The unfortunate thing about Mission: Cross is that it works neither as a comedy nor as an action thriller. And the travesty is that it markets itself on both counts. The comedy relies mostly on offensive and poorly written tropes on traditional gender roles. Kang-moo (Hwang Jung-min), one of the two central characters of the story, is a stay-at-home husband. He is married to Mi-seon (Yum Jung-ah), a leading police detective. The former cooks, cleans and keeps an impeccable home, all while ensuring Mi-seon’s daily needs are met. Instead of being appreciative in any way, shape or form, she takes him for granted and barely acknowledges his presence. At the station, her three hangers-on (two subordinates and her direct boss) are in awe of her exploits in apprehending violent criminals. Every long work day ends in drinking sessions and stupid jokes. The trio keeps referring to Mi-seon’s significant other as the “missus”. Mi-seon appears terribly bored of her “unexciting” spouse, her overall manner betraying as much. Now, just say the roles were reversed (as it often is), it would be seen in poor taste and open to ridicule. Lee Myung-hoon, who happens to have also written the script, wins points for unbridled sexism. Joking about Kang-moo as the “missus” isn’t the flex he thinks it is. By doing so, he perpetuates the stereotype that housework is only a woman’s domain. Mission: Cross begins with a set-up that is chauvinistic and extremely unfunny.
Director - Lee Myung-hoon
Cast - Hwang Jung-min, Yum Jung-ah, Jeon Hye-jin, Jung Man-sik, Kim Ju-hun
Streaming On - Netflix
On a grocery run, Kang-moo notices a woman being chased by a group of men wearing black. She turns out to be Hee-joo (Jeon Hye-jin), a team member from his previous job. It is revealed that Kang-moo used to be an elite military intelligence officer in his past life. He is pulled back into the thick of things (oh, what a surprise) to assist Hee-joo in looking for her missing husband, an army Major who was Kang-moo’s erstwhile partner. The latter decides to keep his cover (so far as his detective wife is concerned) and help Hee-joo. Meanwhile, Mi-seon’s busybody colleagues spot Kang-moo speaking to an unidentified woman on the street. Their thoughts jump automatically to infidelity, and hence, the spying begins (and so do the juvenile exchanges). How are they to break the sensitive information to Mi-seon?
The film is an even mixture of puerile and predictable. The parts that are to make one laugh do not just perpetuate sad stereotypes, they succeed in being rather idiotic too. When the military intelligence thriller elements take over, the script bends itself backwards to present an overwhelming cliché. Right from Kang-moo being inadvertently pulled back into his old life (one he has successfully run from for years) to the eventual double-cross happening right under his nose, there isn’t a scene that feels remotely original. It is hard to believe that he has managed to keep his past a secret from his wife for so long, a top police detective wife, no less. Taking that at face value for a minute, the only scenes that are half-redeemable are the ones in which Mi-seon follows Kang-moo to get to the bottom of his “shady business”.
Why Kang-moo left the service in the first place is unclear. There is some connection made to a failed mission in Russia, in which his own country’s role was dubious. The crammed scenes of this former assignment have ties to a major misappropriation of defence funds, with the missing Major and others fighting a corrupt system at play. A failed assassination attempt on one of Kang-moo’s erstwhile colleagues gets Mi-seon accidentally involved in the case (I mean, how else do they form a dream team?). All the extraction sequences play right out of the spy thriller handbook, with every piece fitting seamlessly into the plan (how could you even envisage things going otherwise).
All in all, Lee Myung-hoon’s film has little going for it. It attempts to fuse two genres, failing miserably at both. For the comedy to be plain childish is one thing. To be offensive and sexist, in addition, earn the film an extra demerit point. The unoriginal action thriller that ensues plays no redeeming role in the overall scheme of things. The film is a perfect blend of subpar writing and direction. When the odds are stacked so heavily against you, as is the case here, you have to feel for the actors. They don’t even stand a chance.