Tunnel

A man is on his way home when the poorly constructed tunnel he is driving through collapses, leaving him trapped.

"Tunnel" comes to us from writer-director Seong-hun Kim, who is likely not very well known in the United States, though some fans of Korean cinema may have seen his previous film, "A Hard Day" (2014). The star of "Tunnel" is Jung-woo Ha, who you will most likely recognize from "The Handmaiden" (2016), which is being heavily promoted by Amazon. (Perhaps the PR folks behind "Tunnel" can build off of this?)

This is one of those films that works well because it relies on a very simple plot with a high amount of tension. We have just about the smallest stage possible (the inside of a car), though it does cut to other areas from time to time. (Would it work better if it just stayed in the car? Maybe.) Others have said the film runs a bit too long, and I have to agree. Although you can often make a "slow burn" go for two hours or more, this one may not hold the tension as well as it could. I don't know. Opinions will vary.

"Tunnel" is out now (May 2017) from WellGo, available on DVD. Why it is not being released on Blu-ray is unclear, and the DVD is very much a bare bones affair. While the movie is good enough to stand on its own, there is literally nothing on the disc that would make it an improvement over a streaming option.

A husband and father is heading home with his daughter's birthday cake when a tunnel collapses trapping him inside his car.

Disaster movies are meant to be filled with tension and drama. This film did not fail in giving its viewers a healthy dose of both. While it is a bit drawn out, it is a decent movie that I found to be enjoyable. It is hard for me to review disaster movies simply because to have the right amount of tension you need a curiosity as to what might happen next. Knowing too much takes away from the anticipation about what might happen next. So, I'm just gonna be short and sweet about it by saying that it is a good film that had me confidently saying that had I been this fella, I would never have to work again because I would have sued the socks off of everybody.

I don't watch enough world cinema, let alone South Korean films, the country that gave us incredible flicks like Oldboy and Sky Blue (Wonderful Days) so when I see there's a showing at my other local cinema, I had to go and I didn't regret it.

Seong-hoon Kim, director of the highly acclaimed A Hard Day (now on my watchlist) tells us a story of a business man (Jung-woo Ha) who is on his way home to wife and daughter and unfortunately becomes trapped in a near fatal accident when a tunnel collapses on him and his car. We see his blight as he struggles to survive and how he comes to terms with the reality of what's happening.

There's a superb balance between him and the outside world who is attempting to rescue him, witnessing empathy, sympathy and later tragedy but also the lack of, from the media and politicians causing conflict about what's the right thing to do.

It's touching, when seeing the lengths people will go to in offering help in a time of crisis, like the radio station for example, playing him messages of support each day. This show of humanity reminded me of the epic TV movie of the late eighties, Everybody's Baby: The Rescue of Jessica McClure and the more recent World Trade Centre, only fundamental difference, this not being a true story.

Sometimes I felt like being a passerby, watching the train wreck happen right before you, seeing things going from bad to worse without being able to lift a finger to do anything. But on the flip side it's purposefully comical to display another side of what it is to be human.

There's incredible performances for the three key characters, especially Cloud Atlas star Doona Bae who plays his grieving wife having to deal with the press whilst trying to do as much as she possibly can to aid the rescue. And Dal-su Oh is superb as the chief, who's in charge of the operation who has this moral obligation to save him.

The film is loaded with tough decisions and moral issues questioning you, what would you do if you were either of the three characters. It did drag, but only ever so slightly for the 126min running time. Has got an amazing score from Young-Jin Mok and the set pieces are on point with some amazing camera work.

I wouldn't recommend this for viewers with fear of tunnels or claustrophobia but a great drama with some amazing performances, a must-see for world cinema drama fans.

Running Time: 7 The Cast: 8 Performance: 9 Direction: 8 Story: 7 Script: 8 Creativity: 8 Soundtrack: 8 Job Description: 8 The Extra Bonus Points: 0

71% 7/10

If they have cellphone reception, they could've shared or pinned his location via GPS on Line (The Messenger they use), Google Map, or whatever convenient app they have. In a realistic situation, that is what anybody, let alone a whole team and country of concerned people, should have naturally thought of. Otherwise the movie has decent plot points and twists to keep you engaged.

The title says it all. Then I read its synopsis and right away I knew how much should I expect from it. Because this might be a fresh attempt in the Korean film, at least for the first time I'm seeing in a Korean film, but not from the world cinema. Yeah, I have seen plenty, and I'd liked most of them. But this film was much, much better than it had been rated in the internet. The story, the main event starts without wasting any time. There's no initial developments like intros. When the thriller-adventure parts commences, reveals everything you have to know.

Just over 2 hours long, the story frequently switches back and forth to where a man got trapped in a collapsed tunnel road and the outside where people and rescue team gathered. Like any other similar themed film, it borrowed a handful of clichés, but still you can witness the effort for the avoidance. Like if you see something or someone's crucial part come into play, usually you would predict what might happen to it in the later part of the story. Since those are unavoidable, they simply skipped in the final act as it is understandable and not to waste developing them to some extent.

So a man is fighting for his survival after a disaster strikes. But he got a cell phone signal buried under a deep mountain that I could not get. Anyway, he does make know his state of condition to the outside world. Soon they all rally to get him out. This film is not entirely a serious episode, despite the theme was. A little bit of satire. If that's how the film was intended or not, at least I had a couple of good laughs. Kind of reminded me 'Peepli (Live)', about the media circus in such situation. But that is the truth, what todays media have become, because of competition among themselves.

❝Don't be weak and say you'll die, just live.❞

The trapped man has to make sure about food and water to survive till the rescue team reaches him down which could take a week or more. Yeah, they kind of mention the recent Chile event which was made into the film, 'The 33'. His portion of the story is like the combination of '127 Hours', 'Buried' and of course that Chilean film. There are lots of things happen, you could say twists and turns. Kind of too much at some point, the way they added more contents to it, but decently it all worked out.

Meanwhile, on the outside world, not lags behind. It has its own set of characters and its circumstance events. Lots of fun and also highlights wrongs. Particularly like I said, the media and how politicians make use of such incident for publicity. And the final one about the construction firms and their shoddy works for profits. They have dug on these topics, but did not go deeper, because to keep it lighter and entertaining film than all about awareness.

All the way an engaging narrative. Means a long film, but very swiftly told story. Visually, it was a well made film, like everything's looked natural and believable. You could not differentiate the CGI/green screen work and the real objects of those disaster parts. But not the technical details such as drilling or the hollow space where he stays alive. When the narration progresses, it gets even worse, like you would say how could that even possible or just they wanted it that way to end the tale.

A small part of the end kind of skips, but that's good for the film than dragging it for another half an hour. The casting was good, they all performed well, but my favourite was Oh Dal-su. As usual, I loved his part, one of the finest supporting characters in the world cinema. It's not a great film, but good, and acceptable as what it is. In the end feels like worth it. So I decided to suggest it for those who are interested, but could not decide whether to go for it or not, and for the Korean film fans outside the Korea.

7.5/10