Hard Days Review: Go Ayano, Junichi Okada Star in a Lukewarm Remake, As Usual

If I had known last year that I would be watching another remake of the 2014 South Korean action-thriller A Hard Day a year later, I probably would’ve tried to pay better attention to the 2022 French remake Restless. Not that it was possible to truly understand that odd movie which had absolutely nothing going for it, but since the job calls for it, one must give up their sanity. Jokes aside, 2023 has given us another remake titled Hard Days, and the frequency of these is probably proof that the South Korean thriller is the one we should all be watching.

Hard Days, or 最後まで行く, is a Japanese drama thriller film directed by Michihito Fujii and written by Fujii and Kenya Hirata. It stars Go Ayano, Junichi Okada, Ryôko Hirosue, Ryoko Hirosue, Hayato Isomura, Tetta Sugimoto and others. The movie has a runtime of 118 minutes and follows Detective Yuji Kudo (Okada), who runs over a man on a rainy night right after learning that he has been caught taking a bribe and that his mother has died. What starts off as just a bad how, however, turns into a full-blown fight between him and Officer Yazaki (Ayano), who seems to know everything about his many wrongdoings.

– The Review Does Not Contain Spoilers –

Yuji Kudo is a mousy wrongdoer who is supposedly someone who tries to play his shortcomings off with overconfidence and loud accusations to turn your eye elsewhere. Junichi Okada plays this character off with too much over-the-top reactions that feel rather annoying and unbelievable. While the French version’s protagonist was a piece of brick, this one is just so unbelievably loud that you don’t see him as pathetic (which, I can only assume was the original goal) and a loser but rather a calculated criminal who is too overconfident to make you feel anything other than annoyance.

However, when the bad guy fails at every single step of every single plan, it does tend to feel really great so there’s that. Every few moment I am left to wonder what’s wrong with Yuji Kudo – every time he says something, it’s so dramatic and weird that you are taken right out of the moment. The tense situations lose any and all interest as soon as they start because Junichi Okada’s Kudo seems like an unbelievable man who reacts weirdly. At least Go Ayano’s Yazaki is very scary and feels like he has grandeur and gravitas to him – his scenes do impart some geniine chills.

Either way, the movie tries to play off a lot of its situations as funny and humorous but never really nails that execution. There definitely are some moments where Okada’s over-the-top acting brings some smiles, albeit fleetingly. While the 2022 film felt flat and lifeless, there’s too much going on in this 2023 movie and there’s a constant stream of things happening one after another that will overwhelm you; coupled with the very heavy music, it’s just a lot happening all together.

Yazaki’s part, however, is a bit better to watch and that’s mostly on Go Ayano playing his part so well. He’s not someone whom you can laugh at, although he’s also quite corrupt and without any morals who has everything wrong happen to him one after another. His cold and calculating stare is really intense to watch. The storyline with him is severe and twisted and makes for a thrilling watch for some time.

The problem arises when we move on to Kudo once more. The storyline, although coming together quite well, is a bit more of an exagerated version than the original and there are many gaps in the storyline that is only covered up thanks to the relentless pace of the film. Which, I guess, is a good thing for casual viewers who just want to watch something without thinking too much.

Hard Days Review: Final Thoughts

This drama-thriller works, honestly, only for Go Ayano and some twists in the story. The humorous bits don’t work and neither is it very thrilling throughout. Maybe a funnier iteration would’ve made Junichi Okada’s character feel more at home. But Ayano’s Yazaki is very uncomfortable and scary to watch and his cold, dead eyes are the perfect fit for his character. The film has little else going for it and the original South Korean film is the one you should be watching instead of any of its remakes.

The film is streaming on Netflix.

Also Read: Candy Cane Lane Review: Eddie Murphy Movie is Longer Than Necessary