Túnel (2017)

Awww, another OCN drama...another happy viewer. I just finished the finale and am extremely happy with the whole show. I've been a HUGE OCN fan for a long time and Tunnel is another satisfying crime drama.

My last one was Voice, and that was my favorite so far, not anymore. Tunnel beat that easily.

I've been a fan of Choi Jin Hyuk since his long flowing hair back at Gu Family Book. And loved him in everything since. Now I love Yoon Hyun Min as a actor. Is it me, or does he look sexy at being emotional?

Awww man. I seriously feel like an emotional wreck. Tunnel was just that good.

If I could give it more than a 10/10 star rating, I really would. I am very happy.

Thank you OCN for making another fantastic crime thriller!

Leia Mais

This drama is the first K crime drama focus that I really really like. This drama is truly a masterpiece. Each episode always hooks me and keep me going. I don't even skip any scene. Which amazing and surprising. I really enjoy the whole journey. Each character was very lovable. Each episode has a lot of meaning and just perfect. I don't think I can find any fault with this drama.

I came to really like Choi Jin Hyuk. I hope he will play in more drama as the main character. He is a very excellent actor and him always able to make his character to be cute and loveable. Not only him, all the actors and actresses are doing a great job in their acting skill and building the chemistry.  Park Kwang Ho and Sun Jae have been on my high list of my fav bromance after all!!

This drama is based on a real-life case of Hwaseong serial killer. Many crime drama and film are made based on this incident. Recently I watched Gap Dong, which is also based on the same incident. However, I feel that Tunnel has been able to grasp the case and foretell it in a way-way better than Gap Dong.  The way they tell the case, the set of the victims and all other things was a work of art. Like if you notice, when he go to the past, the color of the scene has a tone of Sephia, whereas in the future has a tone of blueish to confirm its in the future.

Leia Mais

Interesting premise destroyed by bad writing

Please ignore the MDL rating (8.6 at the time of writing in 2023)!

The very basic premise (time-traveling detective and serial killer) of this story is interesting. But the writers did a great job of destroying the potential. In two ways:
- All the characters are unbelievably stupid, except the murderers.
- The time traveling aspect is not used at all, it is rather a weird fact on the side.

To come back to the stupid characters: do you know those dramas where there is one lead character who always knows everything in advance and before everybody else, just by being super smart and of course they are also the best in every practical aspect? They can get annoying. Well, in this drama you get none of that :) Everybody is just so unbelievably stupid and incompetent it hurts. When a good detective's skills are 100, the average person's detective skills are maybe 10. All the detectives in this drama are a 1. And that's generous! No common sense at all. And they repeat their mistakes over and over again, and drag this very simple story out into 16 episodes. Some examples:
- When you want to catch a suspect, sneak up to them until you are 10 meters away, then shout at them, so they can run away from you without you being able to catch them.
- When you found out in which house a suspect is hiding, go to the house with 4 cars, all with full sirens! Then storm the house from the front without covering the back door.
- When you are a ML in a team of two and a great revelation comes to your mind, don't tell anyone and storm off angrily to get yourself in trouble.
- When you are a weak vulnerable FL, speak to a serial killer in code via TV and lure him into a dark forest where you wait for him all alone to be his next victim. Don't tell anyone of your police friends about it.

Then the time travel: time travel stories never fully make sense and that's fine. But here's a question for you: when you are a time traveling detective, would you try to catch a serial killer when he is young (in the past) or when he is old (in the future)? And as I said, the time traveling aspect is just there, it is not really relevant for the story, it just makes for some confusion and funny scenes. For a better use of time travel in a detective story, check out the K-drama Signal from 2016!

Ignore the bromance tag on this! It lasts two seconds, is super weak and can't save this train wreck.

I guess I should also say some positive things. The acting is generally quite good, except maybe the time traveling lead who has a limited set of faces. And the character development of the FL was a bit too much: for most of the drama she has the facial expression and emotional warmth of a stone and then suddenly in the end she meets a certain person and becomes normal quite instantly.

Ignore the rating and positive reviews and skip this one!

Leia Mais

Great time travel crime drama

9/10 is my rating. This is a 2017 South Korean crime drama based on true murders (Hwaseong serial murders). It consists of 16, ~60 minute, episodes.

While on the trail of a killer (they avoided calling them serial killers) in 1986, detective Park Gwang-ho (Choi Jin-hyuk) is attacked and when he comes to and emerges from a tunnel he is in 2016. Those he left behind are left wondering what happened to him. He does not, at first, realize he has time traveled and goes to his station where he encounters Kim Seon-jae 9Yoon Hyun-min) an elite lieutant detective who has more rank than respect from his fellow ditectives (the old made an officer versus worked your way up through the ranks controversy). Shin Jae-yi (Lee Yoo-young) is a consult on the cases as a "visiting"/cooperating criminal profiler. When Gwang-ho realizes he is in a different time he is able to blend in a there was a detective, due to report, who had the same name. No-one, including, Gwang-ho knows what happened to that detective (but it seems he thinks it may be tied to the whole time travel event - they never directly say that but that is what it seems like).

I really like this. It was suspenseful the whole way through. The clues were intriguing and there were lots of plot suprises. The filmography was great as you really got a sense of the different times from the way the way the footage was shot. A great crime drama!

#Tunnel
#ChoJinHyuk
#LeeYooYoung

Leia Mais

I watched this series because I liked Choi Jin Hyuk, Kim Min Sang from Rugal and Jo Hee Bong who's been in several police dramas.

The first few episodes were kind of slow but I was surprised at myself for sticking it out. I'm glad I did because even though it was a slow paced 'who dunnit' spiel, it kept me interested through the very end.

I was also surprised that this went in a direction I wasn't expecting.

The chemistry between the male cops were hilarious and awesome at best. I like dramas like this for some odd reason. I would love to see a blooper reel from this series because I know there's a lot.

I didn't like the female lead too much. Her facial expression was annoying as all get up. I cringed every time she was on camera. To this day I won't look at anything she's in.

This was a laid back type of drama. There was no fancy gimmicks or anything that the writers done to force a person to watch.

I never rewatched any of the Korean dramas I gave high ratings to but there are a few that I would be willing to rewatch and this is one of them.

Leia Mais

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!

Leia Mais

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.

Leia Mais

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.

Leia Mais

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.

Leia Mais

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.

Leia Mais

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

Leia Mais