My Wife is a Gangster (2001) Movie Review

My wife is a Gangster is a South Korean crime action romantic comedy directed by Jo Jin-kyu and written by Kang Hyo-jin and Kim Moon-sung. It stars Shin Eun-kyung, Park Sang-myun, Ahn Jae-mo and Kim In-kwon. The film was a phenomenal success inside and outside of Korea, leading to My Wife is a Gangster 2 (2003), My Wife is a Gangster 3 (2006) and two indian remakes titled James Bond and Singh is Bling in 2015.

Eun-jin is a martial arts expert and a deadly dual-wielding blade fighter who gains respect and the position of boss inside the Korean criminal underworld. She manages her goons and thugs with cruelty and harshness. When she learns that her sister, Yu-jin, has a terminal disease she begins to create the life she couldn't have at her request, this involves getting married to Kang Soo-il, whom she just met after the man uselessly tried to stop a fight, and have children. Can the cold and distant assassin deal with married life?

A great deal of the plot involves Eun-jin trying to grasp the gist of normal and mundane conjugal tasks but since her character was brought up outside the realm of normativity she ends up distorting and twisting these norms and in a way, exposing their arbitrary nature as well as their fragility when faced with any strong enough will that won't fit in. That's where the film is at its best, when its satirical commentary is integrated into the comedy and the action in order to make an entertaining statement.

The protagonist’s harshness and brutality gets contrasted several times with more warm and emotionally-based marriage scenes, which not only opens up the possibility for comedy but also to get the character to expose another facet of herself and her weaknesses become apparent when she is out of her element.

The less interesting stuff comes in the form of mostly irrelevant or very unimpactful scenes of Eun-jin's goons messing around. These comedic scenes aren't very funny and they mostly feel like padding or to add some cheap and easy jokes. They aren't awful but they comprise the weakest part of the film.

The movie features crisp 35mm film cinematography with a variety of somewhat light but noticeable and sometimes striking hues that decorate the visuals, add to that some very dynamic camera work that keeps things with energy and a very brisk rhythm that never flacks but doesn't move fast enough to be incomprehensible or disjointed. It's solidly crafted overall and with quite good fight sequences. 

Highly recommended if you wanna get started on South Korean cinema and this series.

Project A-ko 2: Plot of the Daitokuji Financial Group (1987) Anime OVA Review

Project A-ko 2: Plot of the Daitokuji Financial Group is an action scifi comedy anime OVA and a direct sequel to Project A-ko (1986). Animation director Yuji Moriyama returns as a director and you can tell, he would later go on to direct all of the other direct to video A-ko sequels but I think that out of all of the video animations this one has the style and skills that are the most comparable to the original. A lot of the cast also came back including Miki Itō, Emi Shinohara and Michie Tomizawa. Writing duties went to Takao Koyama and while he did not write the first movie he still found a way to do justice to the franchise, nowadays he is probably more well known for writing for Dragon Ball, Knights of the Zodiac and Slayers.

Some time after the events of the first film, the aliens are still living on earth but they have transformed their spaceship into an amusement center. Since A-ko’s parents are leaving for a business trip, the superpowered redhead goes to the alien facilities for a summer vacation with C-ko. Their fun time at the pool is spoiled by the even more spoiled B-ko. Adding to A-ko’s list of issues, Miss Napolipolita, the alien leader, asks A-ko for aid, begging the girl to help them return home.

If you thought the first film relied less on plot and high stakes and more on fanservice and comedy, then this direct sequel comes to push those elements even further. It’s very relaxed and mostly ambivalent storyline takes place at roughly one location and once this setting is established the writers simply decide to use it as a playground to try several gags (and to repeat old ones) without really that many refreshing new elements but even as a retread the bulk of the OVA maintains that playful spirit that made the first one so charming.

Female Kenshiro and Captain Harlock come back and they do a bit more with them, referencing more directly their respective series in pretty acceptable gags but nothing truly hilarious. Honestly, their jokes got a bit tiresome in the first movie to begin with, so now it’s just very old and hardly effective. But that's the only weak spot of the film. Other than that, the dynamic between the ko girls and their shenanigans is lovable and A-ko’s action sequences are as cool as ever.

The animators once again show off their talent as the destruction and combat sequences are again expertly crafted and executed. It never gets old seeing A-ko cause so much havoc and turn mechanical things into junk with her fists but the attention to detail and realistic movements seen in scenes like the dressing room one is just astounding. They really went all in.

A very likable and entertaining sequel that can be recommended to anyone who enjoyed the very first outing.

Psylocke (2024) Comic Review

This solo Psylocke series came out in 2024, written by Alyssa Wong (Captain Marvel 2023, Doctor Aphra, White Fox: Infinity Comic) and illustrated by Vincenzo Carratù (Mary Jane & Black Cat, Dracula: Blood Hunt), colored by Fer Sifuentes-sujo (Giant-Size Spider-Gwen) with Ariana Maher as the letterer. 

Psylocke gets expelled from the X-Men by Cyclops and goes solo. A non-binary college student she saved at the start of the first issue, Devon Di Angelo, turns out to be a tech-savvy hacker who gets jobs and information for her on the web. Psylocke takes a job as a security at an A.I.M auction, which turns out to be a mutant trafficking operation, particularly with kids, setting Psylocke's more aggressive instincts free. A lot of the issues follow her dismantling the trafficking ring and fighting the people responsible along with John Greycrow, we also see her fight with a villain known as the Taxonomist, other X-Men show up and Kwannon is haunted by the return of a ghost from her past.

Be prepared for a lot of very dynamic and well crafted splash pages or even just pages that track the movement of the characters in very ingenious illustrations fragmented by outlines of panels that help to isolate the movement of the characters within the layout of the image without having to break it into numerous different panels. The way they use these big panels and have the Psylocke drawn in different poses is very effective at making the reading process very agile and dynamic. To that you add some wonderful colors and you get a pleasing-looking comic.

The constant action feels earned because it manages to establish danger and stakes quite efficiently and speedily within the narrative, sprinkled with some clever and funny one liners that stay very much in character.

The writing does a pretty good job at showing Psylocke's mental issues as she struggles to leave behind the thirst for blood and murder she was indoctrinated into from a very young age by The Hand, putting her current romantic relationship in a delicate situation. The flashbacks work quite well as they come in at very well-timed places in the narrative to either explain something or relate certain things to the main character without feeling forced. By the time we see more of Mistuki and Kwannon growing up together under intense and inhuman training along with abuse by their master we are then gifted with some very emotional moments.

Later on other characters like Magik and Rogue join in on the fun but the storyline always stays on the same track and these special appearances only are there to support and help Psylocke's story and are never distracting or badly implemented.

A very enjoyable read that you can pick up without really much knowledge of previous X-Men stories and still be engaged by what’s presented here. 

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