Well Go USA continues to be the go to distributor for Asian cinema. Outside of their numerous martial arts epics they have offered up some great dramas and horror as well. The latest hitting theaters is the disaster thriller The Tunnel, but does it offer up something worth watching or will it not be worth the dig?

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The Tunnel follows a car dealer on his way home with a birthday cake for his daughter. As he drives into a tunnel, it collapses on him. leaving him caught in between the debris. Outside, this breaking news creates a media frenzy and a thoughtless reporter even airs a live phone interview with Jung-su, using up his mobile phone batteries. An emergency response team is immediately organized to rescue him and tries to keep the media under control. As it becomes a national concern, the government promises full support for the rescue. Days pass without any success and people start to lose hope or interest in rescuing him. While the initial destruction of the tunnel and him being trapped underneath the rubble is cool to watch this is not your usual disaster film. There are a few other moments that feature the further dangers of the collapse, but they took an interesting approach with this film allowing the story to focus on the man’s survival and all those involved in trying to rescue. This offers up both good and bad aspects of society with those that are determined to save him at any cost and the government and media involvement that have other agendas. The story is well crafted to showcase all those affected by a situation like this and not just the trapped victim. It also showcases the crap that goes on behind the scenes in the media and the government making about money and votes instead of human life.

 

As the film moves forward there are some unexpected directions that the man trapped faces and makes sure to take on the various issues that he deals with while trying to survive. There are some clever story directions that keeps the story interesting while being more dialogue and character driven than you might have expected. While there are some clichéd elements to the story it managed to be pretty entertaining and offer up a film that could have been pretty average, but instead stands out on its own as something worth checking out.

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Grab your copy of Tunnel available now on Digital HD and then on DVD on May 2nd from Well Go USA.