"Tunnel" Is A Weird Mix Of Time-Travel And Realistic Crime Drama By OCN

Granted, I don't really see Korean dramas in their most recent all the time so I decided to backtrack and watch some older ones. Before Rugal - there was the OCN sci-fi K-Drama Tunnel which is a bizarre mix of time-travel and realistic crime drama. Rugal was bordered on sci-fi, Manga style, and Hollywood-style action. Tunnel has a time set between 1986 and 2016 while the series was broadcast in 2017 - that would be three years ago! The series was hoping to replicate the success of Voice which I've watched the first two seasons. However, the brutality of this series is far tamer than what Voice offered but not without its realistic dealings with serial killings.

What was entertaining was that the hero Park Kwang Ho (and another person with the same name exists too) was sent to 2016. He's in a world that was shaped due to his absence when he disappeared trying to chase serial killer Mok Jin Hoo. I thought Jin Hoo's actor looked familiar - he was actually the same actor who played that corrupt police chief in Rugal namely Kim Min Sang. It was interesting to see how Jin Hoo manages to hide his murderous side for 30 years. Jin Hoo has a very disgusting motive as to why he strangles women with stockings rather than the standard use of a rope. The backstory of Jin Hoo's monstrosity is full of spoilers so I can't fully discuss it. What we know is that Jin Hoo has some kind of hatred towards women. 

There was a really nice way to suspend disbelief for the part of father and daughter. Okay, it's not as awkward as Cyclops reuniting with Cable in the X-Men comics. However, the father/daughter tandem of Kwang Ho and Jae Yi gets really weird at times. This also causes some effects with the past when Kwang Ho returns to the past and knows the gender of his child. The quest to find his wife 30 years later is also full of awkward moments and painful moments. The father/daughter tandem would also explain how time travel isn't without consequences. I find it heartwarming how the father/daughter tandem starts to interact. It's because Jae Yi grew up without knowing her real parents. This causes Jae Yi to interact with a father who's younger than she is. Yet, the two manage to develop a bond as parent and child in a time jump of 30 years. I find this rather heartwarming and weird at the same time. 

So, there's a lot of weird things that eventually happened. Can the actions in the future eventually affect in the past? What becomes of the year 2006 eventually when the show is over? There's a lot of stuff that would eventually be left to the imagination of the viewers. The success may be a sign that we might get a second season. I hope that they could create a second season that would explore the newer, improved timeline or if they can't then let it end at a high note.