In the tradition of romantic comedy, Jung-in and Doo-hyun meet cute, during a minor earthquake in Nagoya, Japan. She is a culinary student who is thrown into a panic at the tremor, while Doo-hyun is a structural engineer who calmly reassures her that she is in no danger. After this quick intro, we jump seven years into the future, skipping over their happy romance, to find them living in Seoul as a settled married couple with no kids. The talkative Jung-in is devoted to her husband, but extremely overbearing and critical. Doo-hyun, meanwhile, has fallen beyond regret and tumbled headlong into marital despair. Desperate to escape from his wife and her constant attention, he begs his boss Mr. Na to send him on assignment to Gangneung on the east coast of Korea. Na obliges, but unexpectedly Jung-in shows up and announces that she will stay with him there.
It’s around this time that Doo-hyun happens to meet his new neighbor, a notorious Casanova figure called Jang Seong-gi (whose name, it must be said, has major phallic overtones in Korean). Seong-gi has seduced so many women that he is now sick of them, and looking to retire from his amorous exploits. However Doo-hyun sees in him a rare opportunity. Offering him money, Doo-hyun asks Seong-gi to seduce his wife, thus providing grounds for a divorce. Seong-gi is reluctant at first, but after meeting Jung-in he begins to see her as an interesting challenge.
All About My Wife is an official remake of a comedy from Argentina called A Boyfriend for My Wife, by Juan Taratuto. The original was the highest grossing film in Argentina in 2008, and the remake also proved to be a tremendous hit, selling 4.6 million tickets at the box office. There is clearly some potential to the original concept, but what struck viewers and critics most about All About My Wife was its execution. Director Min Kyu-dong (Antique, Memento Mori) gives a very smooth and professional sheen to the work, and injects it with tremendous energy through his editing and handling of the actors. Both his sense of comic timing and the brisk pacing make this a very fun film to watch.
The three actors who head the cast also received widespread praise. Lim Soo-jung (I’m a Cyborg but That’s OK, A Tale of Two Sisters) imparts a manic energy to her role that pushes up against the edge of caricature without ever crossing the line. She’s hilarious to watch, and is able to rein it in effectively in the film’s second half. Lee Seon-gyun (Nobody’s Daughter Haewon, Helpless), who has become a bankable star in recent years thanks to his TV work, is effective as the weak-willed Doo-hyun. But the character who everybody remembers from this film is the Casanova figure played by Ryu Seung-ryong. With a face that does not immediately suggest a smooth-talking charmer, Ryu is both hilarious and genuinely charismatic in a role that is a mashup of self-mocking exaggeration and stereotype. It proved to be one of the year’s most memorable and enjoyable screen personas.
All About My Wife does not provide many unexpected twists, and the final half-hour gets somewhat weighed down by excessive sentiment. But it still remains one of the year’s most successful comedies. With many well-placed comic touches and lively dialogue throughout, it can serve effectively as a kind of model for the smooth, well-executed Korean comedy.
Darcy Paquet