Tunnel (2017)

Warning, this review contains massive spoilers related to character identity and ending, so beware.

So I’m continuing my unplanned series of time travelling dramas, this time with Tunnel. After Signal and Kairos, there’s time (heheh, get it? TIME) to get into a bit more literal time travelling, since till now the dramas revolved more around time communication, not direct travel. This time, we’ve got it, there’s movement here, movement in time (cue Doctor Who intro).
So we have late eighties, when leather jackets were in and humanly treatment of suspects was unheard of. Park Gwang Ho, young team leader of violent crime unit, is on his way to catch serial killer who strangles women with their own stockings. Unfortunately something goes a bit wrong and Gwang Ho wakes up around thirty years in the future (cue Mr. Queen intro). Luckily this time Choi Jin Hyuk’s genitals are intact (don’t hit me, watch Mr. Queen for reference) but the status of his life, not much so. He get’s the job of junior officer in the same department that he worked in the eighties, but there’s a lot of questions he wants to know the answer to. One of them is who is the guy with the same name, that Gwang Ho replaced and why are people so obsessed with phones. The new problem arises when he finds another woman strangled with her stockings. Thirty years later.
First feeling that I get after watching first episode was flashbacks to Life on Mars (original BBC version). There we had similar situation but in reverse (travelling to past, not future). There also we had similar problems with fitting in to new environment that is using different investigation methods. And the same as in Life on Mars, I’ve instantly fell in love with dynamic between two main characters. Park Gwang Ho and Kim Seon Jae are both unlikable but with different reasons. Gwang Ho is loud and obnoxious, dive kicking the suspects whereas Seon Jae is silently judging everyone, not bothering with answering questions. Which later on, makes Seon Jae’s relationship with Shin Jae Yi perfectly believable. They’re both pretty weird.
Some things are unfortunately painfully obvious to the viewer. Like true identity of Shin Jae Yi being daughter of Gwang Ho. The viewer can clearly see where this motive is going couple of episodes before it’s finally revealed. But unfortunately, the amount of coincidences, like that is just too much and it makes some things obvious later on. Viewer just learns to look for patterns like that. Like every time someone’s identity is to be revealed, we can tell in advance what’s going on. And you know, in mystery drama, it shouldn’t really happen.
And since I’ve lost hope, that this review will be spoiler free, let’s talk about relation between Gwang Ho and Jae Yi, because how it develops is absolutely crazy to witness. Right away after knowing his true identity she’s staring to treat him as her father, even being urged to call him Appa. And you know, for any other character I wouldn’t be so surprised, but Jae Yi from the beginning was shown as this weird, socially distanced character who’s relation will people is absolutely antisocial. The idea of her being all of a sudden touchy feely to an almost stranger was for me very unnatural. Plus Gwang Ho from the bat starts to call her by her old name (that he learned from someone on the way, since till then he didn’t really know at this point that his wife was even pregnant) and is treating her as his daughter (with standard “you cannot date this man”) which is an absolutely cringe, since technically he’s younger than her.
We have very narrow number of characters here. There’re no new suspects, they all emerge from characters we already know. And this is not that bad of an issue, but just working with the same spectrum od characters all the times felt a bit stuffy at some moments. But that might’ve been just my feeling. Aside of that we have a very nice array of characters, to the point that we quickly get familiar with them.
I’ve wanted to ignore the ending, but I have to say something, because you know what, it absolutely spoiled my impression of this drama. After all this back and forth time travelling, I was sure that the reason for Gwang Ho to travel to the future, was to know the identity of the murderer and to finally catch him in the past. You know, so he wouldn’t commit all those crimes. But no, or at least it wasn’t shown, because it seems, that after catching him in the future, Gwang Ho came back to just live his life, and with all the information that he had (including his diary where murderer one by one describes his crimes) catching him would be fairly easy, right? So it seems that catching him in the future was partially pointless, without saving all his victims that he killed on the way.
But, cutting back to the chase. Overall, I find Tunnel a good drama. With some exceptions of course, but I have to admit, the characters and their chemistry was what finally bought me. And you know, you can never have enough time travelling plots!

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This sounds good reading the reviews but I found most of episode 1 boring, just the usual police thriller with nasty murders and I can not see much sci-fi. Then it gets interesting as he looks like catching the criminal and you are hooked into wanting to know what happens next. I find Choi Jin Hyuk's acting "wooden", but I suppose there's meant to be a contrast between him as the rough cop and Sun Jae as the cool, arrogant graduate cop. Much better with episode 2. The "transition" to the future was well handled. Others comment it is not convincing but you have to have some "suspension of disbelief", not work out every detail of how someone would adjust in that situation. Some of the violent scenes are too gory for me, I must say. But glad I stuck with it as it gets better with every episode. Sci-fi element at first seemed to be just a way of giving a twist to the story, then about half way it takes a central role again, as the way the characters' lives interact with each other in past and future becomes clearer. Very cleverly done. The only thing that bothers me is I wish they could do these shows without zero-ing in on the ghastly murders "as they happen" or the grisly photos afterwards. They look all too real for my liking. How about just a foot with the detectives turning away and making a terrified face? Anyway, leaving aside my sensitivity, what started as apparently just another plodding police thriller turned into a clever and riveting drama. Very moving finale, I wasn't quite sure what would happen until it did..Once again teaches me not to ditch shows based on impulsive reaction to first episode or two. Finally rates a 10/10*.

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Good Drama, Acting, & Setting

I highly recommend watching the thriller crime drama like this when I a good mood to watch. I didn't read the synopsis or watch the trailer first, I just found out about this drama on Netflix and watched it, and surprisingly I liked the plot of this story and the cases that appear throughout the drama. At first, I was curious how these two male leads could work together and solve problems, and all went well smoothly. I like these two people who are from different eras solving crime cases.
Serial murder drama from K-drama is on another level I think. because every drama has their own way to solve the problem and cases.

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Entertaining and well written

Tunnel is a classic example of a drama which can beat anything Hollywood will ever make.

Though it didn't explain anything about the tunnel itself, the way the story was weaved was enjoyable to watch.
Linking both past and future didn't confuse me as what ALICE did (worst time travel drama for me).

Characters also have great chemistry among themselves. Everyone got a fair share on screen and the camaraderie they have really makes you believe that they are co-workers.

It wasn't difficult to guess how the leads were interconnected but nevertheless, I fully enjoyed this and will recommend it for those who prefer action series rather than rom-coms

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I liked this drama pretty well, though I did have to take a couple of breaks while watching it because there were some spooky characters/scenes that made me have to put it down until the sun was up! (I'm a bit of a wimp ;P)

Overall, I think the drama was well executed and the cast was well chosen for this drama. Choi Jin Hyuk is officially one of my favorite actors (his voice is SEXY).

My only issue really was the way the time travel was presented, specifically toward the end. The way the MC, Kwang Ho, initially jumped in time was okay and didn't bother me because it was the paranormal of the drama. But unfortunately, I don't feel like the drama followed any specific logic or rules when incorporating the time travel, which made it a bit inconsistent toward the end. The fact that Kwang Ho's actions in the past when time jumping played no part in the way the future played out/changed kinda bugs me because that makes no logical sense... If Kwang Ho did *anything* in the past when time jumping that was different from history, the future would be at least slightly altered just to simply allot for those events having taken place.
Another thing that really made no sense to me was when catching the bad guy in the future --- it is important to catch the bad guy, but the REAL goal is to catch him in the PAST (back in the 1980's) so that way Kwang Ho can stop ALL the bad things from happening and hopefully having a brighter future for everyone. And while the sappy end scenes (before Kwang Ho goes back to his time) were well executed, why was everyone crying when they knew they were going to meet each other again in the past and likely live their lives together happily? Personally, I don't understand that. BUT, the acting while executing these highly emotionally charged scenes were excellent - I could truly tear-up for the characters who were weeping.

I'm sure I sound like I disliked the drama, but it *was* overall good, the time travelling was just my peeve as watching the wrap-up of the drama. Personally, I think it would have been important to see how the bad guy was caught back in the 1980's and therefore change the future for the better rather than wrapping things up in the future. I feel like it's a moot point when things *should* change when he goes back to the 80's.

I think this is a good drama recommendation for those people who love Criminal Minds who also enjoy a good science-fiction twist with the paranormal time travel aspect.

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I binged this in one go. I started it and only intended to watch a couple of episodes, then I blinked my entire day was gone. It is well written, the actors were amazing. I laughed. I cried.

So the story is about a detective from the eighties who is after a killer and wound up time traveling through a tunnel to the year 2016. I usually stay away from this kind of drama but someone told me it was better to watch than Signal. I did watch Signal but it has no ending.

Anyway, the storyline was amazing. Even though I guessed who the actual killer was around ep ten. It's still worth the watch.

Jin-Hyuk, I cannot believe I watched this entire thing without recognizing him! I'm a horrible fan girl!!! He was in Rugal which I love!

Hyun-Min is the only reason why I'll be watching MY HOLO LOVE. He is an amazing actor. His emotions were perfect and had me glued to my screen.

This is definitely one I'll be rewatching. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

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Review of "Tunnel"

- First of all, can we just take a second to appricate how the storylone is pure motherfucking gold!?! The concept of time-traveling in itself is always interesting to see but when it was used in such a way and the way it has such an impact on the storyline was brilliant. I personally would have never thought to use the concept of time travel in that way.
- One thing I personally love about this series is how everything just ties in together. All of the characters were brought together by some strange twist of fate that no one saw coming, all the dirty little secrets everyone had thought had been left in the past was coming to light and giving us some twist and turns we never saw coming, and we saw just how dark and twisted humans can be.
- For me the Sound track wasn't really all that memorable for me. I just finisned the last episode and I still cant even remeber the melody. When it comes to sound track I feel that it should be just as impactful as the storyline and acting should be, and here it just wasn't all that.
- Overall, lovely series would reccommended to others definitely.

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An Outlier

Much like a lot of asian drama watchers my preference tends to lean more towards romance and drama, but this particular drama has become an outlier; unlike all the others but I enjoyed it just the same.

To be completely honest I avoided this drama like the black plague because I am not fond of "time-travel" and non-romance related productions. However, every once in a while I get the craving for a good thrill, a tab bit of murder and all the mystery one can offer.

Browsing through "detective" related dramas I remembered that Tunnel existed and decided to give it a shot! I must say I am super glad I took a chance and fell for this story. It was so much fun to watch and I think Choi Jin Hyuk shinned in this drama. I loved his character, he was charming and likable, I really liked getting to watch him here. Now I will say, his acting is a BIT more dramatic and exaggerated than expected for this type of genre, but it was a fun watch nonetheless, I don't think this type of acting really took away for the story line or the personality of his character.

Other shining stars in this production are Kang Ki Young (the real maknae) and Jo Hee Bong (Chief Detective) their chemistry with CJH was wonderful, I laughed in pretty much every scene they were in. They captured the goofy and clumsy characteristics of their respective roles, well.

As for the rest of the cast, I wasn't that invested in the light romance line between Shin Jae Yi and Kin Seon Jae, I just felt it didn't quite fit or seem necessary for me. I did like the cute moments between CJH's character and Lee She Ah's character (Shin Yun Suk), it was just enough to find endearing and not so overbearing on the murder mystery portion of the plot. To clarify, I have nothing against any of these actors, I am simply commenting on their characters.

All in all this is a stellar watch if you are looking for a great murder mystery loosely inspired by true events. Tunnel is a great watch for those interested in a sci-fi, detective drama, but are not looking to have to pull their hair out trying to keep up with the story. Its neatly written, with few discrepancies in my opinion. As with every drama I could nit pick things I would have liked to see done differently, but as a whole it was a treat. Please don't be deterred by the drama genre or the comments on the ending you will find on this forum, this work is definitely worth a watch if it fits what you are looking for.

*Written with respect to all differing opinions and to all participating actors/actresses. *

-A.

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I had a careful think before I started watching this. I'm not always into anything "fantasy" and time travel can be a difficult thing to pull off. Combine that with serial killers and it could be a bit dodgy. I read a number of reviews before I made the decision to try this and many of those were to say the least, "mixed".
On the whole I enjoyed this drama, though it of course is not perfect. However, when I try to put down my thoughts and reactions, all I manage is a bit of a ramble that makes this sound worse than it was. But for what it's worth, here it is ....
The idea didn't at first appeal to me, but in fact I think that it was quite well handled. Someone said that they had Park Gwan Ho adjust far too easily into the 2016 world, and could have made much more of the culture shock, and I agree. They completely glossed over the impact of the mobile phone on a Detective who worked for 10 years with only paper forms, or police radio to rely on. They made no reference to the fact that in 30 years, laws and police procedure will have changed enormously. But that's not what this series is about, though I think there should have been more acknowledgement of it, and also appreciation of some of the "old-fashioned" skills.
The serial killer/police/psychologist triad is not particularly new, and it was all OK. Disappointing to see the tired old really boring device of the killer targeting the female profiler AGAIN!
I found it unbelievable that in 1986 Korea did not know about serial killers. I can believe that the authorities did not want them to get any publicity, but I absolutely believe that the police would have known about them. These were not stupid nor venal uncaring men.
Another issue really, for me, is the pacing. There were long pauses in dialog and plot. Lots of fists flying around in the dark where you can't really see what's happening, fruitless chases through twisting alleys. I'm not even going to touch on the plot holes, which I was happy enough to ignore. FF came into play a lot.
What I did enjoy was the tiny hints about 1980s attitudes rubbing up against the 2010s - really there should have been many many more of these - the nearest we get to any sense there is an issue is the joke that Gwan Ho needs to go for training (which he DID need, but never happens).
I also very much liked the "bromance" between Guan Ho and Sun Jae - and with the rest of the team too.
Lee Yoo Young as Jae Yi was endearing too, though I'm not sure there was much chemistry - it was OK.
There's not much demand for logic in the police investigations, either, and damn all thought given to rules of evidence or securing a conviction in court. This drama does kinda follow a 1970s The Sweeney interrogation roller-coaster, and there's a lot of men running around without a clear strategy ... going off at half cock. Brain not fully engaged. That got a bit frustrating. Hence quite a bit of FF, too.
There is, for my taste, a bit too much schmaltsy music conveying emotions that the cast are supposed to emote, in place of actual writing, but others may like it. Not me. The emotional 'departures' at the end were a bit too much for me and could have been improved with even a slight consideration to explore the uncertainty of exactly what would/could happen in the jolly old time-space continuum, and whether the future would actually be changed when Guan Ho's does NOT stay disappeared ...
Writing this, I realise it sounds like I didn't enjoy this story, there's such a lot wrong with it. But somehow I did quite like it, and I'm not really sure why. If forced to figure out why, I think the male leads especially, and investigative team have enough charisma to engage the viewer - well, me. There were elements of humour, as well as pain and a range of emotions, very nicely handled (though, again, a bit of FF - sometimes just a bit to slow paced for me).
The pacing is down to the Director and Writer, and yes, I think this drama could have been presented very well in as few as 12 episodes, maybe 14.
The alternative would be to include a range of other cultural issues and "educations" for Guan Ho, and show the kind of investigative skills required when you don't have DNA and technology to bridge the evidential gap. And I don't mean throwing a tant and beating people up, I mean, actually talking to people, listening and persuading them to talk to you and tell you stuff that even they may not know they know ... and then making the connections between apparently unrelated bits of information - we could have had a lot more of that! I wondered if that would make it a different series, but actually I don't think it would have, it would in fact have fitted very well with the premise and enhanced the story a lot.
But, yeah, still, overall, not bad.

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Thrilling and impressive cohesion

I went into this with middle-of-the-road expectations and was so blown away by it. Although it took me a little bit to get into it, it really grew on me.

Tunnel had a really good balance of humor and thriller, the time-travel aspect was used really intelligently, and character stories were tied together surprisingly well. That last point, with the characters, was probably my favorite part of the entire drama. I was so impressed with how characters fit into the timeline and into each other's lives.

I was also pretty satisfied with how the mystery was wrapped up. I still definitely wanted a little more — like wanting one more reunion, one last conversation, but overall I thought it was overall really well thought-out.

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