As a child, I loved seventies disaster movies like The Poseidon Adventure, Earthquake or The Towering Inferno. For all of humanity’s technological accomplishments, nature was always present to humble and kill people. Survival is usually an excuse to reunite a family. When you are growing up Christian fundamentalist, other than Bible movies, disaster movies were the only friendly family way to get a movie fix with plenty of CGI death and destruction. They are really just a retelling of stories about the gods punishing man’s hubris, and I was here for it. It did not hurt that the cast was filled with stars.
Decades later, the CGI got better, but the stories did not as the spectacle eclipsed the human elements of the story and failed to find the balance between satisfying audiences hungry for high stakes odds and a willingness to sacrifice characters with ending on a high note and ultimately striking a triumphant tone. You may get a half-hearted lesson about the environment or government failure to anticipate and respond, but it felt like an afterthought. Where am I supposed to go to get my fix? South Korea, where the average or weakest movie and television series is generally better than the US. Even with subtitles, the entertainment value and artistry outpaces our pablum. I maybe unfamiliar with the actors, but that lack of recognition actually helps increase the ability to suspend disbelief while watching the film.
Tunnel or Teo-neol is the disaster film that I was looking for. A hard-working, busy dad has to fight for his life when a tunnel collapses on his car! A tunnel! Under a mountain! Will he get crushed to death or make it home? Two hours six minutes is too long, but overall I really dig (your groans make me stronger) the movie. It is an Afterschool Special for adults.
Tunnel critiques the protagonist for prioritizing work over being a decent member of society. He is always in a hurry, rude to older people with less status. Even though he does not treasure these overlooked parts of society as much as he should-his family, the gas station attendant, they provide the seeds of his survival. Yes, it is completely predictable, but still a good lesson that needs to be learned.
Tunnel critiques the insensitivity of the media. I kept thinking that the throngs of reporters would actually make the situation literally worse. The desire for a story trumps concern for a man’s life while allegedly rooting for that man’s life while remaining blithely unconcerned for his actual feelings, safety and needs.
Tunnel does a superb job of showing the fluctuating value of a single human life in proportion to time and effort when it comes to individuals and government response to the disaster. I watched this movie more than a year ago so I did not anticipate the swerve in sympathy that develops as the rescue effort continues. The values projected on people who simply want to save a loved one tells us more about the speaker. The fiction of a family making a decision to absolve the speaker of agency and guilt is so sinister, but they are not depicted as villains. It is practical, cold-hearted and wrong, but in the middle of a pandemic, I see that logic being applied to far more lives so it was probably the most realistic part of the film, and actually the film could have taken it further without losing any credibility.
There is also the haunting spectre that no one in authority has learned from this tragedy even before it ends. People just want to continue with their projects completely oblivious to the implication that if something went wrong with this tunnel, then maybe they should figure out what it was before doing anything else. Tunnel’s depiction of a lack of introspection also seems realistic and perhaps understated in comparison to the real life response to the pandemic in the US. I really wish that I knew how to speak Korean.
Tunnel deftly balanced the personal and broader elements of the story. Ha Jung-woo as the father does a great job of getting us to empathize with him and applaud his ingenuity while still making him seem like an ordinary guy in over his head (more groans, yes!). If we did not care about him, the whole film would collapse because we would not care if he lived or died. Dal-su Oh as the lead rescuer, who is focused on saving the father, not photo ops or government concerns, matched my universal imagination of what I would want from a man in charge of a retrieval. He is not interested in bureaucracy, his own welfare, optics, and is willing to do anything to save a stranger.
Tunnel’s special effects were measured and appropriate. I definitely felt suitably terrified of the collapse and situation. On the other hand, as the movie unfolded, the actual odds of survival versus how the protagonist behaved became ridiculous. For instance, how did his car battery last as long as it did ? The protagonist engages in a lot of actions that make us root for him, but are objectively dumb and unlikely to increase your odds of living. The movie manages to keep his fate up in the air-will he die or won’t he-even though it never plausibly punishes him for his actions because they reflect positively on his character. I actually enjoyed when the movie completely shifted from focusing on him and on the rescuer and his wife because it made me believe that the movie could kill off the protagonist!
Tunnel revs up the tension by using certain cinematic tropes from other movies, including Jurassic Park. Remember the scene with the T-Rex at night and the glass of water subtly shaking! If you liked it, you will definitely enjoy its reboot. I am sure that the filmmaker borrowed from other sci fi horror dramas, but I was too wrapped up in the story to be truly analytical, which is high praise because it is hard for me to turnoff my brain and get wrapped up in a story.
Tunnel’s director and writer, Seong-hun Kim, also made a Netflix series called Kingdom, which I put in my queue without realizing that the same creative team was behind it. I may need to prioritize seeing that series considering that I enjoyed my first foray with him at the helm.
There is a dog in Tunnel, which immediately made me regret watching the movie, but when the dog gets a little blindfold, it is worth it so try not to stress about the little pug. Someone dies, but not the dog!
Tunnel is available for streaming on Amazon prime. While it is longer than it needs to be and a bit outlandish, it is entertaining and hits all my nostalgia buttons. I highly recommend it as family friendly viewing if you do not mind the occasional accident with hardware, death and subtitles.
