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Cast/Crew
South Korea
director
Jung Heung-soon
script
Jung Heung-soon
cast list
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 howing their newfound love affair with all things
organized crime, South Korea has produced a flurry of mafia-related films in
recent years. The movies mostly fall into two categories: straight Gang Melodrama and
Action Comedy. The movies "Friend"
and "Beat"
belong in the former category, consisting of predictably doomed characters careening toward, well,
doomsday. "My
Wife is a Gangster" and "My
Boss, My Hero" fills the Action Comedy category, where gangmembers
interact with civilians and hilarity ensues. Jung Heung-soon's "Marrying
the Mafia" falls under the Action Comedy category, so right away you know
what to expect.
"Marrying" opens with smarty pants businessman
Dae-seo (Jun-ho Jeong) waking up to find a strange woman in his bed. It's not
long before poor Dae-seo learns that the woman, Jin-kyeong (Jeong-eun Kim), is
no ordinary one-night stand -- she's the daughter of a powerful mafia chieftain!
Even though it turns out that Dae-seo and Jin-kyeong never had sex (she's
still a virgin), the mafia chief insists that the two get married anyway. And to
make sure this happens, the mafia chief sends his three sons to enforce his
order, and if necessary, expedite matters.
As it turns out, the mafia boss really wants Dae-seo to
join the family not because of something he may or may not have done with
Jin-kyeong, but because the chief feels that he needs a well-educated man to
give his family legitimacy. Of course this is a bit of a problem for Dae-seo,
who already has a girlfriend of 6 years, and being strong-armed into marrying a
woman he doesn't even know is a little beyond his educated background. The movie
takes great pleasure in mixing Dae-seo's executive board mannerisms with the
vulgarity and violence of the mafia lifestyle.
If it isn't clear already, almost everything in
"Marrying" is played for laughs. All the violence is exaggerated and
holds no real world consequences, even though writer/director Jung Heung-soon
does seem to respect the possible romance between Dae-seo and Jin-kyeong.
It helps that Jeong-eun Kim ("Spring
Breeze") is extremely likeable. Also, we feel
sorry for Jun-ho Jeong ("Last
Witness") as he's rushed toward marriage with the threat of physical
violence (and even death) hanging over his head.
The inherent problem with most Action Comedies is that
their attempt to straddle both the Action and the Comedy fences sometimes proves
unhealthy. American filmmakers have suffered tremendously from this problem, as
can be attested to with "Showtime"
and countless other flops. Sometimes it works, like in Robert De Niro's
"Analyze This", but more often than not the dichotomy of a bloody
shootout mixed with fart gags just make people squeamish and uncomfortable. The
few films that I've seen that has managed this difficulty with any success has
been the aforementioned "My
Wife is a Gangster", but that's owed more to a terrific lead than
anything else. (And the less said about Hong Kong Action Comedies the better.)
Another example of why most Action Comedies don't work is
the subplot in "Marrying" that concerns In-tae (Jin-kyeong's oldest
brother) and his burgeoning affair with his son's teacher. There is a scene,
later in the movie, where In-tae's wife discovers the affair, and proceeds to
beat the teacher to within an inch of her life. This is meant to be funny, with
the wife covered in black leather and performing Michelle Yeoh-like martial arts
moves. But it's not funny, and if anything, it's awkward and more than a
little mean-spirited.
Don't get me wrong. Much of "Marrying" is very
funny. The hapless Dae-seo provides a lot of laughs as he's ushered to and fro
by the gangsters. Of course, this doesn't exempt "Marrying" from
falling into the pit of black abyss known as Asian Melodrama. Toward the end of
the movie, a rival gang attempts to disrupt an impending marriage and a gang
rumble ensues at the wedding reception. This comes completely out of left field
and is so unwarranted and ill-conceived that I can't comprehend why the sequence
was even done to begin with. It probably made sense to director Jung, but for
the rest of us, we can only shake our heads at the absurdity of it all.
If you were wondering, the movie does eventually tell us
how Dae-seo and Jin-kyeong came to be sleeping in the same bed at the start of
the film. And if you pay attention, you'll know the answer before it's revealed.
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