“Tunnel” (터널)

By Jae-Ha Kim
Substack
March 16, 2020

☆☆☆☆
Park Gwang-ho (played by Choi Jin-hyuk)
Kim Seon-jae (played by Yoon Hyun-min)
Shin Jae-yi (played by Lee Yoo-young)

↑Note: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.

I watched “Tunnel” because I had loved “Signal” so much. I had hoped the time-traveling elements and the serial murder cases would provide for compelling storylines. “Tunnel” had its moments. But overall, it was a pale imitator that was more often lacking than not.

Gwang-ho is a police detective, who is thisclose to catching a serial killer, who specifically targets young women wearing skirts and stockings. As he’s about to apprehend the killer in a dark tunnel, zap — he’s back to the future, having gone from 1986 to 2016.

Like many of the characters in this series, Gwang-ho is a bit of an idiot. Instead of quietly sneaking up to nab the various culprits, he constantly yells out his plans to catch the 새끼/saekki (or son of a bitch), giving the aforementioned 새끼 plenty of time to escape. When his superior gives him a gun, he scoffs and gives it back, saying he doesn’t need it for his job.

Oh. Yes. You. Do!

The entire series is full of d’oh moments, with the police announcing what they’re going to do to the un-handcuffed serial killer, who then manages to escape. This leads to almost farcical chases in which supposedly young and fit police officers can’t even outrun and apprehend a criminal in his 50s. Maybe if they stopped screaming “새끼!” so much, they would’ve had more energy.

At one point, the killer orders Gwang-ho to meet him alone — threatening to kill two people who were very special to him if he brings help. The addled cop listens to him, when there were so many options, such as warning the targets to tell them they were in danger. Or calling his colleagues to protect the potential victims. A profiler does the same thing. Without any self defense training or any police backup, she takes it upon herself to use herself as bait to catch the serial killer. This smart and accomplished woman had literally no plan on what to do if attacked. And it’s no spoiler to say: She was attacked!

The series picks up steam in the final episodes when Gwang-ho travels back in time to be reunited with his wife. When he inexplicably returns back to the future, the series becomes another hot mess of a jumbled storyline.

Airdates:

OCN aired 16 episodes — each about 65-minutes long — from March 25 to May 21, 2017.

Spoiler Alert:

Gwang-ho’s wife, Yeon-sook, had given him a whistle. She said if he was ever in trouble, he should blow on it and she would come save him. It was a symbolic gesture more than anything else. When she thinks he has died, Yeon-sook gives the whistle to their daughter, Yeon-ho, and tells her the same thing.

I know it was supposed to be a sweet promise, but why would an adult make that promise to a child? There is no way Yeon-sook could’ve been within hearing distance of that whistle while the child was away at school or even a few blocks away from their home. One of the most touching moments in the series was when her daughter, Yeon-ho, became orphaned and was adopted by a family in England. At the airport, she kept blowing on her whistle, crying, waiting for her mother to rescue her.

The aloof criminal psychologist, Jae-yi, turns out to be Gwang-ho’s daughter. I’m not clear on why her name was changed. I honestly can’t remember if her adoptive family were Koreans living in the U.K. But I seem to remember them being white. Why would they change the child’s name from one Korean name to another?

Seon-jae is the grownup son of one of the victims from 1986. After he learned of how his mother died, he vowed that he would catch the killer. That’s the primary reason he became a police office. It appears he and Jae-yi were destined to become a couple. The last few scenes were adorable. Gwang-ho has returned to the past to his beloved wife and baby daughter. A young visitor comes over to see the baby and play. It’s toddler Seon-jae.

The serial killer was one of the more interesting characters. He was the police department’s esteemed medical examiner. He was all kinds of crazy, having been abused as a child and having unresolved issues of having a mother who was a prostitute … who wore shorts skirts and stockings.

© 2020 JAE-HA KIM | All Rights Reserved