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A Hard Day aka "Kkeut-kka-ji-gan-da" [Blu-ray]
(Seong-hoon Kim, 2014)
Review by Gary Tooze
Production: Theatrical: AD406 Video: Kino Lorber
Disc: Region: 'A' (as verified by the Oppo Blu-ray player) Runtime: 1:51:05.158 Disc Size: 44,904,668,070 bytes Feature Size: 34,081,849,344 bytes Video Bitrate: 34.98 Mbps Chapters: 8 Case: Standard Blu-ray case Release date: November 24th, 2015
Video: Aspect ratio: 2.35:1 Resolution: 1080p / 23.976 fps Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio Korean 2057 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 2057 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit) DTS-HD Master Audio Korean 1567 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1567 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit)
Subtitles: English, None
Extras:
• Bad Vs. Worst (7:24)
Bitrate:
Description: A pitch-black comedy with style to burn, A Hard Day depicts a day-in- the-life of a cop that goes from bad to worse to cursed. Driving back from his mother's funeral, homicide detective Gun-soo (Lee Sun-kyun) runs over a man in a dark rural street. In a moment of desperation, he dumps the body in a coffin alongside his mother. The disappearance of his accident victim is investigated by a colleague, and, making matters worse, a witness steps forward, a detective named Park (Cho Jin-woong). Park's motives are less than savory, and he begins issuing threats that become more vicious and hit closer to home. Eventually Gun-soo decides to face Park head-on once and for all.
The Film:
For Detective Go Geon-soo (Sun-kyun Lee), the past 24 hours has been a nightmare from which he cannot awaken. His wife leaves him, his mother dies suddenly and he is under investigation for embezzlement. Things get much worse when Geon-soo commits a fatal hit-and-run on the way to his mother's funeral. After successfully hiding the dead man's corpse he is contacted by someone claiming to have witnessed the whole thing and is now threatening his life. Directed by Seong-hoon Kim. Excerpt from MRQE located HERE
A kinetically visceral, enjoyable nasty joy ride, “A Hard Day” is pretty much as advertised. Its long day opens at night, with Gun-soo (Lee Sun-kyun), a South Korean detective, speeding on a highway while chattering on the phone with his sister. Their mother has recently died, and Sis wants to know why Gun-soo isn’t there with her and playing the dutiful, grieving son. Their exchange slips by quickly and is soon lost amid the horrible thudding of Gun-soo running over a body and the sound of so many falling dominoes, but their conversation introduces the idea that keeping up appearances is crucial. Gun-soo, who keeps a photo of his daughter on the dashboard (like a talisman or maybe a threat), is constantly looking over his shoulder, and that gets tricky when you’re racing from trouble. Excerpt from the NY Times located HERE
Image : NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc. The dual-layered Kino Lorber Blu-ray of A Hard Day looks very impressive in 1080P with a max'ed out bitrate. It was shot on digital with the Red One MX. Detail is very crisp - tight colors and layered contrast. I imagine this looks pretty close to how it did theatrically. The source is pristine and the visuals are consistent. This Blu-ray gave me a flawless video presentation in the original 2.35:1 aspect ratio. All good.
CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION
Audio :Kino offer the option of two DTS-HD Master tracks in original Korean a 5.1 surround at 2057 kbps and a 2.0 channel - both 24-bit. The film has plenty of aggressive effects from cars to guns and even an explosion. They separate impressively and depth is quite apparent. The score is by Young-Jin Mok and is actually quite good - sounding very pleasing in the uncompressed. There are optional English subtitles offered and my Oppo has identified it as being a region 'A'-locked.
Extras : Kino add some South Korean extras - an 8-minute featurette entitled, on the menu, Bad Vs. Worst and discusses the Go Geon-soo character with Sun-kyun Lee. There are a full 23+ minutes of deleted scenes and I found some quite interesting. There is also a 17-minute Making of... with writer/director Seong-hoon Kim discussing the idea behind the story (thought of it while watching Pedro Almodóvar's Volver) production etc. There is also a trailer.
BOTTOM LINE: Gary Tooze November 11th, 2015
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About the Reviewer: Hello, fellow Beavers! I have been interested in film since I viewed a Chaplin festival on PBS when I was around 9 years old. I credit DVD with expanding my horizons to fill an almost ravenous desire to seek out new film experiences. I currently own approximately 9500 DVDs and have reviewed over 5000 myself. I appreciate my discussion Listserv for furthering my film education and inspiring me to continue running DVDBeaver. Plus a healthy thanks to those who donate and use our Amazon links.
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