RogerEbert.com by Brian Tallerico
A Hard Day has a breakneck pace that allows one to easily dismiss the more ridiculous, downright nonsensical aspects of its plot. Only occasionally will the eyes roll. For the most part, it works.
✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
Korea · 2014
Rated PG-13 · 1h 51m
Director Kim Seong-hun
Starring Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Jin-woong, Shin Jung-geun, Jeong Man-sik
Genre Action, Crime, Thriller
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On the way to his mother’s funeral, Detective Ko Gun-su accidentally hits and kills a person with his car. Fearing manslaughter charges, he covers up his crime and just as relief begins to set in, he receives a call from an eyewitness of the the hit-and-run who now wants something in return.
RogerEbert.com by Brian Tallerico
A Hard Day has a breakneck pace that allows one to easily dismiss the more ridiculous, downright nonsensical aspects of its plot. Only occasionally will the eyes roll. For the most part, it works.
New York Magazine (Vulture) by David Edelstein
It’s our sense of adventure that matters in the end. We must cultivate confusion and dare to be disoriented.
A Hard Day is a film that sets itself fairly narrow ambitions, achieves all of them and then some and yet has no pretensions to importance, weightiness or artistic self-expression.
It’s the nerve-racking situation that faces our hard-luck protag, with its heady black humor, social satire and a touch of surrealism, that keeps audiences on the edge of their seats.
The New York Times by Manohla Dargis
A kinetically visceral, enjoyable nasty joy ride, “A Hard Day” is pretty much as advertised.
Washington Post by Michael O'Sullivan
You’ll be glad that A Hard Day isn’t happening to you, but you won’t regret observing it all from a safe distance.
The script is tighter than the direction and editing. But the set-pieces dazzle (think Korean war toys) and the performances by the cops have a nice cynicism about them.
Kim Seong-hun's riveting if empty-headed A Hard Day will be remembered for its increasingly ominous jump-cuts to mobiles ringing, vibrating, and flashing profane messages.
The Hollywood Reporter by Stephen Dalton
A Hard Day offers a masterclass in throat-squeezing, stomach-knotting suspense.
Years after her husband died Yumiko has remarried and all but moved on, still searching for whether or not he truly committed suicide.
How far would you go?