Welcome back to Movie Recaps.
Today I will show you an action, thriller film from 2014, titled A Hard Day.
Spoilers ahead!
Watch out and take care.
It's late at night in the city and Detective Ko has two big problems to deal with.
His mother has died and he should be at the funeral, but he's driving to his office because
his squad is being investigated by Internal Affairs for bribery.
Ko keeps getting distracted by his phone because he keeps getting calls from his sister and
his squad, so he isn't ready to suddenly see a dog in the middle of the road.
He manages to dodge it just in time, but he ends up hitting a man instead, killing him.
While deciding what to do, he sees a police car approaching, so he hides the body and
himself among the trash until it's gone.
Then, he puts the body in the trunk of the car and gets away, but his escape is short-lived
because he ends up driving into a DUI checkpoint.
Ko doesn't want to do the test because he drank during the funeral so he tries to convince
the officers he only had a sip, he also tells them he's a detective.
However, he keeps acting too suspicious by getting ready to flee the scene and adding
an extra number to his police ID, an honest mistake he makes because he's too nervous.
The officers don't trust his story so while one of them calls the district to double-check
his identity, another one tries to open the trunk of the car.
This makes Ko freak out and get violent, so the cops tase him to calm him down.
At that moment, they get confirmation that Ko is indeed a detective, so he gets to leave
without issues.
Meanwhile at the police station, Choi, Do and the rest of Ko's squad are in serious
trouble because Internal Affairs have found all the bribe money.
Their chief tries to stop them, claiming they don't have context for such an arrest, but
the agents show him that they've also found a notebook with a list of all the bribes they've
taken through the years.
Back to Ko, he decides to go back to the funeral after another call from his angry sister.
He scolds his daughter Mina for still being awake, but before they can talk much, his
squad shows up to talk to him.
They want Ko to take responsibility for the bribes, but he refuses to go down alone.
An argument ensues that is cut short by Ko's sister with a reminder that they're about
to close the casket, so the squad leaves to leave Ko to his mourning.
Keeping to tradition, Ko helps the coffin rites instructor seal the casket, and during
this process, he receives a message from his squad saying that Internal Affairs is going
to see him to check his car.
He needs to think of a way to get rid of the body quickly, and by noticing the ventilation
shafts, he makes a plan.
First, he goes out to buy a bunch of balloons.
Then, he opens one of the shafts outside and puts a remote-controlled toy soldier he took
from his daughter in it.
Afterward, he gets back inside and asks to have one last moment with his mother, keeping
the balloons with him with the excuse they're for his daughter.
Once he's left alone, Ko releases the balloons so they can cover the security camera, locks
the door, and begins working on his plan.
By climbing on a table, he reaches the ventilation shaft, opens it, and activates the soldier.
While the toy slowly moves, Ko starts removing the nails from the casket to open it, and
all the noises he's making get the attention of one of the funeral house's workers.
The woman calls security, but since the door is locked and the security camera is blocked,
the guard must find the director to ask for a key.
This gives Ko some extra time to complete his plan, so he hurries to grab the toy from
the shaft, which has some rope attached to it.
This rope is tied around the body at the other end, so by pulling it, Ko brings the body
inside the room and puts it in the casket with his mother before re-sealing it.
However, there's a little detail Ko's missed: the guy he killed has a phone in his pocket,
and it's now ringing from inside the casket.
Ko considers the option of reopening it, but at that moment, the director unlocks the door
so Ko has to sit down and pretend he's mourning.
Thankfully, the phone stops ringing before the director comes in.
Later, when the casket is put inside the hearse, the phone rings again, but the driver just
sings along.
The day after the burial, the squad chief informs Ko they've managed to get Internal
Affairs off their backs for now.
With that taken care of, Ko only needs to do something about his last loose end: his
car.
When he sees a police car badly parked, he crashes into it on purpose and easily blames
it on the officers by pulling rank.
Then he gets his insurance to pay for the repairs without suspicion of when most of
the damage really happened.
Now Ko can go back to work.
After watching a demonstration of a new kind of explosive, his squad gets a new case about
a murderer they need to find.
When handed the case file, Ko is shocked to discover the criminal is Lee, the man he killed.
Obviously, he cannot tell the others about it, so he plays along and joins the raid of
Lee's place.
There, Ko finds the dog from the other night and follows it out, realizing that the crime
scene is just a few steps away from Lee's home.
While checking out the road to make sure he didn't leave any clues behind, Ko comes across
Jin-Ho, an officer that has come over to investigate a case of hit and run.
It turns out someone saw the accident and called the police, but it was from a paid
phone and anonymous, so Jin-Ho has no idea who the witness was.
Things only get worse for Ko when Jin-Ho points out there's a security camera in the area,
so they'll be able to check out the footage to find the car.
The squad chief assigns Choi to go with Jin-Ho to work on the footage because maybe their
killer shows up in it too.
Desperate to cover his tracks, Ko shows up at the office with the excuse of bringing
his friend food and gets to watch the footage too.
Fortunately, the video quality is bad and the car goes too fast, so the license plate
is too blurry to read the number.
Later that night, his sister asks Ko if they're still going away on a trip for Mina's birthday,
and he confirms they are.
She also wonders if their mother had a lover, because she went to see a fortune teller and
was told their mother had a man by her side even now.
The next day at the station, Ko picks up a call from an anonymous witness that wants
to make a report about Lee.
Ko accuses him of being a prank caller and hangs up, but the guy keeps calling, and even
when Do picks up the call next, the man specifically asks for Ko.
Do transfers the call to him, and Ko begins to worry when he hears the voice ask what
he did with the body.
Hanging up again doesn't do much because the man just calls his cell phone next.
Ko rushes out of the building to take the call out outside as he denies knowing what
the voice is talking about.
The man tells him he'll make demands soon and asks him not to do anything crazy or he'll
report him.
That's when Ko sees a person at the payphone that hangs up at the same time the mysterious
voice does before getting into a taxi.
Ko doesn't hesitate to chase it through the streets, but he isn't fast enough and the
cab gets away.
A few moments later, the man returns to his own work and reveals he's also a cop, Lieutenant
Park, and he was the one in the police car Ko saw the night of the accident.
When he returns to the station, Ko learns that Choi and Do have been to the mountain
his mother is buried at because that's the last known location of Lee's phone, but thankfully
they didn't find anything.
Park keeps calling him on both mobile and desk phone, so Ko keeps hanging up as well.
This lasts for a while until Park actually shows up at the office and punches him, and
as soon as the squad cuts in to stop him, he pretends to have confused Ko with someone
else.
The other cops are happy to see Park because it turns out he was the one that got Internal
Affairs off their backs.
When Park goes to the toilet, Ko follows him there and locks the door before demanding
to know what he wants.
Park's demand is simple: he wants Ko to bring him Lee's body.
Ko pretends he doesn't know where it is before starting a fight during which both of them
end up inside a stall.
Park takes the chance to push Ko's head inside the toilet, so Ko has no other choice but
to accept to bring the body to avoid getting killed.
After driving to the mountain as fast as possible, Ko digs up the casket and retrieves Lee's
body.
Then he begins examining it closely to know why Park wants it so badly, allowing him to
find Lee's phone and, most importantly, two bullet wounds that indicate Lee had already
been dead when Ko hit him with his car.
Desperate for answers, Ko returns to Lee's hideout to charge the phone.
He also finds Lee's wallet with a card for a shady private piggy bank.
Then, the phone begins ringing, so Ko picks it up and hears a voice warning Lee that Park
is going after him.
Ko checks the number on the screen and calls Do to get some information on this guy: he's
one of Lee's accomplices and lives nearby, so Ko decides to pay him a visit.
Meanwhile, Choi is checking the traffic tickets that have arrived for the squad's cars.
One of them is for Ko, and when Choi sees the security camera picture, he can't help
noticing Ko's car was damaged before the accident with the police car and the model matches
the car on the hit and run footage.
Back to Ko, he finds Lee's friend Jo, who tries to run away as soon as he sees a cop.
Ko chases him and manages to catch him thanks to Jo's own clumsiness, so Ko takes him to
a roof a threatens to push him if he doesn't talk.
Jo explains that Park is a corrupt officer that stole illegal substances from a case
and began selling them, becoming a major player in the scene.
All his profits were stored in a private vault, but Lee stole the key from Park and hid it
on his body.
Park had shot Lee while trying to get his key back.
After freeing Jo, Ko returns to the mountain and checks Lee's body again using a metal
detector that indicates Lee hid the key in his rear.
Ko swallows back his disgust and retrieves the small package hiding there, which contains
a capsule inside.
However, he drops it on the ground when Choi suddenly shows up to arrest him for the hit
and run.
In Choi's car, Ko explains he's being blackmailed by Park and that he was the one that killed
Lee so Choi accepts to take off the handcuffs, and at that moment, Park calls Ko.
As soon as Ko gets out to answer the call, a crane drops a shipping container on top
of the car and kills Choi.
On the phone, Park admits he did it as a warning, reminding Ko he wants Lee's body by six a.m.
Furious, Ko threatens with turning himself in, so Park plays his next card: he's at Ko's
place visiting Mina.
Breaking all speed limits, Ko drives back to his house to save his daughter, but by
the time he arrives, Park is already gone.
Now that he can't turn himself in if he doesn't want to lose his family, Ko comes up with
a different plan.
After telling his sister to leave for the birthday trip without him, Ko goes back to
the station to get more bullets and notices the explosive from the demonstration, so he
takes it with him too and puts it inside Lee's body.
The detonator goes with his keys, making it look like a keychain.
In the morning, Ko meets with Park to hand him the body.
To make sure there are no tricks involved, Park takes Ko's gun and drops the bullets
before giving it back, but he doesn't suspect the keychain.
He also uses a metal detector on Jo's rear, and the detector's reaction to the bomb makes
Park think the key is still there.
Then, he tries to shoot Ko, but Ko lies and says if he dies, there's a timed e-mail that
will be sent to the station explaining the whole deal.
Park is impressed and lets him go, and as soon as he leaves, the bomb explodes, pushing
his car into a lake.
Ko picks up the bullets and watches the water for a few minutes to be sure Park isn't coming
back.
Thinking it's over, Ko returns home and puts the gun away in a bookshelf drawer before
getting his bag ready to join his family.
However when he's about to leave, Park shows up and attacks him.
The two men begin fighting around the apartment and Park pushes the bookshelves, making it
almost impossible to retrieve the gun.
Ko runs into the bedroom and locks the door with some furniture, so while Park tries to
open it, he climbs over the balcony railing and carefully makes his way to the next window,
allowing him to get back into the living room.
He tries to go for the gun again, but Park hears him and comes over to restart the fight.
The two men end up stumbling into the bathroom, and Ko takes Park off him by burning him with
the hot water.
As Ko tries to go back to the bookshelf, Park finally notices the gun peeking out of the
drawer, so now both of them try to reach it at the same time.
The struggle causes them to accidentally shoot the gun, and the stray bullet kills Park.
Afterward, there's a huge police investigation behind Park's shady business and Ko's hit
and run crime, but the higher-ups decide to cover it all up to protect the institution's
reputation.
Ko decides to resign and spend more time with his family, perhaps opening the small business
his sister always wanted.
First though, he arranges the proper burial of his mother, and while overseeing this time
it goes well, he finds the capsule on the ground.
Guided by the card he had found in Lee's hideout, Ko visits the private piggy bank and uses
the key to access Lee's vault, gaining access to a fortune bigger than he could've imagined.