If you think about it, it’s far too easy for someone to make a bomb. Anyone can theoretically do it at home with ingredients widely available on the high street. There’s probably even a Youtube video for it! It’s a device which can work so well in film, especially when it’s used in conjunction with some kind of trap. A form of constraint. Like in Speed or Crank. The premise behind Hard Hit doesn’t quite have the same thrills, but keeps you on the edge throughout.
It’s an important day for VIP Bank Manager Sung-Gyu (Woo-jin Jo). There is lots to do at the office, but he needs to drop his children off at school first. As he’s working through his to-do list, a strange phone begins to ring. Curious, he answers, only to hear the voice of a man telling him there’s a bomb under his seat and should any of them leave the car it will blow up. He must somehow come up with a lot of money very fast or boom!
Hard Hit is a taut South Korean thriller which uses its environment well in order to keep the action moving. At times it’s a little overwrought, but that’s forgivable given the circumstances and this focus on emotions works in its favour. Changju Kim’s film tracks the responses of an everyman, allowing the audience to empathise with his situation. This might not make Hard Hit the most technologically edgy blockbuster, but it does make for a captivating ride.
Hard Hit arrives on Digital, Blu-ray and DVD in the US on 22 February.
