[HanCinema's Film Review] "HARD HIT"

Seong-gyoo (played by Jo Woo-jin) is a bank manager waking up to another normal day. Despite initially seeming to be a mere cipher, Jo Woo-jin, quickly proves to be brilliant leading man. We can see through moments of alternating terror and desperate poker face mentality that in another movie, Jo Woo-jin would just be a background character. His being thrust to the forefront of "HARD HIT" emphasizes that he is in uncharted territory.

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Most of "HARD HIT" is filmed from inside Seong-gyoo's car, as it will explode if Seong-gyoo tries to get out of it. The errands Seong-gyoo must overtake to allow his family to live would be mundane in a more typical action thriller movie, as the hypercompetent hero uses his tremendous skills to get out of any possible jam. But Seong-gyoo lacks such talents. He can kind of lie a little bit, take advantage of his position at the bank, although even at these tasks he proves less than sufficient.

Nor does Seong-gyoo get much time to plan. Trapped in the claustrophobic environment of the car, he has his hands full just trying to keep his kids from panicking. Filmed in close to real-time, there's genuine tension as long stretches of tense negotiation are abruptly interrupted by scenes of intense action. Director Kim Chang-joo takes relatively weak action choreography and infuses them with genuine dramatic tension because while Seong-gyoo might be observant, he's not very clever and is constantly made all too aware of his own mortality.

Director Kim Chang-joo also gets strong marks for relying heavily on close-up shots and actually making them work. I was honestly shocked at the nuance of expression Jo Woo-jin is able to achieve here, all thanks to the context of the situation requiring him to emote one of any of half a dozen kinds of primal fears with almost no notice. Ji Chang-wook is no slouch in that department either, when he finally shows up, in an inspired bit of casting that really makes the most of how he's used to playing lead characters.

This was another part of "HARD HIT" that really impressed me. Despite seeming like a normal guy, Seong-gyoo isn't an everyman. It's made clear that Seong-gyoo's job as a bank manager gives him tremendous responsibilities, mostly to people we never actually see. He's distant emotionally, incapable of noticing in an early scene how much his daughter is annoyed by being in close proximity to her younger brother. It's a subtext with very dark implications when we finally learn the reason why he was targeted.

Seong-gyoo is a man who works because it's expected of him, and has long stopped wondering why he is a part of the system. As he becomes afraid of losing his family, so does Seong-gyoo start to wonder why he even deserves a family. Such are the feelings of a marked man, all too easily shaken out of a mindset he tries to avoid thinking about. A remake of the Spanish film Retribution, "HARD HIT" nevertheless has its own very unique stylings.

Review by William Schwartz

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"HARD HIT" is directed by Kim Chang-joo, and features Jo Woo-jin, Lee Jae-in, Jin Kyung, Kim Ji-ho, Ji Chang-wook. Release date in Korea: 2021/06/23.