This film was a critically panned hit from the peak days of Corean cinema. You can pretty much guess what it's about by the title. While it's not a revelation in any way and has major problems with story (it's a mess), I can easily see how the comedy and to a less extent, the action, could have carried audiences away.
The strongest point of this film is the situational comedy that occurs between the protagonist Eun-jin and her patsy husband Su-il. Having a stone cold killer for a wife and a friendly, naive and somewhat awkward civil servant for a husband leads to all sorts of situations you could probably imagine. Both actors easily handle their rather simply defined characters and manage to even inject them with a little personality.
The action set pieces really clash against the overall tone of the film, being quite violent and shot without any hint of humor. Although it's cut and uses hand-held camera work for maximum confusion/excitement/covering up the stunt persons, the actual choreography is pretty decent. But for a film of this nature, the action is a little excessive and unnecessary, so ultimately detracts from the strength of the film.
The real issue with the film is the story--it relies on increasingly tired conceits to drive the comedy and melodrama. It's no spoiler that the only reason that the protagonist even bothers to get married is because of her (sigh) terminally ill sister. There is a lot of amusing and embarrassing comedy that's mined out of her desire to find a husband, both around her interactions with potential suitors and her own feeble attempts at feminine wiles, but the terminally ill sister is a wimpy and hardly believable conceit.
There are also amusing pluses in her dealings with her underlings as well as in their own interactions and minor plot lines, but again, sledgehammer-like conceits are used to pummel these side stories into the main story leading to an ending that is difficult to really accept, especially as characters seem to change, not because of character development, but because the writers made them change. It's all too much really.
For all its faults, My Wife Is A Gangster is still amusing enough to serve as an enjoyable and mindless film and I did find myself laughing because of some of the set-ups, but the film really works overtime to try to come up with reasons to convince its viewers to believe its yarn and doesn't always succeed. But for what it is, I suppose it could be worse. It's no "must see" and I would hesitate to even recommend it, but if the premise intrigues you and you're looking for a few laughs and can stomach the heavy-handed attempts at manipulation, there is enough to enjoy about this slick production. 6/10.
The strongest point of this film is the situational comedy that occurs between the protagonist Eun-jin and her patsy husband Su-il. Having a stone cold killer for a wife and a friendly, naive and somewhat awkward civil servant for a husband leads to all sorts of situations you could probably imagine. Both actors easily handle their rather simply defined characters and manage to even inject them with a little personality.
The action set pieces really clash against the overall tone of the film, being quite violent and shot without any hint of humor. Although it's cut and uses hand-held camera work for maximum confusion/excitement/covering up the stunt persons, the actual choreography is pretty decent. But for a film of this nature, the action is a little excessive and unnecessary, so ultimately detracts from the strength of the film.
The real issue with the film is the story--it relies on increasingly tired conceits to drive the comedy and melodrama. It's no spoiler that the only reason that the protagonist even bothers to get married is because of her (sigh) terminally ill sister. There is a lot of amusing and embarrassing comedy that's mined out of her desire to find a husband, both around her interactions with potential suitors and her own feeble attempts at feminine wiles, but the terminally ill sister is a wimpy and hardly believable conceit.
There are also amusing pluses in her dealings with her underlings as well as in their own interactions and minor plot lines, but again, sledgehammer-like conceits are used to pummel these side stories into the main story leading to an ending that is difficult to really accept, especially as characters seem to change, not because of character development, but because the writers made them change. It's all too much really.
For all its faults, My Wife Is A Gangster is still amusing enough to serve as an enjoyable and mindless film and I did find myself laughing because of some of the set-ups, but the film really works overtime to try to come up with reasons to convince its viewers to believe its yarn and doesn't always succeed. But for what it is, I suppose it could be worse. It's no "must see" and I would hesitate to even recommend it, but if the premise intrigues you and you're looking for a few laughs and can stomach the heavy-handed attempts at manipulation, there is enough to enjoy about this slick production. 6/10.