Apr

1

2007

My Wife Is A Gangster 3

Posted by luna6

gangster3.jpg
Movie : My Wife Is A Gangster 3 / Jopog manura 3
Release Date : December 28, 2006
Country : South korea
Director : Jin-gyu Cho
Starring : Qi Shu, Beom-Su Lee, Yeong Hyeon
Website : http://gwife3.showbox.co.kr/
Run Time : 114 Minutes
Editor Rating : 5.5
Users Rating: 7.6 1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars6 Stars7 Stars8 Stars9 Stars10 Stars (20 votes)

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Plot Synopsis : Aryoung is sent away from her homeland of Hong Kong by her father . Her father is a powerful gang leader that is in the midst of a major power struggle. He is worried about the safety of Aryoung and thus gives her the choice to stay in another country until things settle down in Hong Kong. Aryoung picks South Korea, mainly because her mother is Korean and now lives somewhere in that country.

When Aryoung arrives at the Incheon airport, three Korean gang members are there waiting for her. The gangsters were assigned to protect Aryoung by their Korean boss. Unfortunately the three unwitting gangsters were not informed of Aryoung’s background, nor are they aware that the person the would have take care of is a woman. Aryoung can’t speak Korean and the gangsters can’t speak Chinese. Thus an uncomfortable acquaintance period is endured until the gangsters hire a Chinese translator. The gangsters soon learn that Aryoung has quite a few more surprises behind her pretty appearance.

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Movie Review : First thing to note about “My Wife Is A Gangster 3″is that this movie holds no connections to the first two My Wife Is A Gangster films. Eun-Kyung Shin, who starred in the first two films, sadly does not appear in the new film. Furthermore, none of the other characters from either of the first two movies appears in My Wife Is A Gangster 3. Personally, I hold the original “My Wife Is A Gangster” to be a classic of sorts for comedy gangster films, so I was pretty stoked in checking out the third installment of My Wife Is A Gangster.

Jin-gyu Cho, who directed the first My Wife Is A Gangster film, returns to direct MWIAG 3. Jin-Gyu Cho made the drastic break from the first two films, using none of the original characters, gangs, or even theme. The hallmarks of the My Wife Is A Gangster films would be a very tough female mob boss that hides her profession from the man in her life. In MWIAG 3, about the only similarities I can think of with the prior MWIAG films is that the movie features a female lead that is lethal in the martial arts and also has ties to the mafia.

Qi Shu, who you may remember from her performances in The Transporter & Millenium Mambo, stars in MWIAG 3 as the sexy but ultra-deadly Aryoung. Her performance wasn’t very impressive, mostly because she chose to play her character as a disinterested house guest, modest about her martial arts prowess, and not having much of a mean streak. Contrast this with Eun-Jin from the first two MWIAG films. Eun-Jin, although being a very attractive woman, was extremely macho and had no qualms about kicking your butt if you looked at her funny. I found that quality to be one of the most appealing aspects of the original film, so I was less than impressed with Aryoung’s character.

The first hour or so of My Wife Is A Gangster3 was surprisingly funny with the expected low brow humor that was evident in the first two MWIAG films. Once the Korean gangsters picked Aryoung from the airport, the film was consistently amusing with the Koreans not being able to speak Chinese, while Aryoung could not speak Korean. This dilemma was solved by the Korean gangsters, when they hired a Chinese translator named Yeon-Hee. When the translator arrived at her employer’s house, she was terrified to learn to her employers were gangsters. Consequently Yeon-Hee took substantial liberty with her translations between the gangsters and Aryoung. Once the timid translator learned of Aryoung’s lethal martial art skills, the timid translator became more of the bossy translator.
Although she still took liberty in translating Aryoung’s words, it was now to threaten the gangsters, whereas before she tried to appease the gangsters. Her transformation provided for many more amusing moments.

During the second half of the film, MWIAG 3 slowly got worse as the Hong Kong gangsters came to Korea to kill off Aryoung. The story turned into a predictable action film with zero surprises. A “been there and saw it” feel certainly felt palpable throughout the second half of the film. Furthermore, the chemistry between Aryoung & Ki-Chul was non-existent. Beom-Su Lee (Singles/The City Of Violence/Project Makeover) played Ki-Chul. He did reasonably well in the more humorous scenes, but failed to deliver any type of believable romantic interests for Aryoung. On a sidenote Ki-Chul had more of the appearance of an aging heavy metal fan, rather than a gangster.

While My Wife Is A Gangster 3 is a sequel to the prior to My Wife Is A Gangster films by name alone, if you watch the movie knowing this fact you are likely to be less disappointed. The film is a decent gangster comedy film, that provides for some amusing moments in the first half of the film, while the second half depends more on your own personal affinity for typical action film sequences. This one certainly doesn’t hold a candle to the original “My Wife Is A Gangster” film, but we really didn’t expect it to right?

buy My Wife Is A Gangster 3 from YesAsia

Cast:
Qi Shu - Aryong
Beom-su Lee - Ki-chul

Yeong Hyeon -Yon-hi
Ji-ho Oh - Gong Chi
Ki-yong Lee
Lung Ti
Ken Lo
Hie-bong Jo
Min-su Choi


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2006 Movie Reviews, Korean Movies, Movie Reviews, Movies |

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7 Comments so far

  1. 7 katarina Says: February 1, 2008

    If you have seen all three, you realize the premise is about a gangster girl who can certainly take care of herself. That theme is prevalent through out all 3 films. Although cast is different in 3rd film, it doesn’t really matter, you know your going to get more of the good stuff seen in the first two films. They should just keep on doing these. They are all excellent, funny and well acted by each cast, good direction too. Gangster 3 has best Sex Scene….ha ha ha what a riot! Bravo!

  2. 6 smile adrados Says: September 21, 2007

    my wife is a gangster is a great movie that i ever watched. i love it specially shui qi….. i love her movies…….gudluck!!!!!!!!!

  3. 5 WesY2K Says: August 21, 2007

    Maybe that’s why the movie is called “Killerlady” in Germany. I thought the movie qas quite entertaining on it’s own. There was enough comedy and mindless action to qualify it as sunday afternoon entertainment. Plus Shu Qi is hot *g*

  4. 4 Rico Says: August 9, 2007

    The movie was hilarious, but you shouldnt watch it as a MWIAG3 because it has nothing to do with the first 2 movies (I am a great fan of the first 2 btw).
    This one deserves a 7 because of the comedy, dont ecpect too much from the fighting shu qi is doubled in almost all of her fighting scenes…

  5. 3 shaneen Says: August 4, 2007

    i just don’t get why they had to put it as My Wife is a Gangster 3. when there is clearly no link from the prequel movies. that just sucks. it destroys the the previous movie.. although i would agree i love the scenes and story, but still. it is not the same movie title. they should just have changed the title into something more appropriate.

  6. 2 luna6 Says: April 3, 2007

    exigent99 - didn’t see your comment here until now. Yeah MWIAG 3 was kind of borderline decent. Since #2 was pretty bad, I didn’t have much expectations, but still wanted to see it because I liked the first one so much. I did know prior to seeing the film that they didn’t have any of the old characters, so I wasn’t as disappointed.

    Strange thing is if you watched this movie without knowing the title, you would have mrbrt known it was the 3rd installment in the My Wife Is A Gangster films.

    cheers..

  7. 1 exigent99 Says: April 1, 2007

    Luna6,
    Just watched this last night. Agree with your review once again! ;-) Keep up the good work. Thanks!