4/5 stars
Director Lee Myung-hoon’s feature debut is a hilarious, action-packed spy caper that follows a retired special forces operative as he is forced back into action, only to face a greater threat from his unsuspecting wife – a formidable police captain – who knows nothing about his former life.
Taking its narrative cues from Hollywood hits like True Lies and Mr & Mrs Smith, the film casts Hwang Jung-min as the domesticated Kang-mu, whose quiet routine as a loyal house-husband is thrown into disarray after he is contacted by a desperate former teammate.
But it is Yum Jung-ah who steals the show as his hard-nosed, no-nonsense wife, Mi-seon, head of Seoul’s Major Crime Investigation Division, who discovers there is more to her humble hubby than meets the eye.
Kang-mu has left his dangerous past behind, and is perfectly happy cooking and cleaning for Mi-seon while working part-time as a school-bus driver.
When he is contacted out of the blue by Hee-ju (Jeon Hye-jin), Kang-mu is soon dragged back into a covert mission involving rogue military generals and a missing slush fund containing trillions of Korean won in undocumented cash.
Adding insult to injury, Kang-mu and Hee-ju’s clandestine rendezvous is accidentally observed by Mi-seon’s subordinates, who incorrectly jump to the conclusion that they are having an affair.
After reporting their discovery, Mi-seon chooses to observe the couple and collect indisputable evidence, leading to a series of increasingly absurd situations as her team turn their efforts from nailing a gang of drug dealers to catching Kang-mu in the act.
Mission: Cross debuts on Netflix, and while it plays perfectly well at home, the escalating antics of this woefully out-of-step couple really deserve to be enjoyed on the big screen with an enthusiastic audience.
The playful script from Lee and Choi Young-lim delivers an endless stream of gags, ranging from the scatological to the sharply observed. In one particular scene, Mi-seon’s underlings provide dialogue for a couple they are spying on, transforming a cloak-and-dagger negotiation into full-blown romantic melodrama.
The laughs are complemented throughout with tautly executed action, while the top-drawer ensemble cast, which also includes Jung Man-sik as Mi-seon’s world-weary second-in-command, are clearly having the time of their lives, as the stakes oscillate between domestic harmony and global instability.
The result is a perfect summer crowd-pleaser, boasting strong female performances and a heady dose of laughs, thrills and old-fashioned romance.
Mission: Cross will start streaming on Netflix on August 9.