My Girlfriend is an Agent
Director: Terra Shin
Year: 2009
Rating: 7.0
Country: Korea
Somewhat contrived but rather enjoyable comedy romance spy action melodrama
save the world film. Korean comedies have their own personality and style
that is very much their own. They are nowhere as over the top as a Bollywood
or Hong Kong comedy can be, less hilarious and subtle than many Japanese
comedies that I have seen and not as calm and talky as most American comedies.
They bring a lot of emotion even to their comedies, moments of melodrama
that would be more fitting in a soap opera that would feel so foreign to
American comedies. In a film like this they switch genres on you like a game
of musical chairs. One minute action then bang into melodrama, come back
to comedy and so on. Sometimes they go a little heavy on the melodrama but
this film gets the equation down pretty well other than perhaps a bit too
much crying. By the guy.
Soo-ji (Kim Ha-neul, a favorite of mine from films such as Ditto, My Tutor
Friend, Too Beautiful to Lie and the horror film Ryeong) is a secret agent
working for the Korean government. Not just an agent but one in the class
of Bond or Ethan Hunt. Sexy and deadly. In the opening scene she drives her
motorboat right at the oncoming boat with the bad guys in it and right before
impact lifts her boat to jump over theirs and while in mid-air does a double
flip somersault and lands in their boat with her gun out. That kind of secret
agent. She is in love though with a civilian who is a bit of a drip and who
thinks she is a travel agent who keeps ditching him (to save the world) with
lies and so he finally leaves to go work overseas and she is heartbroken.
Three years later she is on another case - to stop the selling of a deadly
manufactured virus - hmmm - to the Russians - and is undercover as a cleaning
lady in a man's public bathroom (something you get used to if you live in
Asia - usually very old women so not as uncomfortable as you may think) when
she is on her knees and recognizes a . . . penis . . . after three years
- it must be some penis. It is her old boyfriend Jae-joon (Kang Ji-hwan)
who has returned and is he tells her working as an accountant. He asks what
are you doing as a cleaner - I am a very good cleaner - and then later spots
her disguised as a hostess girl in a club.
As it turns out he is actually in a special police agency and both agencies
are investigating the same case but from different ends and unaware of each
other. The complications and misunderstandings get hectic and funny with
large dollops of action and hit and run love. It was a solid hit in Korean
and Kang won Best New Actor and Kim was nominated for Best Actress. Bad title,
worse poster, good film. I have seen other reviews saying it is a remake
of Mr. and Mrs. Smith but have not seen that.
