A Hard Day Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

A Hard Day Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Brian Orndorf November 24, 2015

The 2014 South Korean thriller “A Hard Day” sets a goal for itself to be a relentless suspense machine, creating an irresistible snowballing effect where the main character, a corrupt cop (played masterfully by Sun-kyun Lee), is hit from all sides by enemies, bad luck, and awful timing. It’s mostly successful with its driving pace, capturing utter distress with a darkly comic approach, managing a plot that’s dense with developments, remaining just shy of fatigue.

“A Hard Day” is all about pressure points, with the protagonist experiencing a special time period of professional and personal disruptions that prevent him from achieving a level of privacy his sketchy deeds once enjoyed. Director Seong-hoon Kim handles the material with a visceral touch, making all stops on this obstacle course painful in different, idiosyncratic ways, while his juggling of near-misses and sweaty paranoia is exceptional.

A Hard Day Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The AVC encoded image (2.35:1 aspect ratio) presentation carries with confidence for much of the viewing experience, keeping the HD-shot film clean and crisp. Detail is open for inspection, showing life with facial particulars and set decoration, and city expanse is preserved. Colors are secure, keeping costumes and urban lighting varied, while skintones are natural. Delineation isn't always profound, showing periodic signs of solidification, but most evening adventures are easy to follow. Banding is detected on occasion, and posturization emerges during one investigative moment.

A Hard Day Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The 5.1 DTS-HD MA sound mix does a successful job ramping up the suspense of the picture, carrying loudly to keep the pressure on. Dialogue exchanges are clear and sharp, managing heated emotion and subtle reactions. Scoring is defined satisfactorily, preserving instrumentation while remaining supportive to the onscreen action. Surrounds are used sparingly, but they offer some panning effects with office-based activity and bits of atmosphere. Low-end emerges with more hectic encounters and one specific bomb detonation, adding weight.

A Hard Day Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• "Bad vs. Worse" (7:24, HD) is a brief overview of character motivation and backstory from select cast and crew.

• Deleted Scenes (23:21, HD) fill in some details concerning the protagonist's family life and wretched evening, while the antagonist's career in crime in explored in full.

• Making Of (17:29, HD) returns to the cast and crew, who take more time to dissect their creative intentions with the picture, breaking down story points and character behavior.

• And a Theatrical Trailer (1:36, HD) is included.

A Hard Day Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

"A Hard Day" manages escalation superbly, only feeling a little out of gas as the run time expands, dragging matters out for too long near the end of the feature. However, a few quibbles about excessive plotting fail to throttle the sheer movement of the picture, which taps into an unfolding nightmare early on, massaging torment to create an involving thrill ride of extreme misfortune and unshakeable mistakes.