[Guest Review] "Lady Furious"
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"Lady Furious" review
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Jo Joo-hyun, The Beautiful Korean Stuntwoman and Female Fighter
This obscure and sadly forgotten South Korean crime-action-comedy was surprisingly good and even better when I saw it for the 2nd time. It's a vehicle for the great stuntwoman Jo Joo-hyun made, I think, by her husband (?) the martial arts man Kim Choon-sik. She plays the role of the TOUGH detective Ha, a female Dirty Harry and she's constantly grumpy and VERY prone to use violence whenever she can, her specialty's kicking men in their groins whenever they displease her, ouch. Mr. Kim, You really did everything right here and in a perfect world Joo-hyeon / your GORGEOUS wife should've been a major female action martial arts hero. The comic relief, the two jailbird buddies played by Lee Kwang-il and Park Tae-sung worked really well too and the crazy hunt for the brief-case was fun to watch.
OK, so I'm a pervert and a sick puppy, so what, but i really love to see bossy women on film and Jo Joo-hyun is INSANELY SEXY as grumpy detective Ha Soo-min.
Detective Ha knows how to deal with troublesome men
Lady Fury
The Story:
A Chinese gangster has stolen a briefcase of drugs worth a fortune (on the street) from his triad boss and fled to Seoul with the loot with an idea of selling it to some Korean drugboss. But, his boss has sent an expert knife killer after him, Double B (Lee Do-hyun-I). Watching the gangsters is the Seoul Crime Squad and The Beating Woman, detective Ha is coupled with the rookie cop, Oh Bo-ra (Jeon Se-hyun). Ha likes no things soft and frilly and wears military clothing with combat boots and she's filled with RAGE against criminals and men that irritate her. Her background is presented very briefly in the film and obviously her child was killed by criminals. In a side story we meet the jailbird and childhood buddies Ho-dong (Lee Kwang-il) and Sang-pal (Park Tae-sung) who's just been released from jail. They're not big criminals and really very nice persons but without any money or a place to stay, they start drifting on the Seoul streets.
At first, their antics are really annoying BUT after a while you actually start to like them. They're good and a buddy couple that works well and they know how to fight.
In For the Kill
The Chinese gangster tries to sell the stuff to Korean drug boss Snake (Seo Beom-sik) but he has other plans, he wants the drugs for free. Accidently Hong-do and Sang-pal gets possession over the brief-case and much chaos unfolds when they try to keep that possession from Snake's goons and then try to sell it or dump it in the city of Busan. The Nightclub with hostesses/whorehouse scene's funny when Ha has to go undercover dressed like a hostess and then furious, what else, after a guest grabs her breast teaches the male customers to behave correctly. Also, in the big ending fight in Busan we finally get to see Jo Joo-hyun's martial arts prowess when she takes on a horde of goons with some delightful taekwondo moves.
Otherwise the fighting in this film's more of the gritty and streetfighting type than elegant martial arts, and I like to see that too. There's comedy and a happy ending and detective Ha shows that she has got a heart under her harsh (but sexy) surface when she's acting as a guardian angel for the 2 unlucky boys.
End thoughts: Maybe i'm the only person in the world that liked this film as much as I did, and maybe I'm the only person in the world besides obviously the director Kim Choon-sik that's in love with Jo Joo-hyun. I really liked her and her charisma, she's a stunning woman and I really, really would LOVE TO SEE HER AGAIN on film kicking her way through the Seoul streets and the jo-pok underworld again. But I guess that won't happen, thanks anyway all involved with this fun film.
Read the review in Swedish : http://www.strangethings.nu/bildsidor/ladyfurious.htm
Available on DVD from YESASIA
