SARI-SARING SINENG PINOY

     A hit-and-run lands a detective in more trouble than he could have ever imagined in A Hard Day (Viva Films, Inc., 2021), a thriller that finds director Law Fajardo handling a taut yet elaborately plotted narrative with control and near-faultless technical execution. Edmund Villon's (Dingdog Dantes) resourcefulness and resistance to intimidation makes us root for him, despite his professional conduct, and lack of moral fiber. In a morbid example of necessity being the mother of invention, Villon  hits upon a novel way of disposing the body in an extraordinary stunt sequence. With increased freneticism, Fajardo moves Villon relentlessly forward in the face of an obstacle course filled with pop-up hurdles and an occasional kick in the gut. Dantes’s disciplined performance ties all of A Hard Day’s inventions together, investing the film with visceral panic. He plays Villon as a henpecked nice guy, this delusion serving as a self-fulfilling prophecy. 

     Just about the time it seems Fajardo should soon be running on empty, he introduces a new threat, Lieutenant Ace Franco. Played by a spectacular John Arcilla adding a bespoke dash to the villainous picture, he slides into the story and soon engulfs it. Arcilla has a face that can freeze into a stone-cold slab of pure malice. Fajardo keeps the chaos moving at a breathless tempo. He's a remarkably fluid orchestrator of action kinetics, always springing his surprises a beat faster than one expects only to occasionally slow things down to prevent the viewer from acclimating to his quicksilver timing. An explosion is timed with nightmarish precision perhaps because Fajardo caps a phenomenal, self-consciously Hitchcockian set piece with an unexpected commonplace payoff. Throughout, the images are sleek and silvery informing the debauchery with an aura of impersonality. A Hard Day is ultimately a parody of self-entitlement, though the carnage dramatically registers. The filmmakers walks as many tightropes as Villon does, and one gratefully submits to their dexterity.

Directed By: Law Fajardo

Screenplay: Arlene Tamayo

Production Designer: Mark Sabas

Director of Photography: Rodolfo Aves Jr.

Edited By: Law Fajardo

Musical Score: Peter Legaste, Rephael Catap

Sound Engineers: Alex J. Tomboc, Pietro Marco S. Javier