Hard day stands out from the crowd of any reheated kitchen and cauterizes us in friendship. The film offers us a gripping story, with reactions somewhat beside the plate that will keep us in suspense. If the American influences are felt (A very "After Hours" style, an American film directed in 1985 by Martin Scorsese), if the clichés are all present, a visual richness, an irreproachable coherence and a clear editing, we will return with pleasure to our roots. Not to mention the story at the limit of the crazy and the interpretation without complex, natural at will. A film by Seong-hun Kim 2014 – South Korea Cast: Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Jin-woon, Shin Jung-geun, Shin Dong-mi, Jung Man-sik
Synopsis (Bodega)
On his way to attend his mother's funeral, and while under investigation for corruption, Commissioner Ko Gun-su accidentally runs over a man. To cover himself, he decides to hide the body in his mother's coffin. When the case is discovered, your partner is appointed to conduct the investigation. And when the only witness of the accident calls him to blackmail him, Gun-su understands that he is not at the end of his troubles…
Censorship and blank page
In recent years, Korean cinema can no longer surprise us, we must admit. Because of killings or unbearable tortures, fights with similar choreographies, always in overexploited bloodbaths, whether because of scenarios that wanted to reach certain masterpieces but in fact did not reach them at all, whether by all these clichés that came back to us in a loop and that left us in a disenchantment disappointing. (A bittersweet life, where are you?) Uhm Tae-Hwa, director of Vanishing Time: A Boy Who Returned , told us at the time that President Park Geun-hye (currently in prison) had instituted very tight censorship. As a result, few films had managed to get through the door of the dark rooms. (This was discovered with the documentary The Truth Will Not Sink with Sewol in 2014. All the seats had been sold while the cinemas were almost empty) Some films, like Hard Day had managed to slip through the net (Unfortunately not Vanishing Time: A Boy Who Returned). A desire to hide and bury this documentary with the 304 passengers, mostly high school students, behind big productions? Regardless, Hard Day was one of the stepping stones that propelled Korean hits in the latter half of 2021.
Impressions
Hard day, we discover it quickly, projects us towards a stress already almost insurmountable from the beginning. The typical elements of the nightmare are quickly announced by a detective Gun-su in a car on a rainy night, who argues by phone with his colleagues and with his sister in double call. The frustration and guilt of not being present at his mother's funeral transpires in these calls. It is a set-up, all during the first minute of the film. The impact definitively puts an end to this introduction to say the least intense and expeditious and plunges us, as Detective Gun-su says so well, always during this first minute, in "a day of". Paradoxically, a hilarious atmosphere emerges from Hard day. The director, and here is all his genius, will make us squeeze our buttocks while displaying an amused smile on our faces. Technical scenes and camera tricks will make the film smooth and clean. Unfettered. The obstacles in question rightfully and impertinently belong to all these characters who abound around Detective Gun-su, and their infuriating need to want to accomplish their task to the end. Note the recurring subject of the image of the corruption of the Korean police. No Korean director will be able to help but denounce in due form during his film, whatever the subject. 
The obstacles also and above all, return to this alignment of circumstances that follow each other and are relentless like a persistent puzzle that looks like an inquisitive imp. Even if he shows vast intelligence, no way for Detective Gun-su to get back on his feet or breathe, no respite. Just half a second to cash in without digesting the surprise of a new turnaround. If this kind of parallel world strives to thwart this vital need to put an end to this nightmare, the one and only vision of the main character through a subjective camera, can only make us sympathize and identify with him. No information, no element is given to us as a scout, access to the story taking place exclusively by the main character.
The technique
Very skillful techniques accompany Hard day. The zoom that approaches very slowly the face of the detective to reflect his anxiety. At the same time, it reduces the space around like Colin's room. Scenes dotted with cameras on the shoulder (not too hesitant, thanks God) mixed with regular movements place us in a kind of "inner outer" very precise. The camera on the shoulder will agree with the state of mind of the detective, his instability but also the instability of the moment. Regular movements will exclude us from his person to give us an overall idea of the situation, and especially to let us breathe without his knowledge. Some chases are filmed from the heights, giving an impression of reality TV and an excess of stress. The fades between scenes or rather the subtle absence of transition between two scenes, leaving very little room for cuts, reinforce the endless side of the day.
Actors
If any technique is important, especially if it is well used as it is, the emphasis undeniably comes down to a consistent interpretation. The expression on the face is what will make an actor an exceptional actor. Asians, renowned for their enigmatic and watertight impassibility, are in fact very gifted in mimic matters and even if adaptation to the eye of the Western viewer may take some time, once the initiation is reaffirmed, we will be entitled to an infinite world of expressions that will often become the essential landmark, the beacon of often bewildering situations. Lee Sun-kyun (Coffee Prince, Parasite, Take Point, The King's Case Note, My Mister… the list is very long) amuses us with its gestures. As well as by the short (not the time, alas) manifestation of his impressions, his perplexed attitude and his naïve and disoriented respondent. We hear him think through his expressions.
Director
Kim Sung-Hoon (Kingdom) is not only the director. He is also the screenwriter. He shows an overflowing creativity, without falling into the excessive, always keeping the tempo.
End
The end is eyeing the side of " Fatal Liaison " (American film directed by Adrian Lyne in 1987), with a completely crazy villain who would have nothing to envy to Glenn Close, (80s look less) and even if the clichés return to the attack, the disappointment is not felt. It would be fear rather to disappointment. Do not be afraid, even if this ending drops a very small tone (a very small), it is well worth seeing.
