Review of A Hard Day

A Hard Day (2014)
7/10
Refreshing Korean crime thriller with original black humor
3 December 2014
I usually do not like Korean movies – it is either too violent or too sensational with scripts that generally lacks originality - but this one is quite good: very interesting plot with lots of twists and suspense and humor.

The movie centers around a divorced cop, Go Geon-soo (Lee Sun Gyun), on the day of his mom's funeral when he accidentally kills a pedestrian. Since he is in a hurry, he decides to put the corpse into her coffin and deal with it later. Strange calls starts to come into the police station and Go is threatened by a man who claims to be a witness of the accident. Meanwhile, Go is assigned to investigate this accident where pedestrian seems to be an important person in the police's wanted list.

Just the packed elements within the case are interesting to follow. Then with all the twists and surprises it is engaging throughout to watch. Excellent directing with a brisk tempo which leads you deep the puzzle. The story is easy to follow but the mood is not serious or heavy because every now and then there is always something funny that make you chuckle/surprise or awe.

I like the camera-work too which always leads the audience to see from a different angle. The framing is artistically pleasant, including a lengthened aerial shot of a chase scene up a flight of stairs and across traffic. I literally held my breath to watch that one.

Corrupted police are everywhere but how the script presents the story is very interesting and it is kind of fun to put all the coincidences together to make a coherent story with some clever types of black humor.

The actors are quite good too. The only complaint I have is perhaps too much violence in certain scene – though it is probably mild compared to other violent Korean movies I have seen.

If you like witty laugh and suspense you would not be disappointed.
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