D V D C R Y P T

MY WIFE IS A GANGSTER 2

Directed by Jung Heung-soon
Written by Choi Hae-cheol & Jeong Heung-sun
Produced by Lee Sun-yeol
Cast: Shin Eun-Kyung, Park Joon-gyu, Jang Se-jin, Lee Won-jong, Joo Hyon, Jonn Mi-ryong, Choi Eun-joo & Zhang Ziyi

2003/95 mins/Color/DTS
1.85:1 anamorphic/Korean/Korea/NTSC Region 3

Review from the Cinexus DVD

After the tremendous success of the first film in Korea a sequel was inevitable. This much anticipated sequel starts out with a huge fight at the rooftop of a skyscraper. Mazinga (once again played by Shim Won-chul), who thanks to the metal plate on his head now goes by the name of "Robocop" and the Scissor gang are about to lose the battle to a rival gang. From the sky comes their leader, the deadly but beautiful Cha Eun-jin (Shin Eun-Kyung) aka Mantis with a brand new pair of sharpen scissors. At first she easily goes through everyone but then a team of military machine gun guys attack her and she falls from the building.

Thankfully she falls on a truck... loaded with chicken, then down the road where she is soon discovered by a drunk guy (Park Joon-gyu). We now are two years later, Cha is a delivery girl for a Chinese restaurant owned by Park... how could that happened?! Well, when she felt from the roof she lost her memory... I know, I know its kinda lame but its the story. She tries desperatly to find out who she was and why she can't remember anything. As for Park he slowly but surely falls in love with her... much like all the men in the neighbourhood.

A new mall is set to be built where Park's restaurant is and a local gang called the White Bandage who happens to be working for White Shark of the White Shark gang of the first film are the ones who must make the tenants sign over their properties. After saving the day at a bank roberry, Cha is now a neighbourhood star! It then that she attracks the attention of her neighbourhood, Mazinga and most importantly White Shark who wants revenge from the first film!

While on paper this sequel sounds like it has potential the film is a huge disapointment. I like the first one very much as it had a right mix of action and comedy. In this one, the action scene are surreal because of the excessive use of wires and the jokes are lame which is a shame really 'cause this film could have been much more. Still its worth seeing if you liked the first film, just don't set your expectations too high. As for Zhang Ziyi of CROUCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON fame, she's in the film only at the end... teasing a third film where she would play opposite to Shin.

Cinexus have giving a great deal of attention to this film on DVD. The film is presented in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio and the image is 16x9. The colors are rich and nicely saturated. I saw no sign of compression, artifacts of any defects. This is almost a crystal clear transfer. We get two very good but rather quiet audio tracks, one in DTS and the other in 5.1 Dolby Digital. Both of them are more lively during the action scenes otherwise they do a proper job and set the good audiophonic experience needed. There's Korean but most importantly English subtitles which are easy to read but there is many grammar errors, yet nothing alarming. The first disc also features a cast and crew audio commentary... in Korean only. We get a kick ass trailer which sells the film as an all action flick, another one which sells it more as a comedy (which it is) and a tv spot. We also get a 10 minutes or so clip of the film with some music "inspired" by the film which is totally useless. There's also a very way too small still gallery which features only capture screen from the film. The film is separated in 16 chapters, comes in keep case which is in a nicely designed silver card box, the menus features animations and there's a nice 4 pages booklet with Production Note, infos on the director (all in Korean) and photos.

On the second disc we first get various interviews with some of the cast members (Shin, White Shark, the photographer and the hot bud dumb chick) and the director. The second feature show us how some of the scenes, stunts and fights were first rehearshed then shot. We also get four scenes that are storyboards to film compared. There is also a look at the premiere of the film, interview with Ziyi and a behind the scene look at her scenes. Finally we see a photo session for the film. Overall a very nice DVD edition for a film that could have been much more.

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