Tunnel

Tunnel

7.5/10

Tunnel

Genre:                                                Episodes: 16                                       Year: 2017

Mystery

Thriller

Synopsis:

In 1986, Detective Park Kwang Ho is searching for a serial killer who targets young women. While chasing a suspect through a tunnel, Kwang Ho is transported to the year 2017. In 2017 the killer who was dormant for 30 years once again begins his murders. Kwang Ho works with a new team of detectives to capture the murderer in order to return to the past.

Cast:

Choi Jin Hyuk (Park Kwang Ho)

Yoon Hyun Min (Kim Sun Jae)

Lee Yoo Young (Shin Jae Yi)

Jo Hee Bong (Jeon Sung Shik)

Kim Byung Chul (Kwak Tae Hee)

Kang Ki Young (Song Min Ha)

Lee Shi Ah (Sin Yeon Sook)

Kim Min Sang (Mok Jin Woo)

Heo Sung Tae (Jung Ho Young)

N (Park Kwang Ho)

General Thoughts:

What a great comeback drama for Choi Jin Hyuk. Not only was the drama itself interesting and engaging, but Choi Jin Hyuk was plain perfect in his role. He absolutely nailed being a cop from the ‘80s. If I didn’t know better, I’d almost think Choi Jin Hyuk was a policeman in the ‘80s.

Dat fashion tho

The way he handled himself was just brilliant. The way he talked, his bafflement at modern technology, and his inability to be the team’s maknae all made for one convincing male lead. I appreciated that the show didn’t try to make our hero complete perfection. In order to make the character convincing, the writers weren’t afraid to give Kwang Ho some not-so-desirable traits.

You're cute but your mindset is kinda out of date

It showed that the writers had faith that their character would remain likeable anyway, and added a great sense of authenticity to the drama- which helps a lot when you have such a heavily involved fantasy element such as time travel. Kwang Ho was charming and dedicated, but his attitude towards women was really quite dated. He didn’t really show Jae Yi a lot of respect, mostly because the idea of a criminal profiler wasn’t around in his his time, but another small part of it was that Jae Hi was a woman, and clearly Kwang Ho didn’t think women had any place in the violent crimes unit. Similarly, Kwang Ho just couldn’t seem to accept the fact that Sun Jae, who was younger than him, was his superior. Kwang Ho constantly acted as though he is Sun Jae’s sunbae simply because he’s born first, never mind the fact that Sun Jae’s position still outranks Kwang Ho even in his own time. It shows that our hero came from a time when women weren’t really involved in jobs outside of typical female occupations, and when people got promoted as they aged without young kids flying up in the ranks. Despite these rather outdated values our hero held, it never made him seem misogynistic or arrogant- that’s just the way things were in his time and how he’s used to things being.

He did learn though

To his credit, Kwang Ho did have these opinions softened as the show progressed, as he saw how well Jae Yi’s profiling worked and how competent Sun Jae was. Rather than being a dislikable stick-in-the-mud, Kwang Ho just became the slightly gruff, out-of-touch dad character- which suit him perfectly. As Kwang Ho was our main man, the other characters weren’t quite as complex or as interesting as he was.

What is this strange new device?

Not only is Kwang Ho an interesting character in his own right, but he has an added layer of importance as he was the only character that could travel through time. In saying that, it’s not that the other characters weren’t intriguing, they were just far more straightforward. Sun Jae was was your typical wounded individual searching for the man who ruined his family. Basic stuff really. Jae Yi is a bit more atypical in that she’s kind of an introvert and pretty socially awkward. On paper the characters don’t sound like much, but on the screen they were really fascinating. It was fun to see these two people who really had no interest in interacting with the outside world get drawn into friendships by our gruff Dad-Officer. The initial dislike between the two boys was a hilarious odd-partner situation, with Sun Jae being the sleek modern cop with his new methods and spiffy gadgets and Kwang Ho being the old-school detective with his tried-and-true manual techniques. It was interesting to see how useful technology has become in solving crimes in such a short space of time, but also how it wasn’t always the best option to rely only on that technology. The bickering between the two men was always fun to watch, and it was heartwarming to see the two draw closer as the show progressed.

They're so serious but it's so funny 

Kwang Ho could understand Sun Jae much better once he realised that he was the son of one of the victims, and Sun Jae just couldn’t escape the warm feelings that came from Kwang Ho’s sweet (yet gruff) desire to protect him and help him catch his mother’s killer. As for Jae Yi, it was just enjoyable to watch her figure out how to interact with those around her.

Well meaning but weird

While Sun Jae always had the potential for close friendships (it was just buried under a layer of anger and grim determination), Jae Yi gave off the sense that she was just a complete odd-duck who had no clue how to fit in or relate to people. Kwang Ho’s desire to keep her safe and look out for her was a real first in Jae Yi’s life and it was so sweet to see him continuing to seek a relationship with her even before he knew she was his daughter- he simply wanted to keep an eye on the strange agasshi who lived downstairs and make sure she was okay. Jae Yi’s complete rebuttals of his intentions were hilarious, particularly when we knew she’d warm up to him eventually. The relationship between Sun Jae and Jae Yi was unexpectedly sweet. Thankfully the romance was pretty light and wasn’t smashed in our faces, so we could enjoy it for what it was- two super awkward adults learning to be a little less awkward around each other. The whole thing only got better when they all realised that Kwang Ho was Jae Yi’s father. I loved the way Kwang Ho tried desperately (and in vain) to keep Sun Jae away from his daughter. The show hit a really nice balance of finding the humour in the situation and in Kwang Ho’s response, but without Kwang Ho coming across too adamantly against the relationship.

Careful- Dad's watching

I really enjoyed how Sun Jae’s developing relationships with Jae Yi and Kwang Ho started to open him up to the other members of the team as well. Sung Shik was just delightful as the forever-makne with his complete and utter devotion to his sunbae both in the past and present. It was cute to see him start to extend that warmth to Sun Jae as well once he saw how well Sun Jae and Kwang Ho were getting on. Tae Hee and Min Ha were mostly there for the comic relief, and I liked the lightheartedness they brought to the show. Kim Byung Chul and Kang Ki Young really pop as side characters and make you love the roles they’re playing even if they don’t get much screen time.

Excellent choice of sidekicks

The two added a lot of fun to the detective group and brought in a great sense of warmth. I was glad when the show let those two in on our hero’s secret as it really made it feel as though they were one whole team working towards a collective goal rather than just the main characters and the support. Story-wise there were some things that were really good and some things that were less good.

Poor Yeon Sook really got the raw end of the deal here

I liked that the time travel took on a slightly different perspective than usual. Most of the time we have heroes travelling to the future or past, falling in love in a different timeline, and the conflict comes from how their love is going to find a way to continue. ‘Tunnel’ took a different approach by having our hero happy, in love and married in his own timeline before being ripped to the future. Rather than trying to find a way to stay, our hero is trying to find a way to get back. As well as giving the show a slightly different feel it also added in the new heart-breaking element of the wife that’s left behind. It was tragic to see how Yeon Sook’s life played out while Kwang Ho was in the future- living alone while waiting for him before dying an early death and leaving her child behind. It added a great sense of urgency to the series as we all wanted Kwang Ho to get back to his wife and grow old with her. On he other hand, the show also thought it was way sneakier than it was. The reveal that Sun Jae was the same Sun Jae from Kwang Ho’s past really wasn’t a reveal at all. Like, I’m pretty sure that was in Sun Jae’s character promo material, so it was just a tad silly how long the show took to actually catch our hero up to speed that this kid was the same kid. It was kind of similar with Jae Yi being Kwang Ho’s daughter. It’s revealed pretty early on that she lost both her parents at a young age and moved abroad. Already that’s ringing bells.

How could you not see this 'twist' coming?

Once we know that Yeon Sook had a daughter it was basically a done deal- Jae Yi is legit the only continually occurring female character in the modern timeline. Literally she’s the only one. And she’s also the right age. So was anyone surprised when she turned out to be the unknown daughter? I wasn’t. And again, I don’t think there was anyone who didn’t pick that Jin Woo was the main villain before the show actually revealed it. You can tell purely from the amount of screen time he gets. What other side character is getting that much attention? Add that to the fact that he says a few weird things and that he plays chess (seriously chess is like the biggest giveaway- it's such a symbolic statement of two sides making moves and getting closer to each other and so many movies have it- 'X-Men', 'Death Note' etc.), and there’s really no other option.

Only bad dudes play chess with the heroes

The writers did a commendable job with throwing shade over to Ho Young, and while I didn’t believe for a moment that he was the murderer from 30 years ago, I was still interested to see why his modus operandi was so similar to Jin Woo’s. The writers also get props for making the ending unpredictable. I really couldn’t quite tell if Kwang Ho was going to make it back to his own timeline or not.

The ending we were all hoping for

Despite the moral ambiguity of taking a dead man’s identity, given how happy and comfortable Kwang Ho was becoming in the modern timeline I started to have fears that he wouldn’t make it back to the past. His return was what I wanted, for Yeon Sook more than anything, but I wouldn’t have been upset if he’d had to learn to live in the future, and for the show’s length that was definitely a possible outcome. The grittiness of the murders was also something I really appreciated. Some of the scenes were a little confronting, but it's a part of what made the drama stand out. I find K-Dramas tend to be pretty light when it comes to gore, which I’m fine with most of the time, and so it really makes an impact when a K-Drama goes pretty heavy with its murder scenes. The scenes themselves weren’t distasteful, but they gave our murderer a much-needed scare factor, added a sense of dread and tension to the series, and made us long for Kwang Ho to catch the killer in the past and save those girls (and save poor young Kwang Ho too!).

Baby Kwang Ho got in waaaaaay over his head

Overall I was really happy with the way the show progressed, how all the relationships developed and how the conflicts were brought to a close. It was an interesting watch that was nicely satisfying. I also loved the way the show was shot- it really solidified the differences between the past and the present/future. The colours used in the past were more of a sepia tone, with the lighting being yellow and a lot of furniture and props being wooden. In the future timeline we had a lot of white and blue light which gave those sections of the drama a much more modern feel.

Differences between timelines was nicely obvious, but not outrageously so

The costuming also helped solidify these differences- especially for our leading man. I’ve never lived in Korea and I wasn’t even alive in the ‘80s, but loose leather jackets and jeans with white sneakers are old-school in any nation. 

What Was Great:

Time Leap Logic:

Going into time-travel dramas I kind of expect there to be a bit of hokey-pokey magic going on. I was happily surprised with how much sense the time jumping made in ‘Tunnel’. I was happy to accept that no scientific reason was given behind the power of the tunnel- it’s just a random time travel phenomenon and I can live with that.

The tunnel is magic and I can roll with that

 The rules to operate the random phenomenon were pretty consistent, and the writers never pulled a magic solution out their ass. It’s revealed super early on that Kwnag Ho will be able to return to the past once the villain is captured in the present. It gets mentioned a bunch of times, so despite there being no actual evidence to support this claim I’m willing to accept it as truth. It makes about as much sense as it should- the ‘reason’ Kwang Ho jumped to the future was to catch the criminal, so it stands to reason that he can go back once he’s accomplished this goal. As the show progresses we learn that Kwang Ho is able to move between the two timelines simply by being in the tunnel at the same time as the criminal. It’s not overly complex, but it’s effective, it works, and it makes sense. I loved that Kwang Ho was able to go back to the past once before he caught the criminal in the future as it really solidified the rules of the time travel, and it served to show us how the two timelines were linked. Once Kwang Ho returned to the future, Jae Yi and Jin Woo had new memories which showed that this was a continuation of the past timeline and not a seperate timeline all together- that is to say changes that Kwang Ho makes in the past directly impact and change the future.

Time travel laws were simple and consistent and that's all I ask

It lets us know that there’s a way for Yeon Sook to live, Jae Yi to have a happy childhood, and a chance for the women Jin Woo and Ho Young murdered to be saved. I really think that unless you’re going to go all out with theories and complex mechanisms, sweet and simple is the best way to go about time travel, and that’s just what ‘Tunnel’ did.

Casting:

Everyone was fabulous. Choi Jin Hyuk was excellent as our leading man, and this really was his drama to shine.

Apart from all the violent crimes this seems like a great place to work

Lee Yoo Young did a great job as the awkward Jae Yi. While I found her a bit too strange and a tad insufferable at the start, her quirkiness really started to grow on me, and Lee Yoo Young really expressed that there wasn’t any malicious intent on Jae Yi’s part- her weirdness was just the way she was. She could do amazingly well at bringing in the cute when the story called for it, both with Choi Jin Hyuk and Yoon Hyun Min, and by the end I really liked Jae Yi as a character. Yoon Hyun Min did well to hold his own next to Choi Jin Hyuk, and I really bought into the emotions of his character. There was always a simmering dissatisfaction with Sun Jae, but Yoon Hyun Min did wonderfully at showing how Kyung Ho and capturing the criminal helped to ease Sun Jae’s hurt. The support cast in the police department were excellent and I loved every one of them. 

What Wasn’t:

Final Boss:

The only thing that really dissatisfied me with this show was the main villain. He was just kind of…lame. A bit of a has-been even. With dramas getting so slick and modern, I’m getting used to (and really enjoying) the range of criminals we get and their differing motivations.

You are kinda underwhelming dude

Compared to other recent K-Drama villains (like Park Bo Gum in ‘I Remember You’ or Lee Jae Kyun in ‘Wanted’), Jin Woo just seemed a bit…plain. I kind of wish he had deeper motivations than just being a bit crazy and finding women in stockings ‘dirty’ because of his mother.

I was just expecting something a bit more...thrilling is all

Like, his motivations aren’t awful, but it just wasn’t up to the standard of the rest of the drama. Older guys killing younger, weaker women is like Murderer 101 in TV, and I’m kinda over it. It’s like the mystery/thriller version of a Candy girl- it’s a scenario that works, but it’s been overused now. Another downside of the villain is that we don’t actually see how/if Kwang Ho catches him in the past. I was kinda under the assumption that Kwang Ho’s whole time travel journey was so that he could gather information in the future to use to catch the criminal in the past, and thus save many lives. And yet, we don’t actually see this happen- all we see is Kwang Ho having a nice life with Yeon Sook. Which is fine. That’s what I wanted. But I kind of would have liked a hint that Kwang Ho was actually working to catch Jin Woo in the past timeline.

Recommend?

Yep. It’s a great crime drama and a great time travel drama.

Choi jin Hyuk is totally the star of the show