[CRITICAL] TUNNEL

After a Hard Day Kim Seong-hun attacks, with the same mixture of tragi-comedy, disaster movie with Tunnel.

Our interview with Kim Seong-hun

After the collapse of a tunnel through which he passed in the car, Lee Jung-soo (Ha Jeong‑woo) finds himself buried alive. TUNNEL is then built on the two spaces. On one side, this man, a refugee in what remains of his car, which will have to survive several days with minimal rations and the ever-present risk of a larger collapse. On the other, the advanced laborious of the rescue operation is put under pressure by the presence of the media and policy who follow the case.

Thus, beyond the constant tension related to the question of the survival of Lee, TUNNEL point on the lack of humanism around such an event. That it is the minister who does not miss the opportunity to come and show, or through the financial issues that end up by asking the question of the value of a man.

Of course Kim Seong-hun does not seek to do the TUNNEL a work social to denounce a system. He does no more than point out the failures of the society with irony – the same that allowed Hard Day to discuss police corruption is a real entertainment. The first quality of the film is so funny, that the director manages to create brilliantly in the dramatic events. Never slapstick or rude. It’s all the fun of the character, finally, very human and flawed of his characters. Mainly Lee, starting to clean the inside of his car, still full of dust. Or when the discovery of another survivor, he will be hesitant at the idea of sharing the little water he has. A selfishness almost natural, even understandable in such a situation.

Also, Kim Seong-hun shows the failures sometimes outliers that surround the rescuers. But even if they are capable of blunders – like accidentally lacerate the plans for the tunnel, not question to turn them into ridicule. Because the producer provides in the end a share of heroism, through the rescuer-in-chief, interpreted by the always very good Oh Dal‑su (Assassination, Veteran), able to vary the registers to perfection. Without the glory, his character is a man above all empathetic towards Lee. It will be the only one to never give up, thinking constantly how to avoid any additional danger and reminding those who seem to forget that it is the life of a man who is in the game.

“In pure Korean-style Tunnel is revealed in the disaster film touching and funny “

Finally, such a disaster would not be what it is without the presence of the press. It, Kim Seong-hun does not hesitate to scratch, showing his lack of ethics in the unique purpose of having a scoop – directly calling Lee, live broadcast, without thinking that it needed to save the battery to keep in contact with rescuers. In this TUNNEL, managed to pass many messages within a mix of genres is unique to Korean cinema – action, tension, humor, you will even almost terrified, and do not forget the emotion.

Just as the highly acclaimed Last train to Busan, the film is not far away out of tears in his best moments. Those where hope is lost. By Lee first, but especially by his wife, who in a sequence extremely poignant appeal to her husband through a radio station to communicate the evolving tragedy of the situation (not to say no more). Carried by the excellent actress Bae Doona (The Host, Cloud Atlas, A Girl at My Door, Sense8…), this woman quickly becomes a vector of humanism, helping as best she can, the rescue of her husband by feeding – and emotion. Under his airs of a film with great spectacle and entertainment effective, TUNNEL stands out by its subtleties undeniable able to make us tremble.

Stone Siclier

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