Hard Days is a dumb remake of a dumb movie, but there's fun to be found within.

 

I've previously mentioned my thoughts regarding remakes on prior blog posts. More often than not, they are rather unnecessary and even inferior to the original, almost undoubtedly so. When I heard that Japanese director Michihito Fujii was remaking the 2014, Korean crime drama, A Hard Day, I was less than enthused to say the least. My hope was for the movie to at the very least right the wrongs of what I thought was a pretty dumb original movie. 

After having a drink or two, detective Yuji Kudo drives home a couple of days before New Years Day. He's in a hurry to visit his dying mother at the hospital as he receives a phone call from the police chief who informs him that he has been implicated in a bribery scandal involving the Yakuza. The chief had actually been involved in the bribery himself, but Kudo is being thrown under the bus. Just when it seems his day couldn't get any worse, his estranged wife calls him to reveal that his mother has passed away. 

To top it all off, Kudo narrowly manages to avoid hitting a woman who happened to be in the middle of the road before actually hitting the young man behind her. In a panic as well as a hurry to get to his dead mother, Kudo sees a patrol car approaching and impulsively stashes the dead body of the young man into the trunk of his car. After comically finding ways to get rid of the evidence, he receives strange text messages from someone that claims to know what he has done. This mysterious texter also wants the body. 

Already hampered by the ridiculous nature of the original movie that it is a remake of, the remake suffers from having to make the audience suspend their disbelief an incredible amount. The protagonist is incredibly stupid. His actions make little sense, especially when he could have easily noticed the fact that the young man that he ran over had bullet wounds in him. It makes no sense that he didn't find out when moving the body at various points. If he didn't rush to stuff the body in the trunk, nothing would have happened to him. The police would have seen the bullet wounds and concluded that the guy was done for before Kudo hit him with his car.

The police themselves are also extremely dumb. Kudo throughout the entire movie acts way too conspicuous and in real life would have been caught from the very start. In fact, those traffic cops would likely have not let him just drive away, although they did apparently contact the station regarding the accident and Kudo's refusal to open the trunk at least.  

One more negative that I must mention is the presence of Ryuko Hirosue. This might be controversial, but in my blog post regarding Takeshi Miike's First Love, I mentioned Becky's scandals and how her presence hurt the movie in my opinion. I have to be consistent and therefore, the adulterer Ryuko Hirosue also made my blood boil even if her performance wasn't the worst. 

In contrast, Mirohito Fujii and Kenya Hirata's co-written script showcases more flashbacks, extra characters and layers of intrigue whilst maintaining an almost breakneck pace throughout the movie's runtime. There's more depth to the plot to be found.

The movie is also a success from a technical standpoint. There's some extremely beautiful cinematography throughout the movie. A dynamic array of various shot types, camera angles and techniques are used to tremendous effort. It's definitely a visually pleasant experience with the rain soaked nights becoming a character in their own right. The very first shots are actually some of the best in the movie as the camera pans to reveal Kudo talking to his estranged wife on the phone whilst driving through the heavy rain soaked night. 

Junichi Okada gave it his all as the unfortunate detective Yuji Kudo. At first he comes across as selfish and unlikable, but due to Okada's acting, the audience eventually roots for him. Normally, Okada portrays the stoic badass, capable of fighting and handling business better than anyone, this time around he portrayed the paranoid, vulnerable and distraught detective caught in a situation nobody wants to find themselves in. I think he did the absolute best he could with the material he was given, even if I feel like his reactions would have gotten him caught straight away in real life. 

Go Ayano was a standout performer, which is no real surprise as he almost always is. He seemed to have some fun portraying the ice cold, psychopathic detective, Takayuki Yazaki. His scenes are amongst the best in the movie due to his performance and he does a lot with facial expressions, particularly facial twitches that hint as his psychotic nature beneath his cold exterior. His character survives some insane stuff, which makes him seemingly superhuman, but his performance kind of makes it easier to overlook such things. 

Akira Emoto was also excellent as the person responsible for Kudo taking bribes, the Yakuza Oyabun, Yutaka Senba. He's a real slimeball and a snake in the grass as he plays both sides and manipulates the situation to his advantage. 

Overall, there's a fun movie to be found in Hard Days. The issue is the fact that you truly have to turn your brain off in order to find it. The performances of the extremely talented cast help somewhat. It's hard to recommend it, but it might be worth checking out if you're a fan of Go Ayano like I am.