Marrying the Mafia 3
Director: Jeong Yong-ki
Year: 2006
Rating: 3.0
Country: Korea
I think they say that if there is a third sequel
it is bad luck not to see it. Ok, I just made that up but I figured why not
watch it even though I had heard less than great things about it - like a
bad case of the hives - but it is up on YouTube with subtitles and so not
a burden on my wallet. Nice copy of it too. If only the film had been as
good. If you recall, the first MTM had nothing to do with the second but
this one in fact begins where the last one ended. This sweet little Mafia
family has decided to go legit after the oldest son married a prosecutor.
Three brothers, two sister-in-laws and a mother who eats nails while watching
Korean soaps. But the mom is also a great kimchi cook and so they open up
a kimchi business with their own secret recipe and become a big success.
Unknown to them the two crooks from the last film are out of jail and ready
for revenge. They sabotage the business, it goes broke as do they and then
they have to come back.
Not exactly a world beater but it sounds ok right? Somehow the filmmakers
managed to take this idea and make it pretty close to dreadful. Abysmal.
Shoddy and slothful. Hard to imagine there was a MTM 4 & 5 after this
one. Those I will do my best to stay away from like a hornets nest. The main
issue is that in a film of about 105 minutes they had 30 minutes of material.
The rest they fill in with flashbacks that add nothing to the narrative.
One flashback of the middle son being seduced by his now wife and then getting
into a dance contest felt like it went on longer than heart surgery. Another
with the mother as a younger woman and the father who is now dead is perhaps
closer to a procedure. All pointless which could have been forgiven if they
were funny but they are not - hey that kimchi recipe you have - add some
humor to it. And worst of all for me is that the prosecutor played with such
zest in the first film by Kim Won-Hee, disappears for most of the film. I
should have been as smart.
