Are you feeling lonely? Alone? A little trapped? Maybe a little claustrophobic? Stuck in the dark? Is the world falling in on you? Are you too dependent on your phone? Well, I have a movie for you.

Available in Australia, Canada, France, the United States, and maybe a few other countries. Approximately 126 minutes.

 

 

Car salesman Lee Jung-soo is on his way home for his young daughter’s birthday, having bought the birthday cake. He stops at a gas station and the elderly attendant fills up the tank. Well, Jung-soo had asked for it to be filled up only a certain amount (less than a third of what he gets charged) and the attendant gets scolded by his boss. Annoyed but trying to be civil, Jung-soo pays the full amount anyways. The attendant gives him two bottles of water as an apology and Jung-soo drives off.

In a brazen act of unsafe driving, this car salesman talks on the cellphone (not hands-free) with his wife Se-hyun AND eats fries while driving. He tells her that he needs to stop by the dealership first because the car’s horn is dead. So…he should be home at approximately…5:59. Just as he finishes talking with her, he gets a call from a client who had been holding out on an order. The client asks for 8 rental cars instead of the original 10, but a deal is a deal. Jung-soo enters the Hado Tunnel, which is a Happy and Safe National Construction. The client asks about cost. Jung-soo says that he is not good with numbers, but will stop the car and work it out after he passes through the tunnel. Either way, the deal is done. Jung-soo ends the call, overjoyed.

Not long after he ends the call, he hears a moaning. He hears a thumping. Then the tunnel lights go off, leaving only the lights of his car leading the way. What is going on? The lights turn back on with a squeal, but they flicker as there is more moaning and rumbling.

The ceiling not far behind him breaks and crumbles to the road.

More of it falls.

It hits the sunroof.

Cracks in the ceiling surpass the car.

The ceiling falls in front of the car.

Everything stops.

Everything is black. Seriously, I did not even bother trying to crop that picture to get rid of the letterbox lines.

Jung-soo wakes up and coughs. He is covered in specks of concrete and sand and whatever else. He turns on the dome light to survey the damage. It is a lot. Luckily, he himself is not too badly hurt and can move around. His phone also still works, so he tries to find a signal and call for emergency assistance while avoiding provoking further collapse. It takes an awkward amount of body contorting, but he manages to get a call out. The person on the other end seems to…not…quite grasp the severity of his situation, telling him rather dismissively that that help will arrive in five minutes and he should just get to a safe place in the meantime. A safe place that is…nowhere.

A rescue vehicle arrives at the northern end of the…uh…nothing. There is no tunnel. Just a hill with rocks and fallen trees.

National news immediately picks this up: a tunnel that had been open for less than a month has fully caved in, trapping at least one person inside. The north side is obliterated and black soot is spewing out of the southern entrance. As multiple rescue vehicles and media crowd around the southern entrance, Se-hyun is out shopping. It is only through a television playing in the store that she realizes that her husband is trapped.

Jung-soo is trying to…maybe push back some exposed wires with a piece of concrete or get them working or…it doesn’t matter, since his phone rings. There were, apparently, a bunch of missed calls from various media outlets and one finally got through. And reporter Jo Yang-chul is broadcasting the call live. Yang-chul insists that the call will aid in his rescue and asks for approval. We don’t hear Jung-soo’s answer, but the channel is broadcasting it anyways. An exclusive call with the survivor.

Yang-chul tells Jung-soo that the extent of the damage means that the rescue may be a long-term operation. Does he have any food to tide him over? Jung-soo is shocked. A long-term operation? Can’t they come now? Yang-chul seems surprised that no one had told Jung-soo already. He not very politely tells Jung-soo to tell the country how he is feeling now that he suddenly knows that he might be trapped in there for days.

HEY! WHERE ARE THEY CALLING FROM!

Rescue Chief Kim Dae-kyung is pissed. He goes over to the station’s van and cuts off the call. The workers yell at him for interrupting a live broadcast, but he accuses them of valuing the broadcast over a human life. He tells them that if their phone call causes Jung-soo’s phone battery to die, then Jung-soo might have a breakdown that will hasten his demise. He takes the phone and deletes Jung-soo’s number, threatening to report them for violation of the Media Ethics Law if they call again. He gives the phone back and then yells at them and the rest of the media to move their vehicles so that more rescue vehicles can get closer. It turns out that he just made up that Media Ethics Law thingamee, but they did not call his bluff, so it is all good.

Back at the rescue headquarters tent, Dae-kyung asks for the operation manual. Unfortunately, it is rather out of date and the up-to-date version is still in the process of being translated from English. But Jung-soo is calling. He is upset at having been told that the rescue would be in FIVE MINUTES and not told anything after that. Dae-kyung asks him to calm down, but Jung-soo is not having that. Dae-kyung manages to convince him to take a deep breath before continuing the conversation. He asks about the phone battery, which is about 78%. He asks if there is any food and beverage in the car. Jung-soo has trouble responding, but eventually tells Dae-kyung about the water and the cake. Dae-kyung tells him to eat the cake, as it will go bad soon, but to ration the water so it will last a week. A week? Dae-kyung assures Jung-soo that they will rescue him before he finishes the water. And he should not touch the bottle to his lips in case of bacteria.

Dae-kyung asks if Jung-soo notices anything about his surroundings so that they may figure out where he is. Jung-soo says that he drove in quite far and notices that there is a ceiling fan in front of him. Dae-kyung gets one of his subordinates to get the blueprints of the tunnel. He remembers seeing a curve, but no exits. He does not mention that it was maybe a little hard to remember stuff as he was on the phone for most of the drive. Dae-kyung tells him that they will talk at noon each day. In the meantime, he should turn off his phone. Jung-soo asks him if he really will rescue him. Dae-kyung responds that he and his group are the best in Korea at rescue operations. Jung-soo will be out soon.

Jung-soo does not quite turn of his phone yet, which is just as well, since Se-hyung calls him. Jung-soo tells her not to worry and that he will be out within a week, but Se-hyung cannot help but worry. She told their daughter that he was simply late for work. After clearing as much tears from her face as she can, Se-hyung puts Su-jin on the phone. Jung-soo apologizes for not being able to make it in time with the cake. Su-jin tells him to just meet her at Grandma’s with the cake and a puppy. Jung-soo agrees to get a puppy and Su-jin is overjoyed. Se-hyung gets back on the phone, telling him that she will drop off Su-jin and come over to the rescue site. They hang up and Jung-soo tries to make himself at home in what is left of his car, even as the sound of small collapses occur almost every minute or so.

Rescue Team Captain Kang is updating some politicians on the operation, including an unnamed minister whom I am choosing to call Park Not Geun-hye. She gives the rescue team the go ahead to do what they feel is right. Kang also suggests that they halt construction on a planned second Hado Tunnel. Not Geun-hye had not been informed of this, but they had been apparently blasting the final section nearby. A man in the meeting asserts that it is far enough to not be a problem and should be finished quickly before Hado New Town opens. Not Geun-hye tells them to discuss the matter among themselves and. Let’s do our best. Sure.

The rescue team is about to send its drone into the south entrance of the tunnel when they have to stop and crouch down so that the media can get good photographs of the drone flying in. So they get the pictures of the drone going into the tunnel…at which point all of the media station drones go following in. Not all of them make it into the tunnel, but at least none of them crash into the rescue team’s drone. Unfortunately, the iron ore blocks the radio signal and all of the drones fall to the ground. Kang asks the tech guy if there is any kind of cable-operated drone. Well, there is a robot for rail tracks…in Ontario City, California. Really, dude? Why even bring it up?

Dae-kyung and his rather hapless underling called…young guy in rescue team…take a car into the tunnel. They drive about as far in as they can and Dae-kyung gets out to survey the damage up close. It is bad. He tries to shine his flashlight through holes in the rubble pile when Young Guy honks on the car horn. He yells out that Dae-kyung’s wife is on the phone. Dae-kyung tells him through the walkie-talkie that he will call her back and to not beep the horn. Young Guy yells back his apology. Dae-kyung turns back to the pile when GODDAMNIT Young Guy honks the horn again. This time, he talks through the walkie-talkie, apologizing for having touched the horn by mistake. But the horn gets Jung-soo’s attention and he calls Dae-kyung’s phone. He says that he heard a car horn beep twice, and Young Guy responds by honking the horn again. Jung-soo heard that too, so Young Guy honks it five more times. Dae-kyung tells him that they may meet sooner than expected. Jung-soo is so relieved that…uh…

Bits of dirt fall on Dae-kyung’s mouth…and on the windshield of the car. Young Guy turns on the wipers, but they continue to fall. The tunnel’s non-working ceiling lights start to sway back and forth. Rumble. Rumble. Roar.

Dae-kyung yells at Jung-soo to lie down as low as he can.

Dae-kyung runs back into his car and it almost flips over, flinging the driver-side door back open.

They quickly drive backwards as the ceiling topples.

The open door breaks off.

A light falls, hitting the top of the car.

A slab of concrete pierces the windshield.

The walls cave in.

There is dust everywhere.

They just make it out.

The previously dark tunnel entrance is white with concrete dust.

Se-hyung had managed to get to the site and make it through the crowd and passed the initial barrier far away from the entrance to the tunnel. Now she runs towards what just looks like white smoke in front of the hill. What the hell just happened?

As the news photographers flash away, Dae-kyung tries to get back in touch with Jung-soo. Jung-soo is shaken, but okay. He can now see that the fan says No. 3 on it. So that is…something.

Dae-kyung gives Se-hyung his phone. She is panicking, but Jung-soo tries to reassure her that he is okay, and tells her to eat breakfast. They will talk soon enough.

The additional cave-in may have made rescue mission more difficult, but it also made it possible to figure out Jung-soo’s location. Construction equipment, including some large drills, are flown to a spot on the hill to dig a hole that should lead right to him. Minister Not Geun-hye assures the public that they will do everything to rescue Jung-soo as quickly as possible.

Would that it were so simple.

 

 

 

The trailer for this movie makes it seem like a loud non-stop action-fest. Yes, there are some real fast-paced sequences, but there are just as many slow and quiet sections where either nothing is happening or characters are listening for the smallest change. It is one of tension and waiting, knowing that even more of the tunnel could collapse at any time without really knowing when. Based on the 2013 novel of the same name by So Jae-Won, the movie is as much about surviving through the longs stretches as it is about the immediate danger. It is how people react and adapt to new information about the situation, which often tends to be that it is worse than they had predicted and the rescue will take longer than expected.

The three main characters are Jung-soo, Se-hyung, and Dae-kyung. Jung-soo is on his own for most of the film, talking to others primarily through his phone in increasingly cramped spaces. He starts out like…well, a businessman. He is not some terrible guy, nor  is he some paragon of virtue. He is just a person. He sometimes acts civil towards people whom he considers his inferiors while cursing them under his breath. He prioritizes his work above his family on his daughter’s own birthday. His initial terror during the tunnel collapse is replaced with annoyance that the rescue operation does not seem to be taking him seriously. As time goes by and he becomes less and less optimistic about his chances, he has to figure out what is really important to him.

While Se-hyung starts out panicked and stressed out, she begins to settle into a routine as the days go by, treating the rescue team as part of her family. But as days turn into weeks, she becomes more isolated, despite being surrounded by people.

Dae-kyung may be certain that he has the greatest rescue team in South Korea, but some in his crew are kind of cuckooheads and his sustained drive to continue the operation has difficulties compound become more personal stubbornness than professional pride.

While the movie has a drama aspect and a thriller aspect, there is a touch of comedy and social satire. A lot of it is thrown at the news media for acting like a bunch of vultures. Yet, there are some stones lobbed at the government, big corporations, and Korean society in general. The nation surely comes together and rallies to rescue one of their own. Everyone makes a big show of it until it proves to be too difficult…and…boring…and exhausting…and economically unsustainable…it is only one guy after all. Empathy and sympathy curdle into irritation and hostility. The people behind the Hado Tunnel construction never really get their comeuppance for having taken shortcuts and eventually try to push to finish up construction on the second tunnel as if their failure with the first one is no longer an issue.

And then there is the nameless minister. It is not a big role or even a pivotal role, but it is a memorable one. As the book was released in 2013, it probably did not really have much of an opportunity to comment on the new administration under Park Geun-hye, let alone her atrocious handling of the Sewol Ferry Disaster of 2014. The minister is, obviously, not the president, but her need to be present for photo ops, her utterly empty platitudes, her unwillingness to hold big business accountable, and her weaseling out of taking responsibility for anything; all of that has shades of the president.

The Sewol Ferry Disaster killed hundreds of people, mostly teenagers. It was a huge national scandal that implicated President Park. Yet, her administration survived almost three more years, toppled by something barely connected to the sinking. But that was hundreds of people. What if the number were…much lower? How much would the people of South Korea be expected to care then?

This movie is not perfect. There were some musical cues that sound more like a comedy heist movie than I would have liked. There were a few subplots involving side characters that acted more like plot devices than stories in their own right and I had wished that they were able to at least get resolved instead of dropped. And there are some niggling questions regarding…uh…logistics and the passage of time. Still, if you are in the mood for two hours of anxiety-inducing drama, then this is your movie.

So…Tunnel. Small space. Big thumbs up.

 

 

WTF ASIA 121: The Cloud-Capped Star (India: 1960, approx. 127 minutes)

Wikipedia

The Just Watch site is being silly, but I found it on the Criterion Channel.

 

WTF ASIA 122: Bad Genius (Thailand: 2017, approx. 130 minutes)

Wikipedia

Available in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, and maybe a few other countries.