Start the week with a film: ‘A Hard Day’ is a breathless, breathtaking thriller

A Hard Day begins with a horrible night. Police detective Ko (Lee Sun-kyun) is racing along to make it to his mother’s funeral when he runs over a man. The only witnesses is a dog – or so Ko, and viewers, are led to believe.

I’m a terrible son, Ko tells the corpse, but he’s something else too – a corrupt detective who is being investigated by another police unit. Fortunately for Ko, the bribery probe is shut down and he is assigned to a murder investigation – of the very man he has run over.

Kim Seong-hun, one of the directors of the terrific period zombie drama Kingdom, really knows how to lay out the twists. A Hard Day (2014), which is available on Prime Video, is a breathless as well as breath-taking thriller. The script is filled with self-serving characters and a few decent souls trying to make the best out of a complicated situation.

The Korean film has typical black humour and technical polish. Lee Sun-kyun, the lovely actor from Parasite (2019) – he died by suicide in 2023 – is superb as Ko. Desperate to escape discovery, Ko lands himself in one hot mess after one, which Lee portrays with unerring timing.

A Hard Day has been remade in a few...

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