Jin Sun-kyu and Gong Myoung Team Up in Netflix Comedy "Husbands in Action"

A new Netflix film is betting that an ex-husband and a current husband, forced to work together, can carry an entire action comedy. The movie, "Husbands in Action," directed by Park Kyu-tae, leans on an unusual setup, a deep bench of character actors, and a mix of comedy and action to set itself apart.

The core premise drives everything else. After a wife, played by Kang Han-na, is kidnapped by a crime ring, her ex-husband Chung-sik (Jin Sun-kyu) and her current husband Min-seok (Gong Myoung) end up joining forces to get her back. The film then stacks more opposing pairs on top of that one. A detective and a criminal. A younger crime boss and an old-school one. A hostage and her kidnappers. The story moves through the friction between them.

Watching characters with clashing personalities and agendas suddenly forced to cooperate is meant to be the main source of the comedy.

"By adding the dynamic between a younger-generation boss and an old-school boss on top of the ex-husband and current husband team-up, we built a comedy with more layered material to work with," director Park said.

The casting is the second selling point. Jin Sun-kyu, Gong Myoung, Kim Ji-seok, and Yoon Kyung-ho lead the ensemble, with Kang Han-na, Lee Da-hee, and Jeon So-min rounding it out, each playing a distinct type.

Jin Sun-kyu plays Chung-sik, a narcotics detective and the ex-husband, balancing a relentless investigator side with a more human one around family. Gong Myoung plays Min-seok, the current husband and a veterinarian who gets pulled into a rescue operation he never saw coming.

Kim Ji-seok plays Do-jun, a younger-generation boss who runs a drug operation using advanced tech. Yoon Kyung-ho plays Yong-gang, the head of the Yong-gang faction, trying to claw back his former reputation. Kang Han-na plays the kidnapped wife, Si-nae. Lee Da-hee plays Hye-ran, the brains of the crime ring. Jeon So-min plays Ara, a hard-charging social affairs reporter chasing a scoop.

The third selling point is the action, paired with Park's comedy instincts. The director, known for lighter fare such as "6/45" and "Man on the Edge", pushes further this time by layering action on top of the character clashes.

The film mixes handcuff takedowns, a car chase, cliffside rope work, and paragliding. Park said the goal was to keep the cast's faces in the frame even when the stunts get big.

"Even with all the different action scenes, we wanted to make sure we didn't lose the range of expressions and emotions on the characters' faces," he said. "No matter how cool the action is, I don't think anything is more interesting than an actor's face carrying real emotion."

Put together, the pitch for "Husbands in Action" is straightforward. Take a setup audiences have not seen before, hand it to a group of reliable character actors, and let a comedy director who knows how to stage a fight scene run with it.