A Hard Day

A Hard Day (Ggetuggaji Ganda) (2014)

Runtime: 110 minutes

Directed by: Kim Seong-Hun

Starring: Lee Sun-Kyun (RIP), Cho Jin-Woong, Jeong Man-Sik, Shin Jung-Geun, Shin Dong-Mi

From: A few different South Korean companies

RIP Lee Sun-Kyun. That news was quite the unpleasant surprise, then it was discovering the circumstances, including that it allegedly was tied to a South Korean crackdown on a drug scene he may have been a part of. Talk about an eye-opener. He was one of the many great pieces in Parasite as the patriarch of the Park family, but that was the only film of his I had ever experienced. This was the next most popular movie of his on Letterboxd, so that was selected. The premise also had promise, although it could have also gone wrong… which I sadly thought was the case, at least in part.

Lee played a corrupt cop who faces harsh repercussions after an accident with what appears to be a homeless man on the night of his mom’s funeral; undoubtedly, a rather miserable day. Note that because this is Korean cinema, even a film like this full of corrupt cops and other scuzzy characters, they still managed to squeeze in a cute young girl who happened to be the lead’s daughter. Now, perhaps this is my lack of understanding of a particular culture… but besides DUI’s apparently being “you have one drink, you’re F’ed as far as the law is concerned,” a police detective allegedly can beat the crap out of regular on-duty police officers in another district with not only no punishment whatsoever, but they then act subservient to him once his identity is concerned! I am still incredulous over this plot point which was early on and just set the ugly unpleasant tone which permeated through the entire picture.

Many others will enjoy A Hard Day more than me. After all, there’s the standard thriller plot full of surprises & twists, and Lee did swell as the lead. There is a dark undercurrent of black humor, which sometimes did make me chuckle, although the biggest laugh came from his opening line; much to my astonishment, on the phone, our lead referred to someone as an ASSWIPE. That was at least better to me than all the F bombs that appeared in the subtitles.

In any event, I'm sorry that such a death occurred.