Tunnel (2017)

I think I'm liking OCN more and more. They spawned one of my favorite dramas, 38 Task Force, which was creatively done and very "edge of the chair" entertainment. The cast was phenomenal and did an amazing job in their acting roles, but I digress this review isn't about 38 Task Force, but Tunnel.

STORY:
At first, I hesitated to watch a supernatural/time-travel Korean drama because they can often be a hit or a miss, 50/50 shot. They are either terribly good or terribly bad. The problem with these kinds of fantastical/super natural element-ed dramas is that the writer either over emphasizes on the theme and over does the "drama" part of it. Kind of like trying to reveal everything way too quickly in the story and mistaken it for plot points. Either that, or a writer doesn't know how to properly use the element and just hashes a bunch of popular techniques seen before and comes out with something that doesn't make sense and again, becomes boring.

The writer, Lee Eun-Mi, did a rather splendid job at pacing the story just right and putting in the element of time-travel in the appropriate places. A week ago, I had wished that they extended the drama to 20 episodes, but I'm glad that that's not true because 16 episodes was just right for the pacing.

What I'm even more impressed about this drama though is their accurate use of the psychological side of understanding a serial killer. Lots of people often don't understand that serial killers aren't born killers, they are made and I'm so glad that the writer took the time to properly insert psychological understandings of why people kill. I even hope that this educates people who watch this drama a little bit about serial killers. Not saying that's a full course but definitely a taste. Applause for the writer to go to the legnths to do their research to display the psychological side of this drama more accurately. I've seen some pretty bad impressions and tries at psychology in Korean dramas and I will say I'm less than impressed. (Side note: I studied psychology and am still self studying to this day, so I may be more passionate about it than most, haha)

ACTING/CAST:
What a great group of casts! I have to be honest and say that I have never heard of seen the main male lead (Choi Jin-Hyuk) before anywhere until I did a little research and saw he was in Pasta but as a minor supporting character. But it looks like he's come a long way and say that this drama will hopefully help him along his career! His acting was naturally done and rarely ever thought that a line or a nuance was staged or overdone.

I also have to admit that I have never heard or seen the main female lead (Lee Yoo-Young) before either and come to find out that this is her FIRST drama! Well done Yoo-Young! Her take on the female lead was realistic, not too over the top either with the cold exterior persona and was a believable portrayal.

I have seen Yoon Hyun-Min before in the drama "Beating Again" and "Heartless City" but as the second lead and happy to see him finally getting some much deserved attention and a romantic happy ending. He definitely has talent but might not have been noticed due to previous dramas. I feel that his scripts always kind of kept him back from really stretching out but Tunnel gave him the chance to show everyone what he's got!

MUSIC:
Nothing to complain really. If anything, I thought the music selection was a little too dramatic when trying to heighten the dramatic/cliffhangers moments but other than that, I'm really not the kind of person who picks on the music unless it was an extremely poor choice.

OVERALL:
Awesome drama and recommend others to watch it too if you are interested in a little serial killer - time travelling - mystery - in the future! Haha! Another great drama produced by OCN. Will be keeping an eye on OCN now and have my sights set on 'Duel'.

Korea has always been known for their romance and melo-dramas but SO HAPPY that they are FINALLY branching out and exploring other genres! I cannot tell you how HAPPY this makes me because frankly I've been watching Korean Dramas for a good chunk of my life and with the amount of romance dramas I've seen in my life, I can safely say a lot of the romance dramas seem to borderline tacky, nonsensical, and almost hateful when you see how tragically weak and helpless the lead female characters are. By no means am I a feminist BUT I can't stand to see characters fall into the "damsel-in-distress" pit. For me, it's more a personal thing, and think it's kind of annoying.

But, I'm happy to see that writers are FINALLY giving these female leads some strength and not that fake " I'll punch you in the face, but not really because I'm just putting up a front for my fragile heart" kind of stuff. These days, writers are finally giving characters some dimensions to their personality and not just existing for the sole purpose to ruin someone's life because they secretly love them. The female lead in Tunnel was given a strong persona. Not the best effort in giving a female character some dimension, but it's a good effort on Korea's behalf at least.

I've rambled on long enough and encourage anyone who bothered to read all of this, a thumbs up! Haha!

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Alright, I have such such mixed feelings about this drama. I'll split it into pros and cons.

Pros:
Seon Jae: I honestly love SJ a little too much. He is pretty much the main reason why I was watching the show lol. Anyway, why did I love his character? A. I found him somewhat relatable. He is someone who doesn't trust easily, needs a reason to open up to somebody, but once he's made a friend he's made a friend for life. B. I just love his story of how devoted he is to his mother and his mother's case. C. He's just so adorable ok! I just love how he really cares about the people around him, but doesn't like to let onto it too much, it cracks me up. D. He's just an all around good guy. He's hardworking, loyal, devoted, and the list could go on.

Kwang Ho: I really like how they made his character true to the 80s. He thinks like a guy from the 80s, which means he's a bit sexist and a chauvinist. I liked seeing the contrast of how he thought of things compared to present day. And sometimes the past was better, but sometimes they were so wrong. The show did a really good job of portraying that through his character. I also just loved his character in general. He's handsome, loyal, hardworking, courageous, and honest.

Bromance: Alright, this was also one of the main reasons why I was watching the show. I just loved the bromance between Seon Jae and Kwang Ho! How it went from hating, to tolerating, and finally to genuinely caring. It just bloomed in this real lovely way and I absolutely loved it! I haven't seen a bromance as good as this one in a really long time. I just really loved it.

Acting: Acting was on point in this drama. Wow Seon Jae, Kwang Ho, and even Jae Yi really brought their characters to life. I could feel their emotions, it wasn't acting it was living.

Feminism: Oh wow, there's some great feminist under-tones in this drama, and it's fantastic! When Jae Yi asks the police "did these women deserve to die?" I was like you go girl!

Yeon Sook and Kwang Ho romance: They had such amazing chemistry, and I just really loved how much they cared for each other. Yeon Sook was such an amazing woman, who has admirable faith in her husband. Though not the focus, they were definitely a beautiful couple. And I wish that I can have a marriage like that one day.

Emotion: This drama's true strong suit is emotion. It packs in the emotion well. A lot of crime dramas, it's simply about catching the criminal. But with this drama you really see how the killings affect people's lives. We're not just catching criminals, we're saving lives. I truly felt the emotion attached to the victims and the victims families. As much as I love Seon Jae and his story, he is not the only reason why I think this. The side cases had a lot of emotional impact too (I nearly cried during one, I never cry lol). While Seon Jae's mother's case was the highlight case, each case was important. The women that died, were people, with lives and families. And you felt for each and every one of them. Not every drama can do that, so I applaud this drama for not only caring about suspense, but reminding viewers that these are people we are talking about. And in real life, when cases like this happen, it is a person that died. Someone with family and friends, and nobody deserves that death.

Episodes 1-9 plus episodes 11 and 16: These episodes are really the strong point of this drama. There's good pacing, smart characters, humor, and touching moments in these episodes. Episodes 8 and 16 were truly amazing, and I applaud the writing and acting. They were truly memorable episodes.

Cons:

Most of these cons came out during episodes 10-15 (save 11). So really only 4 episodes, but it was enough to bother me and really frustrate me. I would say the last half of the show wasn't as enjoyable, and was downright frustrating at times.

Plot: I like to know what the plot is. I like mysteries, but not the actual plot to be a mystery. For example, God's Gift is one of the best mysteries I've ever seen. But the plot is very clear, to save main girl's daughter. This drama I wasn't sure what the plot was till the very end. Was it to go back in time? Was it to catch the criminal (future)? Was it to catch the criminal (past)? Was it both? Was it all 4? I really had no idea, and this made the drama very frustrating to watch, especially the last half.

Jae Yi: I just didn't care for her character. I didn't hate her, but I didn't love her. And if we're being real, I just didn't like the fact that she interfered so much with the bromance towards the end. I'm cruel like that though. If I have neutral feelings or disliking feelings towards a female character, and she starts to interrupt the bromance, I will start to get annoyed with her character. Even if she didn't really do anything wrong. I also found her a bit creepy in the beginning, and there's something she did I found a bit hard to get over. I don't know for the most part she was very meh for me. I mean she had some touching moments, but still. I just didn't grab onto her.

Stupid Characters: Ok, they weren't always stupid, they definitely had their smart moments. But sometimes the writers would decide to make their characters stupid to prolong the suspense. Like sorry, I don't like suspense for suspense, I get really annoyed if suspense is being created because a character is being dumb.

Ending: I loved the last episode I really did! Episode 16 and 8 are by far the best in the series! But, for real there should've been another episode.


Overall, would I recommend this drama? Sure, go ahead. It's good, and the ending episode makes it worth it. Would I call it a masterpiece or a classic? Lol no. It's good, but there are too many plot holes and facepalm moments for it to be a masterpiece. The plot was a bit too all over the place for my taste and the things that made the show amazing at first got toned down a bit in the last half (save the last episode and episode 11). But it's still a good drama and overall there's more good than bad.

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OCN is well-known for its dark/mysterious/psychological/detective/thriller dramas. Indeed the dramas telecast in this particular channel are always more or less enthralling. Once seated with an episode, a viewer (mainly who love this sort of genre) would finish all the episodes in rapid succession leaving himself/herself unkempt at the end.

Yes, it happened to me after I finished Tunnel in one sitting for two days. After the last and final episode I just couldn't see myself in the mirror. Well that doesn't necessarily mean this drama is a perfection or a masterpiece. Despite having number of flaws and loopholes, it could live up to my expectations.

Although practically the concept of time traveling is superfluous and unrealistic but the integration of both past and present to solve the crime is riveting yet not extraordinary. As a viewer I appreciate the way the writers managed to maintain a cliff-hanger per episode and how one by one a particular mystery unraveled. Any sort of art/literature/entertainment can be preposterous but to make it credulous to the viewers is where the makers can show their creativity. All the credit goes to the scriptwriters who managed it pretty nicely.

In the beginning, few episodes have individual crime story which were solved meticulously by the detective team, however, the main story was there and gradually each puzzle pieces were weaved in a single thread. Though all the bits and pieces were scattered initially but the story maintained coherence till the end. Much confusion was not created with the time traveling factor. The whole drama is like a web of riddle solved rigorously. Overall the story writing was commendable but during episodes 12-16 it became excessive. For instance, if we squeeze too much lemon juice in our rice rather than giving a slight sour flavor, the whole rice would turn bitter in taste. This is what happened with Tunnel during these episodes. The flow was fascinating but due to excessive twists and turns for finding the main culprit, it kind of lost the ultimate thrilling essence in the middle part in my opinion.

One interesting thing is, they tried to depict prisoner's dilemma (a concept of game theory in economics) in a theft case but did not show it vividly. I can remember clearly this whole concept was portrayed exquisitely in the drama named "I Hear Your Voice".

On another note, indignation is inevitable upon any murderers or in general any wrong doers, nonetheless it made me ponder upon a particular thing. That is, giving a child a healthy and fine environment to grow up is extremely crucial. It is true that all the heinous murders took over negligible issues but when the culprit was a little boy from then on he had nurtured grave darkness inside him. From his early childhood the unsound experiences he gathered, later triggered him to exploit himself in a psychotic manner towards gaining aberrant pleasure. It all comes down to the upbringing, nurturing and giving a child a loving environment. Compassion can change a person at a tender age.

Moreover, I appreciate the depiction of the female character, Professor Shin Jae Yi. For goodness sake, they refrained for at least once by not showing a sassy, unintelligent and screaming woman. Shin Jae Yi is stoic but a smart, competent and educated woman who came up with brilliant clues regarding solving the cases. Loved the tough at the same time sweet bromance of Gwang Ho and Sun Jae. Love the comradeship among the fellow colleagues. As I always say Korean writers are best at portraying human relationship and emotion among each other. Hats off to the writers for that. All the casts more or less shown good acting skill though not phenomenal.

Necessary to mention that the last episode is utterly heart wrenching and is beautifully wrapped up. Especially visiting every victim's home and paying respect to each of their family was wonderfully done. This little message "Saving Life is important" is laudable.

On the other hand, background score is reasonable with the situation and I could find only one OST named Circle of Life by Kim Dong Uk. It's soft rock which gets slightly heavy at the end sounds superb.

In conclusion, this drama has the characteristics to put a viewer at the edge of their sit but comes with few flaws. If the errors and flaws can be overlooked, it's pretty interesting. I felt like I have completed reading a thriller novel. For a crime drama genre lover, I don't think it would be a bad choice for giving it a shot.

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Ok going to be honest, it wasn’t going to be such a high rating but by the time the subtitle credits started rolling I was literally in tears I know there will be comparisons to shows like I Remember You but the similarities are very little tbh because this was a completely different show. So, I'm going to rate and review as fairly as possible because it was emotional but what I didn’t like is that the emotional thing should not have come so late. Also, In Remember You you feel the two male leads relationship it's the best feature but for me Park and Kim's relationship was lacking in that you see them suddenly being nice to each other because of a plot point rather than it actually developing. They never once actually had a proper conversation with each other, there was no depth and it's true for a lot of interactions in the show. I have a huge crush on Yoon Hyun Min so that scene where he catches the killer for the first time in the woods and goes completely NUTS I can safely say that was some of the most intense scenes I've ever witnessed. Same goes for both the female leads, especially Professor Shin she had me in tears no joke I mean, I was BLOWN away by her acting chops!!!! If she's not receiving awards for this performance something is really wrong with this world. Now, onto the things that didn't work for me. I'm sad to say I'm a huge Choi fan, ok, if anyone bad mouthed him I'd feel bad but dude, um, this is not his best work. I'm sorry. he's talented, we all have bad days, not judging but with all those incredibly subtle actors surrounding him he came off as over acting, and he was fine in the last two episodes but again it was nothing exceptional. It's primarily the reason I can't rate this show any higher. Overall, I Remember You has a deep, poetic feel to it, or White Christmas, they're very mature and deep and this one was a bit of a hit and miss where the script was concerned. Mystery, plot wise, look I basically saw it all coming, all the twists. The most mysterious part for me was to see what happens after the killer gets caught and I was definitely intrigued till the end. I'm happy with the way they went. The funniest and most adorable bits were the way Park tries to keep Kim away from Shin after its revealed who they are lol and of course still enjoyed the bromance and the male leads banter.

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I enjoy the drama a lot. the storyline was interesting enough to draws me in and make me stay till the end. wouldn't say it was unique and rather common and predictable but it was still a fun ride for me. the acting were really good, every cast really suits the characters. for me, the male character which I really love, really liven up the series. the way he adapt to the future was so funny at times. there were probably some flaws, especially during the investigation and the way it was lacking towards the end but I still enjoy it. I just wish they could somewhat explains more about the ending, but well not a big deal.

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Investigação, ficção científica e romance

Tunnel é uma das minhas séries prediletas, isso porque ela é capaz de prender a atenção do espectador com um enredo inusitado, cheio de reviravoltas e investigativo.

Nas séries que eu assisti com viagem no tempo eu não havia gostado da maneira como foram conduzidas, no entanto, em Tunnel o enredo é tão bom que as vezes você até esquece que ele é um viajante do tempo, pois a parte da investigação policial acaba prendendo muito a sua atenção.

Outro ponto forte da série são os atores, particularmente eu gosto muito do Choi Jin Hyuk e acredito que esse tenha sido um de seus melhores papéis. Com muitas cenas de ação e suspense, os atores dão vida a esses momentos.

Esse tipo de série com suspense policial e ficção científica não é para qualquer um, você precisa abrir um pouco a mente para acreditar no tema proposto, porém a forma como o enredo desenrola é muito interessante e te surpreende a cada episódio. Mesmo que esse gênero não seja o seu favorito, vale a pena assistir!

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O QUE É ESTE DRAMA?!

É o primeiro drama que eu assisto com esssa temática (suspense, investigação e etc) que me prende tanto!
Simplesmente incrível, direção, atuação, ost, personagens (seus motivos, seu passado).
Não há uma falha, tudo se interliga, é genial.
Eu até apostaria numa season 2 pra ver mais o desenvolvimento dos casais, mas isso é bem impossível. Também gostaria de saber qual é a do Túnel, se bem que não deve ter nada de estrondoso por trás disso.
Personagem fav? Professora Shin! Essa mulher é perfeita, passou por tantas coisas, é tão inteligente e cativante.
Um dos melhores dramas que já assisti.

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Best Drama For Choi Jin Hyuk

The Korean Tunnell drama is a 2017 crime drama produced by the famous OCN criminal drama company , one of Korea's most beautiful and complex dramas that talks about a complex case . The writer will have a high hand in this drama style because the way the events happen and the events are all on the writer that's why I can say the writer Lee Eun Mi was the most unique , The actors in the drama were also unique in supporting roles for the main role , all of which made a unique drama come out of it and the audience was not bothered

My Rating : 8.5/10
Very Good Drama

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AMAZING DRAMA!!!!

First of all, I really dont know why the reviews is below 10 because for me this drama is one of the best kdrama's ever created. This Drama makes me watched for over 1 day only that's because how amazing it is for me. For me the Acting is Super duper Amazing all of it, I want to praise the casting director because all of the actor are so amazing whenever the scenes of park kwang ho and his daughter(prof. shin jae yi/park yeon ho) who is the same age as him it feels like a father and daughter for me not as lovers i dont have any percentage I feel about them as lovers. The Ending part for me is amazing.

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I did not expect to love this show so much. It’s true I sometimes chose not to watch the drama because the gore of corpse after corpse got too much for me. To start off with, this show is pretty standard, but it gets real good. It’s a smart show. The twists actually caught me off guard and I loved the relationships between the characters. It’s not a standard show at all.
It’s a show where all the characters go out of their way to be unfriendly. So when they are even mildly civil, it’s such a great improvement that the rest of the cast are shocked.

“You didn’t hang up. I thought you would.”

Kwang Ho
Choi Jin Hyuk as our hero is a good character to portray the rough and read 80s cop who has straight values.

Sun Jae
Sun Jae is the most hostile out of the lot of them but he gravitates towards Professor Shin because she is just as isolating as he is.

Professor Shin
Professor Shin is a quiet and dark individual who doesn’t have much to say unless it’s important. Then she spits it out and shuts up again.

“I thought I’d handle it well no matter what happens.”

The show demonstrates how despite her experience and dark nature, she is human and the actress portrays her quiet vulnerability with underlying strength.

Sung Shik
I found it very cute that the chief used to be Kwang Ho’s maknae and they resume that same relationship 30 years into the future despite Sung Shik obviously being older than Kwang Ho now in the present.

Yeon Sook
Kwang Ho’s wife is a dignified and composed cop’s wife. She is beautiful and gentle. The actress does a wonderful job of smiling at Choi Jin Hyuk like she is so freakin’ proud of him and thinks he’s the greatest thing alive.

The last couple of episodes really lose the plot with originally smart characters fumbling around just to fill the episodes. But the ending of the ending is filled with all the feelings. I loved it.

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