My Girlfriend Is An Agent
Shin Tae Ra
The story: Lee Jae Joon (Kang Ji Hwan) breaks up with secret government agent Ahn Soo Ji (Kim Ha Neul) as he cannot tolerate her constant lies. Three years later, they meet again when both are tasked to stop the sale of a lethal biological weapon to the Russian mafia. Lee is now also an agent but their identities remain hidden from each other.
My Sassy Girl (2001), My Wife Is A Gangster (2001), My Wife Is A Superwoman (2009) and now My Girlfriend Is An Agent. Clearly, Korean women are not to be trifled with.
The template was set by Gianna Jun’s overbearing Sassy Girl. She makes her suitor jump through hoops and puts him through the emotional wringer.
Here, it is model-actress Kim Ha Neul who takes on the alpha female role, a far cry from the fragile young things she played in TV dramas such as Piano (2001). She slips easily into the tough-on-the-outside character of superspy Soo Ji, who is still in love with Jae Joon despite him walking out on her.
Kang Ji Hwan, best known for the hit TV series Be Strong, Geum Soon! (2005), is a hoot as the enthusiastic, if bumbling, neophyte agent. At the same time, he has to deal with the feelings he still has for Soo Ji.
It is a treat whenever the feuding couple show up on screen as both actors share a genuine chemistry that gives their bickering that extra kick. They also swing between mellow vulnerability and self-righteous rage with comic aplomb.
A running joke has the two agents running into each other at the most inopportune moments during their missions and ends with them getting dragged into the local police station where their squabbling rapidly escalates in front of bemused cops.
When the focus shifts to the biological weapon subplot, however, the film becomes more pedestrian.
Director Shin Tae Ra’s blend of comedy, action and romance has proven to be a winner: His version of the Hollywood hit Mr & Mrs Smith (2005) topped the domestic box office for two weeks after its April release.
But beneath the light-hearted surface, one can also read the film as a comment on how difficult it is for a person to balance her professional and personal lives. Even if one is a sassy gangster superwoman agent.
(ST)