Gamun-ui buhwal: Gamunui yeonggwang 3 (2006)

User Rating:

4.9/10   

Director:

Yong-ki Jeong

Writers:

Yong-ki Jeong (writer)
Yeong-chan Kim (writer)

Release Date:

21 September 2006 (South Korea)

Genre:

Comedy | Crime | Drama

Plot Keywords:

Female To Male Foot In Crotch | Footsie Under The Table

Cast

Hie-jin Jang
Jun-ha Jeong
Eung-su Kim
Su-mi Kim	...	Hong Deok-ja
Won-hie Kim	...	Kim Jin-kyung
Yong-geon Kim
Hyeong-jin Kong	...	Bong Myung-pil
Hyeong-jun Lim	...	Jang Kyung-jae
Hee Jin Park
Hyeon-jun Shin	...	Jang In-jae
Yi Shin
Jae-hun Tak	...	Jang Seok-jae

Also Known As:

Marrying the Mafia III (International: English title)

Runtime:

South Korea:128 min

Country:

South Korea

Language:

Korean

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

South Korea:15 | Singapore:NC-16

Filming Locations:

South Korea

Company:

Taewon Entertainment

Marrying the Mafia 3: Formulaic mindlessness for escapist masses

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

The Yeosu-based Baekhopa (White Tiger) Gang hailing from gangster country in Korea's southwestern corner, is back again in this, the third installment of the highly predictable and formula-laced albeit commercially successful "Marrying the Mafia" franchise.

Although originally entitled in Korean "Gamun-ui Buhwal: Gamunui Yeong-gwang 3", which translates to: 'The Legacy's Resurrection: The Legacy's Glory', the producers opted for the more user friendly "Marrying the Mafia III". While the first two MMs capitalized on the idea of a commoner marrying into a Korean underworld family, the third installment is nothing like the previous two. The first two were cute with a reasonably cohesive and entertaining plot. This one isn't and doesn't. In MM3, the story is all over the place, the plot line is cheesy, and the dialog, in places, is annoying beyond belief.

The saving grace of this film is its cast of familiar faces, whom you'll easily recognize if you saw MM2. The 'Joan Rivers of Korean cinema', the inimitable Sumi Kim, is back in her reprisal of Hong Deok-ja, the matriarch of the Baekhopa gang. This time, her profanity-laced mafia boss character has forsworn the family trade and decided to go legit by opening up a kimchi factory, complete with home-shopping TV ads and an IPO to boot. Her incompetent three gangster sons, however, are loath to give up their stock in trade and cannot seem to suppress their innate dime-store hood personaes -- business casual and boardrooms notwithstanding.

The story starts out compellingly enough with the upcoming release of Prosecutor Bong from prison, whom as you remember, was humiliated and disgraced by the Baekhopas in MM2 when they exposed him for fraud, bribery, conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and a host of other no-no's that landed him a lengthy prison sentence.

Now, Bong's back in MM3, and this time, he's madder than hell and stronger than ever -- what with all the spare time he's had in prison practicing one-fingered handstands, flying kicks, and other assorted whatnots. Not only is he out on a full pardon, he's out to get back at the Baekhopas big time. The first on his list is Jin-kyung Kim (played by the absolutely darling Won-hie Kim) and her fiancé, the second-in-command of the Baekhopas and now respectable Kimchi company CEO, Kyung-jae Jang, played by Hyeong-jung Im.

Bong's partner in crime, who helped him get a parole, is none other than the Baekhopa's rival gang leader, whom you'll immediately recognize from "2", especially with that cringe-inducing Busan dialect.

With Jin-kyung's return to the Seoul District Prosecutor's Office -- the position vacated by Bong at the end of MM2 -- the story flits back and forth between the family's new kimchi enterprise and the second son's philandering. The second son's extracurricular activities not only conflict with his wife's desire to conceive, it also dovetails perfectly with former-prosecutor Bong's hatchet plan to disgrace the Baekhopa Gang and get revenge on Hong family syndicate once and for all.

Along with the predictable twists and over-the-top dialog, we get the feeling that we've seen this Korean gangster movie many times before. And in fact we have.

MM3 is mindless escapism that has proved to be the opium of the masses here in Korea, although it will prove to be less so elsewhere -- at least for the time being.