A movie is going on in a tunnel in the city, but what will happen to it is a lot of horror and an investigation into a government cover leads to a network of abandoned train tunnels deep in Sydney. A journalist goes to photograph the reality but falls into a terrifying trap of what will happen to them and will they be able to escape from this ghost? In the midst of dramatic events.
There's not enough story here to warrant the film's more than two-hour running time; 90 taut minutes tracking a week in the ruined tunnel would have sufficed. Still, it's a vivid and relatable tale.
You absolutely devour Jung-soo's journey in Tunnel. Tunnel is one of the most compassionate films of the year with a horrifically executed disaster and an emotional powerhouse odyssey overall.
Tunnel succeeds on three fronts: making its life-or-death scenario feel urgent and immediate, fleshing out its characters and garnering a genuine emotional impact.
Infusing its nightmarish scenario with bracing doses of satirical humor, Tunnel is smarter and more sophisticated than most Hollywood attempts at the genre.
Most disaster epics, even the silliest, manage to entertain, as does this one, but with intelligence and a compassionate focus on the feelings of the people most affected.
Subtlety clearly isn't a forte for writer-director Kim Seong-hoon, whose last film was the cop thriller A Hard Day. Then again, Kim's not after subtlety here. He's making an angry polemic against the state of his nation.
South Korean cinema contributed the summer's best action film with Train to Busan, a kinetic kick of a zombie thriller. Tunnel doesn't quite do the same for the disaster genre, but it's a well-made, suspenseful and surprisingly moving twist on a formula.
