My Wife Is a Gangster 3 (2006) Review

My Wife Is a Gangster 3

Director: Jo Jin Gyu
Cast: Shu Qi, Lee Beom-Soo, Hyun Young, Oh Ji-Ho, Choi Min-Soo, Jo Hee-Bong, Ti Lung, Lee Ki-Yong, Ken Lo, Kim Byung-Choon, Kim Yang-Woo, Ji Dae-Han
Running Time: 114 min. 

By Paul Bramhall

During the early – mid 2000’s Korean cinema felt like it was re-discovering itself, with some of its most popular titles earning the period the moniker of the Korean Wave, as the peninsulas output began to gain recognition internationally. What’s less discussed is Korea’s own love of what they refer to as the Hong Kong Wave of the previous decade, when Hong Kong stars like Joey Wong, Chow Yun Fat, and Jackie Chan where hugely popular draws for Korean audiences. As a result, the emergence of Korean cinema on the world stage saw plenty of cross pollination in the early years of the millennium. Kim Hee-sun and Choi Min-soo starred alongside Jackie Chan in 2005’s The Myth, while Ahn Sung-ki would feature alongside Andy Lau and Fan Bingbing in 2006’s Battle of Wits to name just a couple.

This cross pollination worked both ways, with Hong Kong stars also starting to show up in Korean productions. Cecilia Cheung featured in 2001’s Failan opposite Choi Min-sik, while Musa from the same year saw Yu Rong-Guang and Zhang Ziyi share the screen with the likes of Jung Woo-sung and Joo Jin-mo. At the end of the 2003 sequel My Wife Is a Gangster 2 Zhang Ziyi clocked in another appearance on Korean screens, an entertaining cameo that hinted at a possible 3^rd entry in which she’d feature as a prominent character. That didn’t happen, and while the 2001 original and its follow-up had a direct continuation between them (well, aside from the fact that Park Sang-myun, the husband who the title is framed from the perspective of, is entirely missing from the sequel), when the 3^rd entry arrived in 2006 it came in the form of a completely stand-alone tale.

While it may be missing Zhang Ziyi, what it gains is leading lady Shu Qi, the Taiwanese actress who at this point was already hugely popular on Hong Kong screens. While not a trained martial artist, Qi left an impression through her performance under the tutelage of Corey Yuen in 2002’s So Close, and was already familiar with Korean shores thanks to starring opposite Tony Leung Chiu-Wai in Seoul Raiders from the previous year. As far as securing a bankable lead from the world of Hong Kong cinema, they definitely could have done a lot worse than Shu Qi. The 3^rd instalment of the My Wife Is a Gangster trilogy would also reunite with the director of the original, Jo Jin-kyoo, who had a relatively short career in the film industry. After debuting in 2001 with the original, apart from the 3^rd entry the only other movies he’d helm are 2004’s Who’s Got the Tape? and 2013’s Man on the Edge, after which he disappeared into obscurity. 

Arguably one of the purest examples of Korean cinema adding an element of HK character to its aesthetic, Shu Qi isn’t the only imported star. Also onboard are the familiar faces of Shaw Brothers legend Ti Lung, playing Qi’s traditionally minded triad father (and who’d notably go on to also play a supporting role in the 2010 Korea and New Zealand co-production The Warrior’s Way), and boot master Ken Lo as the ruthless leader of an opposing triad gang. During a dinner between the 2 sides in HK, Lo and his lackeys insist that Qi perform her famous sword dance as part of the entertainment (a sequence that can’t help but lead to speculation of if the role was originally written for Zhang Ziyi), however when they start to get frisky she proves perfectly capable of handling herself. Causing a ruckus, in the aftermath Lung insists she head overseas to lay low for a while, and wait for the tensions from the scuffle to die down.

Although it’s never made explicitly clear, Qi chooses to go to Korea to find her long lost mother, and Lung contacts his fellow gangster acquaintance to put her up and take care of her while she’s there. Once on Korean soil she’s hooked up with a low-level gangster underling played by Lee Beom-soo (Foolish Plan, The Gingko Bed), who bumbles around with his 2 lackeys played by Oh Ji-ho (The Therapist: Fist of Tae-baek, Showdown) and Jo Hee-bong (Special Delivery, The Pirates). The comedy of errors that ensues between Qi and the trio, specifically Beom-soo, is essentially what the success of My Wife Is a Gangster 3 rests on, and how much you buy into the sometimes bawdy comedic shenanigans will likely be the deciding factor on if the almost 2 hour run time is endured or enjoyed.

In fairness, much of the comedy is on the mark. The uneasy mix of slapstick shenanigans and brutal violence that the original awkwardly placed next to each other is here made into a much more palatable concoction, with comedy being the order of the day, and any violence is conveyed through what’s best described as HK-lite fight choreography (which is once more choreographed by the Scorpion King himself, Won Jin). There’s the usual gamut of lost-in-translation jokes, and in the end Beom-soo is forced to hire a translator played by Hyun Young (Princess Aurora, The Best Romance), who amusingly starts to create her own interpretations of what’s being said that are completely different to the original intent. The joke was already done in Seoul Raiders, but here it still works, if admittedly it gets a little stale by the end of the overly long 2 hours (there should really be a rule that comedies can’t run for more than 90 minutes).

Indeed My Wife Is a Gangster 3 probably could have been 90 minutes quite easily, however director Jin-kyoo makes the regrettable decision to try and incorporate some seriousness amongst the prat falls and gurning, none of which works. Qi’s mission to find her mother is forgotten about almost as soon as she gives Beom-soo an old picture of her in one of the initial scenes, only for it to rear its head again in the latter half when it’s revealed she’s been located. After watching Qi pout, kick, and generally be a bad ass, suddenly seeing her well up with tears as she watches her mother from a distance doesn’t work tonally, narratively, or emotionally. The whole subplot of her trying to find her mother, if it could even be called that, would have been better left on the cutting room floor.

Qi’s natural charisma is somewhat dialled back here as well, largely due to the language barrier and having Hyun Young act as her proxy. While the resulting scenes do get plenty of comedic mileage out of them, there’s the inescapable feeling that the trade-off is her bubbly and energetic screen presence has had to be subdued. Thankfully Beom-soo happily compensates with an energetic and boisterous performance that frequently sees his not the brightest tool in the box gangster place himself in harms way. From fake disciplining his pair of lackeys in an attempt to look more macho, to being so drunk that he can’t recall Shu Qi taking out a bar full of intruding rival gangsters, and convinces himself he placed the beatdown on them himself. Some of it is admittedly lowest common denominator stuff, but for the most part a breezy tone is maintained, meaning even the comedic beats that completely miss the mark are easily digested.

Eventually of course Qi needs a reason to end her exile, and it comes in the expected form of a revenge plot, providing her with a reason to face off against Ken Lo. Anyone clocking in hoping to see his trademark kicks will be left severely disappointed, as his role is a non-action one, however Jin-kyoo avoids any detour into melodrama and keeps the conclusion short and sweet. Almost as if to justify that the title of My Wife Is a Gangster needs to at least have some meaning to the story, there’s a completely unbelievable closing scene that reveals Qi has fallen in love with Beom-soo, resulting in the only unintentional laugh out loud moment of the whole runtime. Korean cinema has often struggled with the concept of less is more, and some of the scene inclusions in My Wife Is a Gangster 3 could be used as a masterclass in showing that sometimes not every little narrative detail necessarily needs to be shown.

Despite the slightly bloated length, as a comedy My Wife Is a Gangster 3 manages to deliver plenty of laughs, and as a bonus features a cameoing Lee Ki-yong from Shadowless Sword in her only other screen role playing an assassin. If you’re a fan of the Korean cinema from the 00’s or Shu Qi, chances are you won’t be left disappointed.

Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 6/10