I am told that actor and filmmaker Dustin Nguyen is developing a Vietnamese remake of South Korean action comedy, My Wife Is A Gangster for production later this year. The project is one of at least two movies now in development for Nguyen to helm since taking the mantle for his 2013 martial arts fantasy debut, Once Upon A Time In Vietnam (a.k.a. Lua Phat).
Jo Jin-kyu directed the 2001 original in which actress Shin Eun-kyung plays Eun-jin (a.k.a. Mantis), an underworld enforcer with no real sense of her own femininity or the world outside of gang life. Despite this, Eun-jin is forced to mitigate between her secret life in the world of violent mafia politics, and fulfilling her sister’s dying wish: to see Eun-jin get married and settle down with a family.
Jo’s My Wife Is A Gangster, which also saw Kim Won-jin (of Hong Kong actioner Operation Scorpio) as action director, led to a 2003 sequel with Jeong Heung-soon taking the helm. A third followed suit with Jo directing a new story with actress Shu Qi for its 2006 release.
Nguyen is firstly known by folks in the West for his role in the American television crime procedural, 21 Jumpstreet, and the Pamela Anderson-led V.I.P.. Some of his notable feature film credits include 2007 releases – Charlie Nguyen’s The Rebel and Justin Lin’s Finishing The Game: The Search For A New Bruce Lee, Wych Kaosayananda’s 2012 crime drama, Angels (repackaged and repurposed in 2015 as Zero Tolerance with the addition of Scott Adkins), and Roel Reine’s The Man With The Iron Fists 2.
Nguyen, who last directed his own Stephen Chow homage with last year’s 798Muoi is additionally on par to possibly soon direct episodes for Cinemax series, Warrior; The show’s forthcoming first season is yet to be dated while a second season is now stirring things over on the show’s Cape Town set in South Africa.
Nguyen will also join the cast for the new season in which I am also told that he will be playing “a very cool antagonist” opposite the show’s star, Andrew Koji (Deep Pan Fury). The ten-epsiode series is based on an original concept by martial arts and film legend Bruce Lee whose daughter, Shannon Lee, now aims to do justice for her late father’s own pitch since its ill-gotten heyday foundating what would eventually take off as 1972 series, Kung Fu.
Warrior sets its post-Civil War story amid San Francisco’s Chinatown where Ah Sahm, a young martial arts prodigy from China, finds himself caught up in the bloody Chinatown Tong wars. Lee is sheperding the series via Bruce Lee Entertainment as exec producer along with the aforementioned Lin (Fast And Furious franchise) of Perfect Storm Entertainment, and series creator and showrunner Jonathan Tropper (Banshee) of Tropper Ink.