Starring
Ha Jung-woo, Bae Doo-na, Oh Dal-su, Nam Ji-juyn, Kim Haw-sook, Park
Hyuk-kwon. Directed by Kim Seong-hun. (2016, 127 min).
I
take life for granted everyday during my morning commute. During this
twenty minute drive, I listen to the radio, think about the
day ahead, plan my weekend and drink enough coffee to keep from
killing my co-workers. You know...mundane stuff. Never once have I
worried about the bridge I cross every morning suddenly collapsing,
effectively canceling those weekend plans...forever.
Driving
to work isn't like bungee jumping, where you're constantly aware of
your own mortality because there's always the small chance this
activity could be a game ender. What if the bungee cord is faulty? Or
someone misjudged the length of the drop?
Watching
movies like Tunnel, I'm reminded that the things we
casually use each day have the potential to kill us. Still, we entrust our very lives with objects we take
on-faith are safe enough, and that those who built them didn't cut
any corners.
But
sometimes, bridges do collapse, furnaces do explode
and, as this Korean film horrifically depicts, tunnels do cave
in.
Lee
(Ha Jung-woo) is an automobile broker on his way home to celebrate
his daughter's birthday when a miles-long tunnel he's driving
through suddenly collapses. He's trapped in his car under hundreds of
tons of earth, rock and concrete, but manages to call 119 (Korea's
911) with his cell phone. However, since the entire tunnel has
collapsed, rescue chief Dae-kyung (Oh Dal-su) cannot pinpoint exactly
where Lee is, but assures him it'll only take a week to dig him out.
 |
| A powerhouse, award-worthy performance. Oh, and Ha Jung-woo is pretty good, too. |
Only a week? Imagine
that...a week trapped in the dark confines of a still-crumbling
mountain with only an imploding car, two bottles of water and a
birthday cake keeping you alive. Not only that, Lee must conserve his
phone's battery, though he still chooses to phone his wife, Se-hyun
(Bae-Doo-na), to assure her and his daughter he's okay for the
moment. Lee does manage to find another injured survivor, but she
soon dies, leaving him alone with her dog (who amusingly eats all the
cake Lee's been conserving).
One week becomes two...then three...and Lee's forced to find other ways to avoid dying
of thirst and starvation. Meanwhile, his plight has become a media
sensation, not to mention photo ops for a Korean minister. However,
after digging in the wrong place, hope for Lee's survival diminishes,
especially after his phone finally dies and they can no longer verify
if he's even alive.
Despite
running a lengthy 127 minutes and considering the claustrophobic
premise, Tunnel is a pretty engaging disaster film. Intense,
suspenseful and often very funny, it tells a smart story that, not
only has us invested in Lee's situation, but cleverly skewers
opportunistic media and self-serving politicians in equal measures.
It's only near the end that the story begins to run out of steam
(and plausibility), not helped by a previous bit of foreshadowing
that more-or-less gives away the outcome. Until then, though, this is a gripping tale of survival, bolstered by interesting characters and convincing performances.
One
thing is certain...it'll have you wondering about the safety
of the next tunnel you drive through.
EXTRA
KIBBLES
None
KITTY CONSENSUS:
PURR-R-R...LIKE A GOOD SCRATCH BEHIND THE EARS
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