Hard Hit - An Almost Nonstop Thrilling Movie with Some Dramatic Moments

This month, there were plenty of new interesting movies released on Catchplay+. Although mostly I have seen in the cinemas before, there were still few films that I have not, including this South Korean movie which has truly interesting premise. I was definitely intrigued by the movie and decided to watch it as soon as it was available last night at 9 PM. So let's get to it then.

Brief Story Line

Lee Sung-gyu (Jo Woo-jin - Kingmaker, Seo Bok etc) started his day like any other when he drove to work together with his daughter Hye-in (Lee Jae-in - Racket Boys TV series, Svaha: The Sixth Finger etc) and her younger brother Min-joon (Kim Tae-yul). While driving, Sung-gyu got a call on a mobile phone left in his car with the voice on the other line telling him about a bomb below the car seats. Sung-gyu who at first did not believe the call, started to panic when he found out it was not just an empty threat. 

As he tried his best to fulfill the demands of the caller (Ji Chang-wook - Fabricated City, Backstreet Rookie TV series etc), Sung-gyu had to avoid himself from being captured by the police and save himself and his family.

So what would happen to Sung-gyu and his family? You can find them all in this intense thriller movie.

End of Brief Story Line

I said above that this movie got me interested because of the premise which was said to be combination of Speed and Phone Booth. And this time I thought that analogy was pretty spot on. With the bomb placed on the car and the culprit calling the lead character to fulfill his demand without leaving the car, it certainly remind me of those two movies. While watching this, I could feel the suspense because of the situation the family were in, plus of course the very tight timeline.

However, midway through the movie, somehow I felt the intensity was reduced a bit. Fortunately it did not take too long before the pace picked up again till the end. For me the real suspense was enhanced because of the well acted part by Jo Woo-jin and Lee Jae-in as the father daughter in such condition. They gave a very convincing performance which added the dramatic moments. I think if my wife watched this, she would have become emotional in some of the scenes. 

Aside from the people I mentioned above, there were also the support cast of Kim Ji-ho (Happy Home TV series etc) as Sung-gyu's wife Yeon-soo, Ryu Seung-soo (Winter Sonata TV series etc) as police chief and Jin Kyung (Yaksha: Ruthless Operations etc) as bomb squad team leader with few others. But obviously the stars of the movie would be the lead cast who also got praise from critics on their performance. It was also a huge success when it was released in South Korea and became the fifth highest-grossing Korean movies in 2021. Btw, I read on the internet that this movie was a remake of 2015 Spanish film titled Retribution which had also been remade in Germany in 2018 plus another US version in the making with Liam Neeson set to star. 

As a thriller movie, I thought this one was successful in giving us thrills. And except for some brief moments in the second half, the intensity was almost nonstop. It has a duration of 94 minutes which was sufficient to me. There was no mid or post end credit scene. Personally to me though, I would have preferred a different ending, especially after some of the revelations. Nevertheless, it was still a good thriller film which would satisfy fans of such genre. So if you are looking for such intense suspenseful movie with some dramatic moments here and there, then likely you are going to enjoy this one.

Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars