1.5/5 stars This Korean action comedy certainly has some funny scenes – but even the dumbest of producers should have realised that a film about a gang who drug, kidnap and rape teenage girls is not a fitting subject for humour and slapstick. The approach of writer-director Jung Da-won is so wrong that the result cannot help but feel unsavoury and unpleasant. Miss & Mrs Cops owes a lot to the US action drama The Heat , which featured Melissa McCarthy and Sandra Bullock as a couple of mismatched cops. The idea of having two hard-hitting female cops investigate a case is also an obvious nod to the MeToo movement, which has gained traction in South Korea after some high-profile allegations of sexual abuse in the top tiers of the film industry. Mi-young (Ra Mi-ran) is a rambunctious former special crimes investigator who has taken a quiet desk job after having a baby. The attempted suicide of a young girl leads her to pursue an unofficial investigation into a gang which is pushing a new drug that can be sprayed on a woman’s face so she immediately loses consciousness. The unconscious women are then abducted and raped. Spycam pornography, which plays a part in the story, reflects the real-life Burning Sun nightclub sex scandal in South Korea, although the film was shot before that story broke. Mi-young teams up with her young sister-in-law Ji-hye (Lee Sung-kyung), who is an enthusiastic, rookie cop outside her office and a computer whizz-kid inside it, to nail the gang. Meanwhile Mi-young’s incompetent and accident-prone husband keeps on getting caught up in the slapstick, provoking bemused expressions from his sister Ji-hye. The cast and crew do a great job with the less than satisfactory material. Ra, an extremely prolific character actress, shows a range of skills in her first leading role, trading both punches and verbal barbs with aplomb. Lee puts in a similarly good performance as the younger cop, and the two make an effective pair of on-screen buddies. The action scenes are also above average, including a carefully choreographed sequence in which Ji-hye pursues a criminal across a crowded road, diving this way and that to avoid the oncoming vehicles. The sterling efforts of all concerned are ultimately undermined by the woeful subject matter, and the rapist plot line is made even worse by an obvious racism which makes fun of black people and South Asians. It would be good to see Jung put his talents at the service of a less disastrous story line. Want more articles like this? Follow SCMP Film on Facebook