Mission: Cross

An expert detective can’t quite figure out her husband’s secret life in Lee Myeong-hun’s spy action comedy.

“Sorry I’m late. I erased my old life.”

Kang-mu (Hwang Jung-min) is a gentle househusband who looks after his ace detective, and no-nonsense wife Mi-seon (Yum Jung-ah). The two get along well, with Mi-seon’s strong character as the driving force of their relationship. What she doesn’t know, though, is that Kang-mu used to be a spy and government agent who retired after an incident five years prior got his teammate killed.

Hee-joo (Jeon Hye-jin), another colleague of Kang-mu’s, shows up one day asking for his help after her husband goes missing. Mi-seon’s team believes him to be cheating on her, leading Mi-seon on a goose chase to undercover the truth.

Mission: Cross has a lot going on in terms of plotting. It has three, in fact, which is a pretty impressive feat considering it only has two main characters. Not only is Mi-seon attempting to solve the mystery of her husband’s late nights, but also of the near-murder of a now comatose woman. It’s a lot of plot, and not much of it is actually funny (considering it is a comedy). It’s very serious spy and cop stuff, with some goofy character moments sprinkled here and there.

What makes Mission: Cross halfway decent is its cast, who takes some pretty dry material and does wonders with it, injecting the script with life and entertaining character beats. Mission: Cross might not always have the funniest stories and dialogue, but you’ll still be chuckling along with the way characters interact. In fact, it’s those moments of back and forth dialogue that the film shines best. When it tries hard for big laughs, it tends to fall a bit flat. Yum Jun-ah’s talents do a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to the pretty tired misunderstood-as-cheating plot.

Mission: Cross is a good time, for sure. It plays with gender conventions, traditional roles and has enough fun telling its story that it never feels tedious, like other similar films might be. When Kang-mu and Mi-seon finally team up once their stories converge, it feels like the movie is finally hitting its stride: the comedy is great, the action fantastic and the entire thing feels revitalised. It’s a shame that this is only for the final twenty minutes. It might be trying to balance too many plots at once, but honestly it never feels so crowded that it loses you – I just wish some moments had time to breathe.

Verdict: Thoroughly enjoyable, bolstered massively by its two leads, Mission: Cross delivers some good laughs and some tense action, if you can ignore its humdrum story.

Overall entertainment 7/10
Violence: 5/10
Sex: I mean, the way Hee-ju eats that ice cream..
Spy stuff: 2/10
Secret chat windows: Apparently searching for ISBNs on Google just opens them up
Title: Beats me what that means
Twists: A decent one, all things considered

Mission: Cross (2024)
Also known as: 크로스
Korean

Director: Lee Myeong-hun
Writer: Lee Myeong-hun

CAST

Hwang Jung-min – Park Kang-moo
Yum Jung-ah  –  Kang Mi-seon
Jeon Hye-jin  –  Jang Hee-joo
Jung Man-sik  –  Lee Sang-woong
Kim Joo-hun  –  Kim Jung-san
Cha Rae-hyung  –  Heon-gi
Lee Ho-cheol  –  Dong-soo
Ok Ja-yeon  –  Baek Seon-woo
Kim Jun-han  –  Geum-seok