Korea's Showbox has closed a raft of Asian pre-sales deals for My Wife Is A Gangster 3, claiming a record high for any Korean film sold at AFM to Asian territories excluding Japan.

Starring Taiwanese actress Shu Qi as the gangster wife descending upon Korea, the film is directed by Cho Jin-kyu who also directed the hugely successful first film in the My Wife Is A Gangster franchise produced by Hyunjin Cinema.

Showbox sales exec Agnes Lee says, "The film picked up a lot of buzz, and our buyers signed after watching just a short teaser trailer."

The original film topped local box office charts in 2001, grossing $31m, and remake rights were sold to Miramax for $1.1m.

The film also saw success in Southeast Asia, topping charts in Hong Kong and Vietnam.

Taiwanese actress Shu Qi, perhaps best known in the West for her role in The Transporter, won the Golden Horse Award for best actress last year for her triple role in Hou Hsaio Hsien's Three Times.

Showbox announced total pre-sales to Asia so far at $660,000, with the film going to Panorama Distributions for Hong Kong, Sahamongkol International for Thailand, Scholar Multi-media for Taiwan, Dynamic Film International for China, Cathay Keris Films for Singapore and Malaysia, PT Amero Mitra Film for Indonesia, and BHD for Vietnam.

In addition, the film sold to Splendid Films for Germany.

My Wife Is a Gangster 3 also stars Lee Beom-soo, the villain in Ryoo Seung-wan's The City of Violence.

The film is slated for local release Dec 28, with plans for release in the rest of Asia in Feb 2007.

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