Director : KIM SEONG-HUN
Genres : Drama
Running time : 127 min
Rate : 12+
Cast : HA Jung-woo, BAE Doona, OH Dal-soo
SYNOPSYS
Jung-soo (HA Jung-woo), the manager of a car dealership, is in a cheerful mood on the way home from work thanks to a big order that he has just received. Then suddenly, the tunnel he is driving through collapses, and he is trapped inside. The only thing he can see around him is concrete wreckage, and all he has to sustain himself is 78% of his phone’s battery, two bottles of water, and his daughter’s birthday cake.
With the news of a major tunnel collapse, South Korea is thrown into panic and the government rushes to put together a rescue plan. Dae-kyung (OH Dal-su), leader of the rescue team, tries various means to access the tunnel, but work proceeds at a frustratingly slow pace. Meanwhile, Jung-soo’s wife Se-hyun (Doona BAE) sends him messages of support through the only radio station he can hear under the tunnel, and she keeps up hope that he will return alive.
“Ultimately TUNNEL is a story about life. It occurred to me that human life, the most important thing that we know, is becoming too devalued in these days, and so I took up this story.”
Beginning with its enthusiastic reception in the Director’s Fortnight section of the 67th Cannes Film Festival, KIM Seong-hun’s previous film A HARD DAY (2014) garnered accolades around the world and established its director as a remarkable talent who stands tall among his peers. KIM’s sharp insight into everyday reality and his great directorial skills are now channeled into his new feature TUNNEL, which tears down the conventions of the disaster movie genre. Through a disaster which seems lifted from ordinary reality, the film reminds us all of the forgotten dignity of human life. Leavening the heavy theme with doses of laughter and tension, the director shifts smoothly between emotional extremes to create a distinctive and realistic disaster movie that brings something new to the genre. Not only that, the image of the collapsed tunnel and the lifelike recreation of its ravaged interior provide a stunning visual spectacle that has the Korean film industry buzzing in anticipation of its release.