Sales house Cineclick Asia has secured a major Japanese deal on one of its bigger titles and is now shooting to become a heavyweight player outside its native Korea.

It sold Japanese rights on female gangster tale My Wife Is A Gangster to KNACK, a company more usually associated with animation production. The value of the deal is set in the region of $1.75m - not far short of the film's $2.4m published budget.

The picture, which was released in Korea in September and grossed $31m, was previously sold to Miramax for an English-language remake. Two year old Cineclick, which has represented a string of Korean hits including record breaker Friend and Hi Dharma, is now looking to handle films from elsewhere in Asia, and will probably start by focusing its attention on the Thai industry.

'We've gone through the proving stage and are now ready to live up to the Asia part of our name,' said company principal Suh Young-joo. 'We have moved beyond fee-basis representation of films and will now co-invest in films from elsewhere in the Asian region.'

Suh has already made a number of prominent investments. Her company co-invested in Korean rights to films such as Traffic and Gangs Of New York and part-financed Peppermint Candy director Lee Chang-Dong's Oasis. The film, which is hopeful of a slot in Cannes this year, will be released in Korea though local distribution market leader Cinema Service.

She is also handling pre-sales on Champion, a US-set boxing picture by Kwak Kyung-taek, director of all time Korean box office record holder Friend.