MY WIFE IS A GANGSTER 3 (2006) This is the one with Shu Qi in it, and she carrys her weight much better than Zhang Ziyi did with her overrated cameo appearance in the last few frames of the second film. Lee Beom-soo, a Korean funnyman whose comedic performances range from exceptional and controlled (in SINGLES) to irritating and unrestrained (in OH BROTHERS) is the Korean hood who, along with two dim pals, is charged with looking after Shu Qi when she arrives from Hong Kong to hide out from Chinese gangsters (led by Ken Lo!) who want her dead as part of a feud with her gang boss daddy (Ti Lung). Added in to the mix is the film's only ace, a withering daisy of a translator played by Hyun Young (from MARRYING THE MAFIA 2) who translates Shu Qi's nasty responses to her hosts' chauvinistic posturing into nice ones, and vice versa, supplying each side with amusing misperceptions about the other, some of which lead to unexpected gang strife as Young grows increasingly confident in the power her position affords her. It's a clever conceit (and a running gag) that creates some amusing setpieces. The casting of Shu Qi in a prominent role has both benefits and disadvantages: the filmmakers wisely underscore her streetfighting smolder with that crumply-chin-and-watery-eyes thing she does so adorably well, which really sells the uncertainty of being in a foreign land for reasons beyond her control, but her romance with Lee doesn't really click, I suspect because of the very same hurdle--the language barrier--that also provides the film's secret comedy weapon, Young's hyper-sensitive translator. It goes without saying that the film looks phenomenal (what Korean film doesn't?), and the Hong Kong sequences are refreshingly staged and shot through an outsider's keen eye. A couple of action bits involving Shu Qi, and choreographed by Kim Won-jin, are, for the most part, unencumbered by obvious tight framing, deceptive editing and film speed tricks, which makes them a joy to watch, although others, like the final confrontation with Ken Lo, are hobbled somewhat by these very same techniques, so it's a mixed bag all in all. A centerpiece car chase sequence, while fun, suffers from the same flaw as most car chases in Korean films: you can always tell the cars aren't going very fast. I really wish they'd do something about that! Considering how long Hollywood's been doing it, and how well, there's more than enough reference material out there!