My Wife is a Gangster 3
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