Neither party
speaks the others language and the three gang members have no idea who Aryoung
is or that she is a martial art killing machine, but they immediately take
an intense and amusing dislike to one another. Ki-chul hires a female translator,
Yeon-hee (Yeong Hyeon) who soon finds herself in the awkward and dangerous
position of having to translate insults to one another, but being frightened
to do so she completely makes nice things up – which along with her eye rolling
lip quivering expressions is often hilarious.
Much of the film consists of these comedic
elements with some action interludes as another Korean gang tries to muscle
in on Ki-chul and Aryoung feels the need to intervene – though keeping her
skills secret for as long as possible so as not to give away her identity.
The Hong Kong rival gang tracks her down and sends a female assassin to kill
her and eventually, Aryoung decides to return to Hong Kong to settle matters
once and for all with her arsenal of weapons. The new rival gang leader, Ken
Lo, is waiting for her.
This is much more a comedy than an action
film – and perhaps that’s a good thing as the comedy hits a big bull’s-eye
while the action should have been much better planned out. In particular,
the director misses two seemingly obvious opportunities to really nail this
film with big lead ups to what should have been great fights to only let them
oddly fizzle. Perhaps he was concerned about shifting the balance too strongly
from comedy to action, but I was so set for a big showdown with Ken Lo that
sped by much too quickly. Still for a Hsu Chi fanboy like me, this is a treat
with one scene of her driving a car on a bumpy road on Ki-chul’s lap to escape
the killers being newly added to my things to do before I die list.
My rating for this film: 7.5
Trailer
Music Video
Reviewed: 04/07