User reviews

First, let me explain that I don't speak or comprehend Korean. I also watched the only available version of this film, which just happens to be with Korean audio and no subtitles. Also, my knowledge of Korean history is pretty sparse, but serves me well enough.

With the caveats aside, I enjoyed this film as well as one can without understanding any of the dialog. I agree with the other reviewers who say this film is a good mix of action, drama, and comedy. Obviously, the action translates just fine. I understood a great deal of the comedy and was surprised to be able to get most of the dramatic happenings. That said, most of the drama was lost on me, I was only able to understand the basic gist of it.

This did not stop me from enjoying the film. I was surprised at how similar this film was to a Hollywood offering. The 'wife' does action well and the closing scene was a good laugh. Maybe if I understood the dialog I would have seen it coming, but it was a funny surprise to me. The hip-hop closing credit song surprised me. Funny how flexible western culture can be. I can understand how people of other nationalities can feel they are being 'invaded' and sense a loss of their own culture. Perhaps if I watch it again, the combination of reading other's reviews and having seen it once, I would get a lot more from it.

I am just starting to get into writing reviews and look forward to doing many more.

"My Wife is a Gangster" (aka "Jopog manura") is an entertaining movie, as it has a good amount of action and a good amount of offbeat humor in it. And it is also spiced up with a good, wholeheartedly storyline.

The story in the movie is about Cha Eun-jin, a female gangster boss, whom is forced to live out her dying sisters last wish; that being to see her married. And while having no suitable romances, her henchmen are sent out to find a man for her to marry. She ends up tying the knot with a man unknowing of her true nature and line of work.

There is a good amount of action throughout the movie, with the fight sequences being quite nicely choreographed. And the action part of "My Wife is a Gangster" is a necessary aspect to the movie, as this is a gangster movie, after all.

And there is also a good amount of comedy throughout the course of the movie, especially in the parts where Cha Eun-jin has to become feminine and let go of her rugged, masculine, gangster mentality. And the situation with the gangster wife and the unsuspecting husband also does incur some hilarious moments.

What works in favor of the movie is the characters, as they are detailed, memorable and outstanding; and that goes from the main characters and right down to the goons in the gangster family. Lots of nice details and colorful characters throughout the movie. And actress Eun-Kyung Shin does a good job in the lead role.

"My Wife is a Gangster" is a good movie for an introduction to the wonderful world of the South Korean cinema, if you are not already familiar with it. It is an entertaining movie and can actually been watched more than once. I have seen it three times by now, since I stumbled upon the movie somewhere back in the mid-2000's.

Separated during childhood both "Cha Eun-Jin" (Eun-Kyung Shin) and her older sister Yu-Jin (Eung-Kyung Lee) have tried to find each other ever since. Unfortunately, when Eun-Jin finally does find her sister she discovers that Yu-Jin has an advanced form of cancer and doesn't have long to live. Wanting to keep her sister's spirits up Eun-Jin hastily agrees to getting married despite the fact that she is an assassin for a local mob and has no interest in anything except her chosen profession. Since time is of the essence she pretty much has to settle for whoever will have her and in that regard she ends up marrying a man named "Kang Su-Il" (Sang-Myeon Park) who at first sight doesn't appear to be much of a catch. However, Yu-Jin sees him for the good man that he is and then as a dying request asks Eun-Jin to try to get pregnant. Yet Eun-Jin still has her profession to think of and the last thing she needs is a husband and a child. Now rather than reveal any more of this movie I will just say that this action film could just as easily be listed as a comedy because there are several hilarious scenes throughout the movie. On that note some of the comedy is a little raunchy but all things considered it wasn't too bad overall. In any case, I rate this movie as slightly above average.

My Wife is a Gangster is unique blend of different genres; action, comedy, and drama. It's main focus is on comedy, so don't see this movie thinking it is wall to wall action. It does have a couple of great fight scenes - one in the rain, one in a field of tall grass, and one in the rival gang's hideout. The action choreography and camera work is done superbly, very stylish.

The story centers around a female JOPOK (equivalent to Yakuza in Japan). She finds her long lost sister only find she is dying of some kind of disease. Her dying wish is that she sees her sister get married before she dies. The poor unsuspecting husband, who by the way looks like Sammo Hung's Korean cousin, is put through so much tribulation through the movie, you can help but feel sorry for him!

The movie has some great comedy, which had me busting out loud. The movie also has some drama thrown in, which is done to great effect. Overall, this movie works and is unique in it's own right. 9/10

Highly entertaining film, which could have been vastly improved by a simple 20 second cut at the end of the fight sequence where the lady in question takes on the rival gang. I like a bit of ultraviolence as well as the next chap, and the fight sequences in this film are well choreographed and well executed, and sit quite happily in what is essentially a comedy. But really, the final blows in the last set-piece are thoroughly unsporting, not to mention unpleasant, and totally unnecessary from the dramatic point of view: the direct consequence of those few seconds could have been brought about at any stage of the fight. So a 7, rather than an 8 or a 9 because of the nasty taste that is left behind.

Branded a comedy, the movie proves to be unfunny for most part. The main problem lies with the central character of the gangster wife, Eun-jin. She puts on a stern emotionless face for most of the movie. As if that were not enough, she speaks very few lines. It is unusual for such an important character to have so little dialogue and facial expression. This certainly distances her from the audience. The character of the unfortunate husband is not much better as most of the time he is looking sad and making futile complaints about her behaviour. The movie therefore has to depend a lot on physical comedy and here it again fails because of the predictability of the situations and the cliches employed. How many times must we watch Eun-jin threaten her meek husband? How many times must we endure the sight of her husband walking away sulking? Many potentially hilarious situations turn out to be rather unfunny thanks to the afore mentioned lack of dialogue and facial expression. Another problem is that the many subplots, which are just as unaffecting and unfunny, tend to make the movie drag. None of the supporting characters are interesting enough to make the audience care for them. The action sequences are well choreographed but they ultimately fail to save the movie.

MWIAG is an action comedy, based I believe on a Korean comic series. The blend is biased a little towards the comedy side, but what quantity the action might like is more than made up for by quality.

Backdrop: Cha Eun-Jin has been raised as a Jopog (gangster) since childhood, and has risen through the ranks to 'Big Brother', no. 2 in the organisation. She also happens to be a female, but this is a detail that is largely considered to be irrelevant - especially by her. She's smart, confident, ruthless, and as luck would have it a fantastic fighter. The movie begins with a fight, filmed in the rain with dark shadows and slow motion creating a very artful effect. Two gangster are up against a group of many, and about to get killed when their savior appears - Eun-Jin silhouetted against the light looking full on comic-book cool before she somersaults into the ground and spins, kicks, twists, rolls and slashes her way through all comers. The dark lighting, rain and camerawork create a wonderful look and mood for this, and the choreography is easily up to anything Hong Kong has offered us for years. Short, but very sweet.

Eun-Jin would possibly carry on like this happily for the rest of her life, but the discovery of her sister whom she hasn't seen since childhood introduces new complexity. Her sister has cancer, and may not live much longer. Her one wish is to see Eun-Jin get married before she dies.

Eun-Jin's sudden need to address her feminine side, and the fact that she wants the husband she chooses to remain unaware of her profession, is the basic dynamic from which any number of comic situations are derived. The transplanting of her gangster persona & gangster cronies into totally non-gangster circumstances is a cool 'fish out of water' scenario, and very effectively spoofs the gangster attitudes and conventions.

The main backbone of the movie, as with most strong movies, is the characters. Eun-Jin is a wonderful character, and the performance by Shin Eun-Gyeong is absolutely spot on. Tough, cool, mean and thoroughly hilarious. The supporting cast are all just as well developed too.

The movie is paced quite gently, shifting from amusing situation to amusing situation without feeling the need to hurry the plot along too fast. Action scenes break out quite frequently, but there is a marked difference between the 3 scenes in which Eun-Jin fights (beginning, middle and end) and the remainder of the action. Her men, the thugs, fight street - grappling, stumbling, beating with whatever they can reach. Sometimes this is played for laughs, sometimes not. Realistic, but not massively exciting. When Eun-Jin fights however... it is a thing of beauty. Clearly modelled on HK action, with a little Samurai thrown in too, these scenes are amazingly choreographed and filmed. Between this and Bichunmoo (which MWIAG easily surpasses), and hopefully Musa when it arrives, it looks like Korea is making a very strong bid for Hong Kong's action crown.

If you buy the movie just for the action, doubtless you'll love it - but really it's not the strongest part of the movie. The characters, the performances and the humour are all equally well developed and fill more screen time. If you buy it for these... doubtless you will love it also. Can't really lose out on this one in fact :)

What makes Korean comedy so great? The Koreans possess the quality of humility. They laugh at themselves: their weaknesses, their vanity, their shortcomings. They laugh at their own humanity; and thusly, overcome it; to show us something more than merely human. Maybe it is a glimpse of the divine. Best scenes: the wedding, the recitation of the American (!) author.

When the funniest parts of a comedy are the screwed-up subtitles, you know you're in trouble. Out of all the new wave Korean movies I've watched this is by far the worst. Everything else was at least of good quality and many are great. This just plain sucked and was a terrible disappointment. Figures that this is the flick Hollywood chooses to remake. The movie is choppy and discombobulated, and it's almost impossible to care at all about the characters. The fight scenes are nothing new and bear little relation to the rest of the movie. The humor is just pitiful - I think the low point would have to the mouth-to-mouth resuscitation of the cat, straight out a bad Farrelly brothers knock-off. Is it supposed to be funny when the husband (a character I guess we're supposed to like?) tries to rape his wife, the titular character? Most of the secondary characters get by with fart humor and smacks on the head. If you want to see a funny Korean movie, watch The Foul King or Attack the Gas Station, I saw this with 5 other movie fans and we all thought it was terrible. Is the female lead supposed to be a gangster or retarded?

This is definitely one of my top 10 favorite films. I guess it's the remarkable, sweet and subtle romance that somehow is so well placed that makes it so bright/clever. I'm very impressed by how the romance is evenly mixed with comedy and still so very touching. It very much proves a light and cheerful film can be very touching which western movies should take after more (and not being either cheerful/comical or sincere/romantic). I always thought I didn't like romance at all until some rare dramas made me understand I'm just very demanding on modesty, taste and ingenuity and this film certainly has such romance that passes my level-headed taste. oh and it does have very good action (fighting) and is overall very amusing.

A commercial hit back in its home market, Korea. From the looks of the sold out crowd in its early release here in Singapore, "My Wife is a Gangster" looks set to become a regional box office hit as well.

Take my word for it. Go into this film and have a great 2 hours of entertainment.

Well, I can hardly find a good word of this annoying piece of movie. Maybe the best things are the the cinematography and the martial arts fights. But they can't beat bad scripts and dialogs. The script is confusing, most of the scenes does not fit together (why is Romeo dying in that pathetic way? Why is Mantis fighting in the fields? Why is her husband SO damned stupid? etc.). At one point it is just boring watching the persons in the movie acting senseless. And you never know, if it is meant to be a comedy or just an action flic, because the humor isn't really funny and the fights are sometimes too brutal for a comedy. No balance at all.

I just hope the Hollywood remake will have a better script, because the idea of a gangster women having a "normal" husband is quite nice (a little bit reverse True Lies).

Being totally unfamiliar with Korean cinema, I was pleasantly surprised. Not only was this a multi-culturally funny movie, but a great action adventure tale as well. My true surprise came with the depth of the characters, something sadly lacking in the Hollywood action/comedies. The acting was also first rate, especially within the ranks of the lead performers. If you are curious about Korean cinema, this is definitely a good starter piece. It certainly left me wanting to see more.

Excellent story and premise, and the whole thing is well-executed. The lead is believable as both the tough gangster and the sympathetic sister trying to please her dying older sister. A most excellent film with some laugh-out loud moments and genuine drama towards the end. Good action, too, but it's not an action movie, so don't go expecting a lot of violence.

Don't know why this flick is getting flamed so much. It's a decent plot and well produced. It would satisfy most family members and pass easily as a good evening's entertainment. The style is typically Korean-Gangster, which is not a bad thing, with comedy cuts thrown in appropriately. The main actress portrays a very modern side of a feminine character which you wouldn't everyday see, owing to the make belief role. This itself makes you want to watch a bit more. The violence is quite rightly toned down for this genre but the action scenes still nicely filmed without too many slow-mo shots. The sequel is evidence of this film's popularity, which by the way should be watched in sequence as there are some backward references.

In contrast to the glowing reviews from other viewers, I would give this film a 6, maybe a 7, out of 10. While the fight scenes are well choreographed and entertaining, the humor in this film fits awkwardly with its melodrama. Humor there is and, when dealing with the misfit gangsters working for the protagonist, it is genuinely funny. However, Ms. Eun-Kyung Shin, in the lead role as the gangster wife, has the difficult job of trying to portray a character we are intended to feel sympathetic toward, in some scenes, while in other settings she presents as a vicious and ruthless sociopath. Her relationship with her husband exhibits tenderness a little too late for a credible attachment to develop. Her husband's nebbish character seems to capitulate more for the script than any believable budding affection, particularly after the abuse he suffers from her. We are asked to sympathize with the gangsters even though there is little reason to feel any sympathy for them, they are either clowns or killers. The fumbling attempts at injecting soap opera-like themes in the film gives the movie an asymmetry, not a richer story.