Product Details

• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000EGOE7K
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #61,868 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Region Code: All Format: NTSC Running Time: 105 min. Languages: English, Spanish Subtitles: English Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Synopsis: When Cha, the right-hand woman of a mafia boss, learns that her sister is terminally ill with cancer, she accepts her dying wish: to find a husband and have children. Now Cha must find a husband, as well as defend her turf which is being encroached upon. She has no experience with men, so her subordinates find a suitable civil worker named Kang for her to marry. As different as the newlyweds are, their two lives start to intertwine, as Cha begins to soften up, and Kang begins to see things in a different light as well. Cast: Shin Eun-Gyeong, Park Sang-Myeon, Ahn Jae-mo, Kim In-kwon

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining, March 12, 2008

By 

S. Lee "spamination" - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: My Wife Is a Gangster (DVD)

This movie is 40% action, 40% drama and about 20% comedy.

To be honest, you don't see these types of movie in the USA, and that is unfortunate. American movies tend to cookie cutter movies into very specific genres. A drama can have action, and it can be funny. Or a comedy can have dramatic moments.

The plot: a top lieutenant in the Korean Mafia, Eun-Jin, who ironically is female, finds her long-lost older sister. Unfortunately, Eun-Jin's sister is dying of cancer, and their remaining time together is short. But before she dies, Eun-Jin's sister wants to see Eun-Jin, a hardened survivor in the male-dominated mafia-world of Korea, get married. All the while she is trying to fulfill her sister's wish, a rival gang is pushing their way into her territory.

The artistry and acrobatics of the wire-fu inspired action is excellent. The comedy may take some getting used to if you're not Korean. Yes a dog passes out because it started licking a guy's smelly foot. The drama is touching and beautifully acted.

The video quality is excellent. The sound is good. The audio dialogue is in Korean with English subtitles. The translation to English is excellent. The translator does a great job of conveying the amount of respect the Korean culture has for elders and people of higher rank. If I was to do the translation, I would I only change a couple of words here and there.

If you love movies and are growing weary of American Cinema, then give this movie a shot. Let's face it, American Cinema offers us maybe 5 good movies a year. This was my motivation for trying out Korean Cinema, and trust me I'll be surfing through Amazon for more. Thank you Amazon for offering such a wide variety of foreign films.

5.0 out of 5 stars My Wife is a What???, February 8, 2010

By 

Sniff Code "www.sniffcode.com" (Somewhere out there) - See all my reviews

This review is from: My Wife Is a Gangster (DVD)

Eun-Jin is a second in command Femme Fatale ganglord that is called "Big Brother" by her men. They also say "Yes, sir" even though she is a woman, but that's by force of habit. The fools. Given that Eun-Jin hands out enough b-slaps and evil eyes (not always in that order) you'd think that her goons would be smart enogh to call her "Big Momma" and replace "Yes, sir" with "Yes Ma'am." That's what I'd do. Even if I were married to her. Especially if I were married to her.

Lucky for me, my wife is not a gangster. At least, not to my knowledge. But, unfortunately for someone else, Eun-Jin has to expedite a shotgun marriage (she'll be holding the shot gun) in order to fulfill the wish of her sister who is dying of cancer. None of her goons have the balls do be the groom, so Eun-Jin enlists the handiwork of a dating service.

Sound facinating? Maybe even funny? It is.

My Wife is a Gangster, must be one of the few movies that elicited more than a few chuckles here and there. A few times I had to put the movie on pause and give myself a half-minute of a good laugh. This is a martial-arts comedy with Eun-Jin providing most of the swift kicks and punches and her clumsy, trying to be cool side-men providing the comedy. It's a brilliant formula.

Eun-Jin eventually finds herself a husband, the circumstances of which are made hilarious by clever direction and freeze-frame moments of love at first sight. Well, maybe not "love", per se. But who cares. The point is, they get married and now Eun-Jin has to hide her other life away from her husband. Actually, that's not the only thing she has to hide. She also must hide the enormous tattoo on her back -- a dead giveaway of who she really is. Consequently, when Eun-Jin's dying sister reveals that she wants to be an Auntie before she checks out, Eun-Jin will have to figure out how to get it on with her husband while keeping her shirt on. However, the movie takes a dramatic turn once Eun-Jin actually learns that she is pregnant. Suddenly, you find yourself a little worried about our lead femme fatale as she kicks and chops her way through her day job.

It's been a long time since I could say that I actually had a lot of fun watching a movie, and even longer since I've watched a comedy that unexpectedly pulls me through a gamut of other emotions. If you have Netflix, add this one to your queue.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Major Let Down, September 10, 2010

By 

Zas - See all my reviews

This review is from: My Wife Is a Gangster (DVD)

The movie started out great. Eunjin was a awesome character, a real gangster. I loved her character; she was strong, she knew what she was doing and she knew what she was after. She wore sensible shoes and dressed like a gangster! Woot! When her husband tries to rape her (twice), she totally beats him down and tells him never to touch her without her permission.

Then it goes downhill.

They did what every Hollywood movie does to a strong female character: even though Eunjin is the gangster and the one with the experience, it's her husband who 'saves the day' so to speak. He gets revenge for her even though he's slow and stupid. Why oh why can't a movie just let a strong woman be without a man getting even for her? Does it wilt the d!cks of the directors and male viewers? Is that it?

The 'get married for your dying sister' premise was really weak and not believable. Why not just pay someone to get 'married' to her? Or better yet, demand one of her subordinates 'marry' her? He'd be forced to pretend they're happy. Problem solved. It'd make for a far more interesting movie.

The guy is a fat, ugly, rapist man-child. We're supposed to be cheering for him? Why would a smart, good looking woman go for a man without who is ugly, stupid and has the personality of a spoiled child? For dog's sake, it's the 21th century. Hollywood does this trope all the time and I'm disappointed to learn that Korea does as well. If Eunjin was ugly as well, it'd make total sense. But Eunjin is conventionally pretty.

She finally falls for him because he's just sooooo nice. Barf. The movie tries to make Eunjin seem rough and mean and her husband seem nice. Yeah, who's the once getting married and getting knocked up even though it goes against all she is and believes in for the sake of someone she hasn't met in years? That's really damn nice. Making soup for a cancer patient and going to see your SIL in the hospital isn't as nice as that. He has NOTHING going for him. Oh, wait. He has basic courtesy. Mmm. Any man with basic courtesy and manner deserves a hot, smart chick! Pander to the ugly male audience! Yeah! The sister only appears to start and validate how good! the husband is.

The scene towards the end with Eunjin in the apron made me groan.

When Eunjin ends up in the hospital, I was okay with it. Better dead than with that ugly, idiot, man-child rapist. Alas, the ending was not so happy.

Could you just imagine a movie being made with the roles reversed?

HOT SMART GANGSTER MAN: Yeah, I'm good looking, smart and people who work for me respect me. Sure, I'm a little rough around the edges but underneath it, I'm a good person. I need to get married because of BS circumstances. :(

UGLY FAT STUPID WOMAN: I'm the only one who will ever take you because of your one flaw of being mean!

HOT SMART GANGSTER MAN: You're right! I should settle for you!

UGLY FAT STUPID WOMAN: And fall in love with me because I'm so nice! Just ignore those times I tired to put things in your orifices without your permission. And then acted offended when you said no. As your wife, I have complete right over your body to do as I please! Who says a rapist can't be a good person?

HOT SMART GANGSTER MAN: *swoon* *blubber* You're so nice. <3 <3 <3

UGLY FAT STUPID RAPIST WOMAN: Yup, and wouldn't you know it, I evened the score for you while you're in the hospital. I don't know the first thing about being a gangster or killing. But yeah, it's so easy that I take out 46 people in one go. And you haven't even killed one of 'em! Must be my awesome lady bits.

Two stars because I really enjoyed the beginning before all the BS kicked in.