Two sisters-in-law with different personalities take on a high-profile case in this Korean action-comedy.
Park Mi-Yeon is the top police officer of the Special Women’s Task Force, a department of the Korean police department who specialize in crimes against women. However, due to her unorthodox nature, Mi-Yeon is in danger of losing her job. Her sister-in-law, Cho Ji-hye has seriously botched an undercover assignment to capture a pervert but in the midst, mistakes her own brother for the suspect, causing her to be in serious trouble. However, as punishment, Cho is forced to work with Mi-Yeon in the Special Women’s Task Force.
On their first day together, a young woman arrives and brings her phone before leaving. When Mi-Yeon attempts to bring the phone back, the young woman commits suicide by standing on the road and having a truck hit her. Park and Cho soon learn the woman is to be the victim of a very notorious viral video that is set to go live within the next few days. The sisters-in-law decide to put aside their differences and take on the case, even if it means incurring the wrath of their superior, who wants Mi-Yeon gone from the department due to her unorthodox nature.
The cop buddy action-comedy is quite a fun genre to watch. With films like the Lethal Weapon series, The Heat and others, this Korean film pits not only two mismatched partners, but add to the fact that they are family. While they seem mismatched, these two sisters-in-law are actually quite alike in how they handle things but yet one takes a more unorthodox approach to things while the other tends to overexaggerate and her actions prove to be meaningless towards her colleagues.
Supporting actor Ra Mi-Ran scores her first lead role and she is perfectly cast in the role of veteran Park Mi-Young, who opens the film with a funny action sequence where she gives a suspect a chance to surrender but when he runs, she complains of being tired and chases him. Ra gives off a sort of Yuen Qiu Kung Fu Hustle vibe in her role of Mi-Young. As for her partner, Lee Sung-Kyung is the justice-loving Cho Ji-Hye, whose simple mistake leads to end up getting her relegated to partnering with her sister-in-law, whom she is at odds with even at home. However, for some strange reason, these two have such fun chemistry together that it works well.
Some of the supporting cast is fun to watch as well, especially Choi Soo-Young and Yum Hye-Ran. Choi plays Jang-Mi, the techie of the Special Women’s Task Force who is Park and Cho’s most reliable ally and provides some of the comic relief when their assignment leads to Jang-Mi getting all giddy to help. As for Yum, her character of the Civil Complaints Department head, is appropriately nicknamed “Butt Plug” because she always looks like she has a stick where the sun doesn’t shine and she has only one intention and that’s to ensure that Park gets fired from the department because of her age and mannerisms. Yoon Sang-Hyun is funny to watch as well as Cho Ji-Chul, the husband of Park and brother of Ji-Hye. If Park is compared to Martin Riggs and Cho Ji-Hye is Roger Murtaugh, the husband can be said to be the Leo Getz of the film.
The film does well in blending both comedy and serious nature of the crime depicted in the film. The film’s comedy as mentioned is quite fun with the Ra and Lee’s chemistry along with Yoon’s antics. However, the film does get serious when it comes to the fact that it deals with a problem that happens today, a situation involving drugs, kidnapping, and even worse, sexual assault. When the villain of the film is revealed midway through the film, this character truly looks slick but is the definition of a scumbag. He will do whatever he can to protect himself and doesn’t care who he hurts and in the midst of the chaos, it even wakes up the members of the police, who seem to just ignore these kinds of crimes until one pivotal scene causes one of our heroes to stand up to them and show them that anyone can be a victim and it is the police’s job to seek justice. This leads into a madcap finale that tends to have comical moments but insane stunts at the same time.
Miss and Mrs. Cops can be described as South Korea’s gender-reversal answer to the Lethal Weapon series with the familial twist with Ra Mi-Ran and Lee Sung-Kyung having good chemistry and funny support all while tackling a very serious issue.
WFG RATING: A-
CJ Entertainment presents a Film Momentum production. Director: Jung Da-Won. Producer: Byun Bong-Hyun. Writer: Jung Da-Won. Editing: Kim Hyun-Joo.
Cast: Ra Mi-Ran, Lee Sung-Kyung, Yoon Sang-Hyun, Choi Soo-Young, Yum Hye-Ran, Wi Ha-Joon, Joo Woo-Jae, Kang Hong-Suk, Kim Do-Wan, Ahn Chang-Hwan, Lee Jung-Min, Park So-Eun.
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