Brief Story Line
Six years after the events of the original movie, Mi-young (Uhm Jung-hwa - Miss Fortune, Doctor Cha TV series etc) was still selling bread sticks while her husband Suk-hwan (Park Sung-woong - A Man of Reason, Bloodhounds TV series etc) was out of work and trying to be reinstilled as NIS agent and their now teenaged daughter Na-Ri (Jung Soo-bin) was giving the parents a hard time.
When flight attendant Hyun-min (Bae Jung-nam - Hero, Spring Fever TV series etc) was getting married on a cruise ship, he invited Mi-young and her family to attend the wedding. Despite her family's strong rejection due to their own plan, Mi-young was very keen to attend. Unfortunately on board the cruise ship, there was a well known terrorist with code name Red Widow (Choi Soo-young - Ballerina, Miss & Mrs. Cops etc) who had her own mission that would endanger the whole crew and passengers. Once again Mi-young had to use her expertise and experience to save every one.
So how would the story conclude? You could find out in this movie.
End of Brief Story Line
I was very confident that my wife had seen the first movie together with me back in 2020, so I was quite surprised when she was adamant it was not something she was familiar with. But once I read my post about the movie, I just realized that it was indeed a film I experienced by myself while she apparently never got the chance to watch it. Luckily it was available in two different streaming services and she immediately watch it two days ago. After watching the movie, she became excited to see the sequel yesterday. However after seeing it, both of us came to the same conclusion that the original was better.
In this sequel, the beginning was actually pretty good showing the changes in Mi-young and her family after six years. The introduction to the main villain was well done giving us hint of what to expect, while the invitation to the cruise was also quite OK. But once they were on board the ship, somehow we felt there were things that were rather forced, especially the reason for Mi-young's involvement and the twists that were easily guessed or did not really make sense. These were pale in comparison to the first movie where the story was quite simple and did not feel forced.
The action sequence were still very good. In fact it felt they increased it a notch or two cause they looked better and Uhm Jung-hwa seemed to look more like action heroine. Thing is though, her motherly appearance was what made the original felt hilarious and convincing as it looked genuinely done by a person who had not been in action for years, while in here she looked like she had been keeping really fit. Even my wife noticed her muscles looked pretty awesome like an athlete. But then again, the action sequence were also the part that made this movie interesting and fun.
This time there were also some support cast aside from the above such as Lee Sang-yoon (Insane, VIP TV series etc) who reprised his role as Chul-seung, Ryeoun (Weak Hero Class 2 TV series etc) as magician Ji-hoon, Park Jin-joo (My Puppy, Our Beloved Summer TV series etc) as Seon-ah the owner of the cruise ship and several others. There were two more people who appeared in the original movie along with few in minor capacity. The sequel was still directed by Lee Cheol-ha (Unlock My Boss, Story of Wine etc) but now it was written by Cha Su-hyun taking over from Shin Hyun-seong. The movie was having duration of 1 hour 48 minutes including closing credits which had plenty of mid credit scenes that gave some closures, explanation and fun. But the most interesting part was definitely the post end credit scene that strongly suggest a potential third movie to complete its trilogy.
Overall this was something that was still fun and enjoyable but after seeing a very good original, it felt inferior and did not really satisfy me and my wife. Btw the movie was only released in South Korea on 12 August which meant Indonesia was among the countries fortunate enough to get chance to see it early. No wonder there were few South Koreans who were also in the same cinema with us yesterday. The film made to Top 5 domestic Box Office during the week but its total did not seem too promising and could be challenging to expect better than its predecessor. Oh, even if you did not see the prequel, there were flash back scenes which could make you understand better. However I believe watching the original first would give better appreciation. So if you are in the mood for action comedy with rather convoluted & a bit complicated story, then you are welcome to give it a try. But if you have seen the first movie and hope it would be as good or better, then you would have to manage your expectation.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
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