... of glowsticks & dice

My Wife is a Gangster 2
Monday, October 08, 2007

Korean title: Jopog Manura 2 (조폭 마누라2)
Release date: 2003
Running time: 110 minutes
Directed by: Jeong Heung-soon
Cast you care about: Shin Eun-kyung (Mantis)
Park Joon-gyu (Yoon)
Zhang Ziyi (Cameo)

Mantis is back in part two of part one! If I said there's rape, murder, fighting schoolgirls, self-mutilation, transsexuality, and abduction in this movie - it'd all be true! Sounds like hentai! But it's not.

I’m dreaming… of a white Christmas. Imagine baseball bats. A rooftop battle, whilst the neon-lit Santa on the background merrily waves you into the new year. Cue helicopter, cue scissors, cue Mantis. My Wife is a Gangster 2 begins.

First thing of notice: Shin Eun-kyung is far hotter in this sequel than she was in the original movie. The fight scenes seem more vivid too, more violent. Promising! The rooftop rumble progresses and some modern-day ninjas come jumping in to throw some lethal crackers around. Caught off guard, Mantis leaves the building. Literally.

However cartoonish, as she falls, a truck bearing a trampoline and another carrying chickens drive past and she manages to land right on top of them. Unconscious, she gets driven around for a couple of blocks and is then thrown off in a violent turn. Enter the new hero – Yoon Jae-choi. Staggering home drunkenly after a night out on the town, he manages to avoid urinating on our battered female protagonist by noticing her just in time. Real casual-like, he reaches into her pockets, throws away her cell phone, and carries her off to his own home. Korea, I like your style.

A few years pass. Mantis, now named Tsu Tsu (much like a panda), has lost all memory of her life before the fall and so, in lieu of a better purpose, serves her self-made boss as a delivery girl for his Chinese restaurant. She spends her free time trying to remember who she was through various violent means – all she knows is that she’s good with scissors. He, on the other hand, spends his time trying to get into her pants and, ever the casual, even tries to rape her sometimes. But Tsu Tsu doesn’t remember that either, the morning after. A fair part of the movie passes as we witness Yoon and Tsu Tsu develop as close a relationship as they’re ever going to get, and Lee injects some more storyline by throwing in Ji-hyun, Yoon’s teenage daughter with a knack for violence.

Meanwhile, both her own gang and her rival from part 1, White Shark, have desperately been trying to find her. It doesn’t take long until the Shark runs into her, but, so his henchmen reason, in order to truly get revenge on her, they need to make her realize who she is first. They send in Junman, brother of eunuch Nanman, to do the job. After several attempts, just as he thinks she knows and moves in for the kill, he gets into an ‘accident’ and becomes impotent for life. Thus the mans slowly go extinct. Not long after, however, Sherry (Romeo’s girlfriend in part 1) drops in for some of the ol’ takeaway and recognizes Mantis. She reports back to headquarters, and they face her with her past.

Then, as you do, she falls off a roof again. You know, ‘cause that kind of shit just happens sometimes. Ever so miraculously, she recovers her memory and goes about taking care of White Shark. One step ahead of her, the Shark kidnaps Ji-hyun and will force her into prostitution, unless… Yoon betrays the random delivery girl he found on the street for his own daughter. A hard bargain, but he takes it. Mantis gets roughed up a little, Yoon feels remorse, comes in for the rescue, and dies. He should have watched more movies ‘cause I saw this one coming miles away. Still, you know, had I had a past of being female and all, I might have shed a tear, if only because Park Joon-gyu does perform his role as Yoon exceptionally well.

Mantis manages to rectify the whole situation and goes on to lead her former life as a gangster, no longer the wife of, but for convenience she’s taken his daughter along. Now what? Now it’s time for Zhang Ziyi, a familiar name in Asian cinema, and not quite the ugly duckling. Personally, a much anticipated moment. See, I bought the DVD for this movie in China, and in huge letters on the front it said ‘STARRING: ZHANG ZIYI, oh and also Shin Eun-kyung and some others’. At first I thought it was crap; it wouldn’t be the first time they’ve falsely informed me. I’ve seen the cast of Dawson’s Creek pasted on a National Geographic documentary. But, ‘lo, Zhang Ziyi does star in this movie.

The entire last three minutes.

Final rating: Four stars!
The student becomes the Sabum in My Wife is a Gangster 2. The first wasn't bad, but the second is better. Funnier, sexier, better acting (like you care). Still no particularly graphic violence or sex, so that's one star down, but up there on all other fronts. So if you're particularly fast - and I know a lot of you are - the three minutes of Ziyi at the end will be just enough for you. Watch the rest of the movie too, though.