A Hard Day (2014) (DVD) (Hong Kong Version) DVD Region 3

Actor Lee Seon Gyun, a Hong Sang Soo regular who recently featured in the likes of Our Sunhi and Nobody's Daughter Haewon, headlines as corrupt homicide detective Ko Gun Su, under investigation by internal affairs for his misbehaviour. As the title suggests, Ko does indeed have a very bad day through the course of the film, which opens with him running over and killing a man while driving to his mother's funeral on a dark and stormy night. After somehow managing to hide the body in his poor mother's coffin, he thinks his worries are over, until he starts getting threatening calls from a man claiming to have witnessed the event, and learns that his victim was in fact a wanted criminal. Desperately trying to cover things up, Ko lot worsens when the voice on the phone is revealed to be that of detective Park Chang Min (Jo Jin Woong, Hwayi: A Monster Boy), who has his own sinister motivations for getting his hands on the corpse.

The above synopsis only really serves to set in motion an increasingly complex and deadly chain of events, and A Hard Day is a film which it's best to go into knowing as little as possible. While there's nothing new here, Kim Seong Hun drawing heavily on familiar genre tropes, as well as a wide variety of other films, in particular the works of the Coen Brother and Hitchcock, it's an unpredictable tale, with plenty of unexpected reversals and surprises. This is mainly due to a sharp script, which Kim apparently spent several years perfecting, and which expertly suspends disbelief, keeping the viewer guessing and ensuring the film is both coherent and taut throughout despite frequently falling back on manipulative coincidences. Although upon reflection it doesn't make too much sense, the film is a huge amount of fun and a wonderfully tense ride while it lasts, thanks in no small part to a pitch black streak of cruel humour - indeed, the film arguably works best as an ever-escalating comedy of errors, never giving the viewer or its amusingly tortured protagonist a moment's rest. Clocking in at nearly two hours, it's a touch on the long side, though Kim works in enough violence and flashes of well-choreographed action alongside the creatively cruel laughs, ensuring that the pace never slackens, and there's a pleasing lack of the usual melodrama or filler material.

It also helps that Ko Gun Su serves as an interesting protagonist, and that the film never tries to crudely shoehorn in any redemptive character arc or any cheap doubt as to his guilt - much of the film's suspense comes directly from the fact that his ever-intensifying mess is entirely of his own making. Lee Seon Gyun is excellent in the lead role, and does a great job of making Ko somehow likeable despite his endless list of flaws, and Kim's script successfully strikes the difficult balance of making it highly enjoyable watching him squirm while at the same time hoping he'll somehow wriggle his way out of the dire situation. Jo Jin Woong is also excellent as the villainous Park, exuding over the top menace and unpredictable pantomime evil, and the film gets a great deal of mileage out of the battle and shifting power struggle between its two combatants. Though this might not sound like too glamorous a selling point for the film, the effort Kim has obviously put into his script really shines through, and reminds the viewer again of the importance of good writing, a fact sadly lost on so many filmmakers.

Certainly, it's this which gives A Hard Day a lift, and boosts it from being a solid genre entry to something more special, as well as a breathless couple of hours of mean-spirited fun. Hopefully marking a more permanent return for the clearly talented Kim Seong Hun, there's plenty here to impress, and the film is well-deserving of the cult status it seems to be quietly achieving.

by James Mudge - EasternKicks.com