A Hard Day

With its echoes of closing-night film Felony, Kim Seong-hun’s bleakly comic South Korean thriller follows police detective Go Geon-soo (Lee Sun-kyun), whose decision to cover-up a hit-and-run accident lowers him ever more into crisis. He tries to avoid discovery while dealing with a corruption investigation and his family’s mourning for his late mother. It’s a mix of noir and social rituals, with an eye for problem-solving that seems to encapsulate the film’s perverse world view.