Tell Me Something (1999) User Reviews

Dismembered plot

[Renaldo Matlin · 6/10 · 4 December 2004]

The Korean film-industry is without a doubt one of the most interesting and fun to watch in the world today. Titles like the haunting and oddly fascinating "Salinui chueok" (Memories of Murder) and the half-cool/half-turkey "Tube" spring to mind. You never really know what you'll get when you sit down to watch a South Korean film today, but "Tell Me Something" is an example of a movie that has a lot of things going for it but in the end leaves you more confused than satisfied.

Now I rarely have a hard time following the plot of a serial-killer movie (of recent ones I found the US thriller "Taking Lives" an insult to my intelligence as I could figure out it's every move a mile away), but "Tell Me Something" demands a lot from it's viewer. I suspect the language barrier is partly to blame, as I got the feeling some clues must have been left out in the subtitles, but the director obviously could have done a better job. I give him an A+ for it's grisly, stylish look but an F for his lack of explaining several loose ends in the plot.

The main problem is that he loads the film with tons of information but doesn't know how to treat it all. The viewer is almost drowned in clues handed out seemingly at random, leaving it an impossible task for us to try and figure out the killer, which is half the fun in movies like these.

It's really ironic how a movie about dismembered victims, it-self is told in such a dismembered fashion.

I give "Tell Me Something" a 6.5 out of 10 for it's gory, stylish execution. A fun, but not too original, soundtrack also adds to the entertainment value.

Obsessive Love

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 26 August 2007]

In Seoul, parts not matching of severed copses of three men are found in cars and bags left in public spaces. Detective Cho (Suk-Kyu Han), who is under investigation of the Internal Affairs, is assigned to lead the investigation with his team. When the identities of the men are discovered, the police finds that the artist Su-Yeon Chae (Eun-ha Shim), who lives with her friend Seungmin Oh (Jung-ah Yum), had been lover of the men. Detective Cho and his force protect Su-Yeon and follows the leads based one the information she tells, while the killer executes other victims. However, Cho discloses very dark secrets in the end, finding the real motives of the murderer.

"Telmisseomding" is a stylish and gore South Korean thriller, with a magnificent cinematography, camera and acting, and an awesome music score. Unfortunately the director and the screenplay writer have not succeeded and the story is totally confused mainly after the last twist. I have my interpretation but some points are missing or does not make sense, and I did not understand the bond between Su-Yeon and Seungmin (the homosexual love between them is subtle and not clear whether it is corresponded or not) and who is the killer indeed. It seems that Su-Yeon has actually killed her lovers based on her sexual trauma with her obsessive father, but if this premise is correct, why Seungmin had the aggressive attitude when the detectives arrive in the hospital? Or maybe both girls were the killers and Su-Yeon wanted to blame Seungmin and plotted the whole situation in the Tower Records. Therefore, the story is flawed and not clear. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Partes de um Segredo" ("Parts of a Secret")

Begins in tremendous style

[christopher-underwood · 7/10 · 13 October 2006]

Begins in tremendous style and is very watchable throughout although one does begin to worry about a certain lack of clarity. I think the film is longer than it need be and is ultimately unable to deal with the deeper issues it alludes to. A tighter film would have meant we were on the edge of our seats throughout and, possibly more importantly, forced the director (or writer) to get what they wanted to say more simply expressed. Many have suggested there may be something, lost in translation and that is a fair point but my own feeling is that the film makers simply overstretched themselves a little. Having said all that it's a very decent film with plenty of blood, gore and surprises, plus its always good to look at.

Excellent Korean Horror

[rustyangel13 · 21 December 2002]

TELL ME SOMETHING: I'm truely surprised that the Korean cinema hasn't caught on here in America. From what I've seen from them, I've never been let down. First, there was SHIRI, a big budget terrorists vs the government Hollywood style movie. Then the spectacular MUSA, and well, you know my feelings on that one. It was just fantastic. One of my favorite movies of all time. Next was BICHUNMOO, a grand martial arts Kung Fu Theatre epic. Then NO. 3 (aka NUMBER 3 KILLER), a quirky gangster PULP FICTION type of film. And now we have CHANG YOON HYUN's TELL ME SOMETHING, a very good serial killer murder mystery flick. It's also what I call a "Sunday afternoon movie". You know, it's 6 or 7 pm and there's nothing on television to watch so you nab a nice thought provoking drama or crime/suspense flick from the video store and you kick back and watch it. Director DAVID FINCHER's movies like THE GAME and SE7EN are good examples. And this is just as good. But what's so special about this particular one is that you not only get a great "thinking movie" storyline, it also supplies the pleasant blood and gore that most Hollywood films of this sort only hint to or simply happen off-screen. HAN SUK KYU (from SHIRI and NO. 3) stars as troubled police detective Cho on the trail of a terrible serial killer that chops up the bodies of the victims and spreads them throughout the city in black plastic garbage bags. But the niffty new trick here is to mix them up. In bag #1, you may get the arms, head, and heart of victim A. In bag #2 located somewhere else, you find the legs from victim A but they're mixed up with the guts and hands of victim B. Then in bag #3, there's the head and heart of victim B with the legs and guts from victim C. And so on and so on. Get the picture? So after discovering several bags and finally piecing them together like a puzzle to identify the corpses, he finds one link between them all, a lovely young museum currator named Su-Yeon (actress SHIM EUN HA). She's had affairs with all the male victims at one time or another so maybe she's gotta be the killer, right? Well, as I said before, this is more of a "thinking" movie so it's never who you'd expect. There'll be plenty of other suspects to point the finger at as the movie goes on. So without giving away any more details that may spoil the movie, I'll wrap this review up rather short. All in all, this was just another example of how good the Korean film industry has been for me. I hope they continue to impress and maybe, just maybe, they'll find a home here in America.

Where horror and style mix up a gory mystery.

[RJBurke1942 · 7/10 · 8 July 2008]

As I watched this film, I kept asking myself: What's the killer's motivation(s)? Not until the last few minutes did that become clear – well, as clear as it could be, given the narrative structure: reminiscent of the plot of Se7en (1995) but with the addition of a number of flashbacks that do more to confuse than to wholly satisfy.

And, there are obvious nods to not only Se7en, but Silence of the lambs (1991), also, particularly the cinematography and scene construction. At one point, echoing a scene from the former, Detective Cho (Suh-kyu Han) is lying exhausted in a rain-soaked alley way, while the killer sits waiting in his car, only two metres away; but instead of running Cho down, the killer screams away into the rain. In another scene, Cho is in an elevator and looks up to see bright blood dripping from the hatchway, and then also dripping down the wall; suddenly, the hatch breaks and buckets of blood cascade onto him. Add to that are the many interior scenes in run-down tenements and so forth, all evocative of the spooky corridors of those earlier films.

Still, the story is interesting, in a macabre way: across Seoul, body parts turn up in black plastic bags, but not all parts belong to the body. Somebody is perpetrating murder piecemeal. Enter Detective Cho, somewhat under suspicion for corruption but handed the case as way to redeem his career. More mixed-up body parts are discovered, but no hands with fingerprints. So, no clues. Until a head appears with teeth fillings that can be traced. One thing leads to another until Cho finds himself knocking on the door to Chae Su-Yeon (Eun-ha Shim), a young woman who knows all the male victims.

And so begins the real mystery for Cho - and the viewer. Through questioning and a series of flashbacks, it looks like Chae is in the frame; yet, murders continue while she is under surveillance. Suspicion falls upon her father, who, from Chae's account, is shown to be a sadistic, authoritarian figure; but he can't be found. And then there's a further nod to another thriller, Kiss the girls (1997), where the idea of a deadly duo is raised and then quashed when a prime suspect is himself reduced to a jumble of parts in a bag. All very messy for Cho, and increasingly so, because he appears to be attracted to the sweet Chae Su-Yeon, a complication he can do without, you would think.

In a way, I can also compare this film to the manner in which David Lynch constructs his films. When you see any of the more recent Lynch films, the real mystery (and challenge) is how to understand the story. For Tell Me Something, the problem is how to understand the mystery because, as I said, the killer's motivation(s) is the key. And yet, at the end, there is no absolute clarity, even though the identity is obvious. So if I provide my understanding here and now, I think that would detract from the pleasure of unraveling it for yourself. Meanwhile, I'll continue to ponder the significance of the title, the significance of which escapes me.

However, the production is excellent and the special effects (dismembered bodies, body pieces, heads, gutted torsos and so on) are so realistic they may cause some people more than just some discomfit. It will certainly satisfy the slash-and-gore set who liken this movie to Italian giallo cinema, exemplified by Dario Argento's works such as Deep Red (1977), Tenebre (1982) and others. It's classified as a horror film and I think that's justified, given the underpinnings of the story and the camera work.

I can't comment much on the acting as I'm not familiar with the actors or Korean cinema, having seen only a few; generally, however, I think the actors performed quite well.

Recommended for those who like a mixed bag of horror, mystery and thriller...and body parts.

Trauma

[grahamcarter-1 · 7/10 · 11 June 2017]

In the second tier waterlogged Argento film Trauma (1993), a character stares at a print of John Everett Millais's 'Ophelia' (1852), and he seemingly stumbles over a clue. His vision is blurred from crying, and in a reflection in the glass he spies a stranger in black with a snake bracelet whom he mistakes for someone else. Young-hyun Chang uses this Argento sequence as his stepping off point to explore the blurred relationship between art and reality in 'Tell Me Something' (1999) aka Telmisseomding.

A cloud hangs over the head of Lieutenant Cho, and how he paid for his mothers' medical expenses. "Why would Park pay an 85 million won bill for a detective trying to arrest him?" is the question an internal affairs investigator asks Cho. Although the question of being guilty of taking a bribe is not resolved, he does say to a colleague (Detective Oh) in one scene "I still don't know if I did the right thing." To which Oh replies "I'm sure you didn't want to go like that, but a decision had to be made."

A key scene with seeing, watching, and different ways of being seen involves the questioning of Suyeon Chae. Through various devices such as telemonitors, and shots through internal windows, we see him looking at her, his partner looking at her, and her looking at a video, looking at pictures, and we know that she knows. She knows things.

In a nod to 'Giallo' pulp fiction origins, Miss Chae after being installed in the Lieutenants house, finds a note; 'Call me if you need anything. There's a gun in the drawer.' In a neat piece of montage, we are lulled by a waltz as the Lieutenant shows Miss Chae how to use the gun, which is quickly followed by a sequence of mayhem on a freeway as a truck runs over one of the seemingly ubiquitous black garbage bags of body parts that are being dumped around the city.

Miss Chae's friend Seungmin is a medical intern who seems like the most likely candidate from the get go; you know her cheery countenance is guilty. She wears white all the time, knows how to use a scalpel. Seungmin has long hair Chae short, Chae is artistic Seungmin scientific. And let's not forget this is influenced by Dario Argento who likes to have an alternate killer in the background.

An okay waterlogged thriller whose opening credits features a painting reminiscent of Rembrandt's 'The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp' (1632), which sets up Argento's fresco concern. In the first visit to Miss Chae's house we see a postcard sized reproduction to John Everett Millais' 'Ophelia' (1852), used similarly in Argento's 'Trauma' and 'The Stendahl Syndrome'. Later, in Miss Chae's country family house, there is a painting depicting her as 'Ophelia' from the Millais, painted by her father.

Argento like mise-en-scene can be found in an economically executed sequence in a crowded elevator, and another garbage bag full of body parts. The exterior of Miss Chae's fathers house is reminiscent of the empty house in Deep Red. Instead of the children's scrawl on the wall, we get a montage of photos of Miss Chae and a reproduction of the Rembrandt picture. Ultimately though, the idea of scopophilia, being sexual pleasure from looking… gazing, is how Argento seeps through this work. Worth a look.

Atmospheric But Routine

[NIXFLIX-DOT-COM · 6/10 · 29 August 2003]

TELL ME SOMETHING is one of the few South Korean films to take a stab at the serial killer genre. The Japanese have been doing it for a while, but the Koreans haven't seemed particularly interested in the genre. TELL ME SOMETHING works in that it's incredibly atmospheric, with visuals that matches even Finch's SEVEN, the new benchmark for serial killer movies post SILENCE OF THE LAMBS.

The one thing that sinks TELL ME SOMETHING is that it is rather routine, and more than once it falls into the same cliches that suffocates teen slasher films, in that characters act incredibly stupid and without reason. Also, the movie's mystery is a bit convoluted, and the ending seems almost irrelevant after all that's happened.

It's a good movie, with some very nice things to look at. The constantly falling rain will remind most people of SEVEN, and why not? TELL ME SOMETHING is basically a rehash of every American serial killer made in the '90s. Just because it's Korean doesn't make it anymore original, unfortunately.

6 out of 10

(go to www.nixflix.com for a more detailed review of this film and reviews of other foreign movies)

Thank you for surviving.

[lastliberal-853-253708 · 7/10 · 26 February 2011]

Two serial killer movies in one night? Both happen to be from Korea, and are tied together by Jung-ah Yum. She was a cop in the first movie I watched, but plays a different role here. She actually smiles.

Detective Cho (Suk-kyu Han) is being investigated by Internal Affairs while he tries to solve this case. Talk about some pressure and distraction. But Han does a great job.

Eun-ha Shim is excellent as the woman tied to the victims.

It is a methodical thriller; not an excess of action, and it is accompanied by gorgeous sets and haunting music.

An enjoyable film with a great ending.

Well made but hard to figure out

[chenthom · 9/10 · 17 August 2011]

Serious spoilers ahead !

This is a very well-made thriller. After first watching, it seemed not to make any sense at all to me, and I got quite angry at it.

But then, I went back to it, and patiently went through some of the scenes again to catch the detailed hints. Man, it sure isn't easy to figure them out ! Hollywood thrillers are very in your face with plot hints. This one is far more subtle, and the viewers have to really catch the details themselves.

Since there are many negative comments here because of the impenetrable plot twists, I will list what I found out so far (it's really more of a puzzle than a straightforward thriller, think "The usual suspects"):

At the beginning of the film, the detective removes a button from the dead body of a boy who fell out of a window; the other one is missing. The missing button is the one he sees Chae put into the drawer in the video towards the end of the movie. When he gets into the room 702 where the victims were dissected, he imagines how she pushed the boy off the window. She does it because the boy had been spying on her. Without this link, the detective wouldn't know Chae was in that place, so it is crucial.

On the photo, there are the two women, Chae and Seungmin Oh, together will all the male victims, each holding a bottle with fish, similar to the one that Chae gave to the detective before she left for Paris towards the end. They are standing in front of a water tank. When the detective first went to the home in the woods where Chae was hiding after being attacked, this tank was briefly shown. It was not recognizable as such, but the metal corners were standing out. The detective remembered it from the photo.

The tools that were packed and removed from the room 702 where the detective's partner was killed were found in Seungmin Oh's apartment by the police (before the scene at Tower records). Therefore, she was the one who killed him.

The body missing the head inside the tank is Chae's father's. His head was in the freezer that the detective's partner found just before he was killed. Over the phone, he informed the detective that the head was Chae's father's. His killer (Seungmin Oh) removed the head from the freezer before leaving.

This implies that both women were using the room 702 for the killings. They were partners in those crimes. Seungmin Oh has burn scars on her legs (shown before she leaves for Tower records). She is Chae's childhood friend who set the house on fire. Chae was lying when she said that friend was a boy, in order to cover up Seungmin Oh (her partner in crime).

The men were all former boyfriends of Chae, according to what she said. However, they are shown united on the photo, together with Chae and Seungmin Oh. They are standing in front of the tank that contains Chae's father's dead body, in celebrating pose. This implies they must all have been complicit in killing him. Her father was the first victim, and contrary to the others, his body was kept hidden. From the way he was portrayed, the former boyfriends must have had reason to hate him; also, she must have manipulated them in wanting to murder her father.

The plastic bag that led back to her father was placed to make her father the main suspect for the killing of the young men. Presumably the two women killed them in order to stain Chae's father's reputation (he is a very famous artist). Things went wrong with this plan when the detective's partner discovered her father's head in the freezer just before he was killed, and informed the detective about it. Knowing that her father was dead, he wasn't a suspect any longer for the police. This was the point where Seungmin Oh understood that their plan was unraveling.

The person in the car who was attacking the detective in the rainy night, after he finds one of the victim's place, is Seungmin Oh. The police (towards the end) identify her as the owner of a car that was caught speeding on that night.

Seungmin Oh knows that the police has tracked her down, after seeing them at her workplace. To draw attention away from Chae, she spills the blood in the bathtub, and makes it evident that she is the murderer. She still wants to cover Chae.

Chae's call to the detective telling him she will meet Senguin at Tower records is a setup. She says "just because I was thinking of you", which is not typical for her. He was supposed to kill Seungmin, this was the plan of both women.

There is an enigmatic short scene 30 min before the end where Chae and Seungmin Oh meet for dinner, together with some young men (just after the killing of the detective's partner). Seungmin asks Chae "Did you really go to the hospital to die ? You are not the suicidal type." It looks rather like a memory, and the men present at the dinner might have been the victims. It might imply that the women were ready for suicide, but that Chae wanted out, and that Seungmin was ready to take the blame, in order to give her an alibi.

All in all, it started to make sense to me after moving through the film back and forth on my ipad. This is the first time I had to do this to understand a movie. While it was frustrating at the beginning, this is all looking a lot more interesting now.

Finally, the original title is "Telmisseomding", and was translated to "Tell me something". Much rather, it might mean "They'll miss something".

Stylish but disjointed grisly crime flick

[=G= · 6/10 · 26 May 2002]

"Tell Me Something" is a slick and stylish noirish Korean crime flick which tells of one cop's obsession to stop a serial killer who dismembers his victims and leaves body parts in trash bags to be found. Long on style and atmospherics, "TMS" becomes somewhat convoluted and disjointed, fails to connect on an emotional level, and ends with an unsatisfying conclusion. Nonetheless, audiences into grisly crime flix may enjoy the above average and artful execution.

Note - The VHS I watched was subtitled and, though dialogue is kept to a minimum, something may have been lost in the translation.

Disjointed serial killer outing

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 7 October 2012]

TELL ME SOMETHING is a South Korean serial killer thriller, as dark and depraved as you've expect from the genre following on from the success of Fincher's SE7EN in the mid 1990s. The movie charts the adventures of a detective on the hunt for a seriously warped psychopath who leaves bin bags full of body parts lying around in various parts of the city; in an outlandishly gory set-piece early on, one of the bin bags explodes in a lift full of commuters, scattering limbs, a head and a great deal of blood everywhere.

It sounds mean and nasty and it is, with the grubby atmosphere working just fine. But as the story goes on, TELL ME SOMETHING commits a cardinal sin for this genre: there's little to no detective work going on. Characters meet and leads are followed through contrivance or coincidence rather than the painstaking putting-together of clues, and as a result the narrative drops down to a snail's pace. The movie subsequently follows the route of having the detective meeting a mysterious femme fatale linked to all the murders and from that point in it's a whodunit as the viewer strives to work out who the killer is.

The film is an odd mix of effective scenes and boring scenes. There's a lack of narrative drive to the storyline which saps away a lot of the entertainment value it should have built up, but on the other hand the grisly scenes do stick in the mind. The cast don't really make much of an impact, the characters are never fully explored and of them all, only Eun-ha Shim's sinister leading lady sticks in the mind, recalling in some ways the villainess of Takashi Miike's outrageous AUDITION. In the end it feels overlong and a twist ending is predictable rather than surprising. Try THE CHASER if you want to see the Koreans do this kind of thing perfectly.

Horrific thriller

[rundbauchdodo · 10/10 · 6 August 2001]

This South Korean thriller undoubtedly belongs to the most impressive genre films of the last years and stands in one line with classics like "Seven" or "The Silence of the Lambs". In a way, it even tops both American movies, even though it's not really comparable to them, because the story goes in another direction as the movie proceeds.

"Tell Me Something" starts of as a serial killer thriller clearly influenced by "Seven", but it becomes much more Giallo-like in the second half to become some valid social comment with its downbeat climax.

The acting is also remarkable, just as the sublime black humor that surfaces once in a while and the outrageously gory moments that will leave You gasping for breath even if You've seen many gorefests before. The last point is particularly interesting considering that the film never tries to outdo some notorious Italian horror movie of the early 1980s or Category-III-romp from Hongkong's 1990s.

The diversity of interesting aspects make this top-notch thriller interesting for hard core horror buffs as well as moviegoers that normally don't pay for such violent movies. Astonishingly as it may sound, it's a very sensible movie in a way. Nevertheless, it surely is nothing for the easily offended or faint hearted. It's just demanding cinema which makes no compromises, which most really good films are.

Highly recommended.

Another entry from the Korean Cinema of the incomprehensible

[livinatthemovies · 6/10 · 20 July 2006]

I watched this movie after having watched A Tale of Two Sisters, another movie that required cliff notes, mostly because of my interest in Jung-ah Yum (the step-mother in Tale of Two Sister). Unfortunately Jung-ah's talents are mostly wasted in this film, although she does a good job with what she has.

The film itself seems to confuse complex with clever plotting. Plus there are some annoying reality lapses...Starting with Detective Cho, not only unwillingness to consider Chea a suspect, but actually giving her his gun? Also Chea's friend Seungmin was another obvious suspect (her surgical talents, her early ties to Chea) that somehow was overlooked - until the end of course.

Still and all, not a terrible movie...It relies on a bunch of the cliques of the genre; the femme fatale, the 'buddy' cop who gets killed, the unrelenting rain...But it does a credible job with the material. Could have been a particularly gruesome Raymond Chandler story set in LA, which is both good and bad since Chandler's novels also relied on some complex plots. Don't believe me? Rent The Big Sleep and try following that movie.

So a 6 for the decent acting, and consistent film noir tone.

2-star hacker/suspense slumps into ham-fisted cliché B-movie

[messenger_291 · 3/10 · 4 January 2006]

In a nutshell, if you've seen five average, gory suspense movies before, you've seen this one. By the end, you won't care.

The movie has been described already in other posts, so I won't get into that. What I do want to stress are the horrible characters, and the buckets of clichés and plot devices.

The movie starts out like any typical hack'em up suspense flick with moody music, quick edits, and lots of in-your-face gore, some plot, and then some odd characters -- the cast of suspects. These suspects are all acting totally wrong given the situation, and that is why we suspect them. We never find out why they are acting weird except for the actual killer. One suspect goes on behaving suspiciously and letting the cops think what they will, and it's never explained why. Another obvious suspect is totally ignored by the cops, and is even left alone with the woman who knew all the slashed-up victims.

The police too, are stupid way beyond Keystone Cops. They follow leads into apartments, discover PIECES OF THE VICTIMS, and just hang around alone, poking through things without phoning for back-up, knowing the baddies could be back at any moment. This happens twice. Then, when attacked in a dark alley by the murderer in a car, while the murderer is threateningly -- but patiently -- gunning the engine in neutral apparently waiting for the cop to decide where to run, the cop runs straight for a fence, and the inevitable man-climbs-fence-while-chased-by-car scene, instead of calmly stepping back through the OPEN DOOR into the brick building he just came out of. He also neglects to take down the licence plate, or, apparently, to tell the rest of the police department to look for that car in the area. It shows up again under the APARTMENT BUILDING of the woman they're trying to protect.

And the pathetic attempt at pathos. There's a scene where one guy is crying -- and i'm not making this up -- while passionately squeezing a handful of semi-digested peanuts.

Nothing fits. There's no motive for the way the murderer is working. The police suddenly divine patterns of how the murderer tells the police who the next victim will be, and if you've got two brain cells to rub together, you know who's going to be marked for death next. The murderer gives away far too much information, as if wanting to be caught, but it doesn't play out that way at all.

Positives. The acting by the main female lead was decent. There was nothing she personally could do about the script or the director, or the other actors. There's lots of blood, and other than the rubber arms, all the gory props are at least reasonably believable.

The movie generally looked good. It was appealing, appropriate, and professionally done up in post production. The music was good, and I'd say some of it was a poor copy of the dramatic classical music in "Old Boy," but this movie was made first, so maybe it was the inspiring predecessor.

Anyway, best avoided.

A Thinking-Person's Thriller

[Tarre · 14 January 2003]

I've read the other comments and was surprised by the vast differences of opinion. This was a fantastic movie. It's not Seven and it's not Silence of the Lambs. It's all it's own. I'm an Anglo-American, but have grown up in Hawaii, a deeply Asian-influenced region. I think that makes a big difference in how you receive this movie. It has obvious American undertones, but sustains an Asian cultural subtext that some may not understand. The gore is secondary. Dialogue, too. Movement, real acting and phenomenal shooting makes this an event, not just a movie. The director, actors and even the lighting crew is showing us, not telling us a fantastic story.

The troubled cop beginning of this movie might feel problematic to some, but if you think about it, it really is telling you to not believe everything you think. You think this is going to be a film about one thing and it is about another thing. You think the killer is one character and it is another. Using all available to the genre and medium, the director wastes nothing. He uses music, cinemotagraphy, location, lighting and pacing to convey time, feeling and motive or inspiration if you will. Nothing is rushed and nothing is obvious. I loved that the longing the cop and the "victim" have for each other is so subtle, so quiet. It's almost smoldering and chaste at the same time.

The twists are fantastic, too. You are lead in one direction and you think, "Ah, ha. That's who I thought it was." and then you are told that is not correct. You are left second-guessing yourself to the very end.

A lot of people may feel unsatisfied with the ending because it doesn't tie everything up in a pretty bow. Why did the killer kill? What happens next? How did it happen? I like that. There is nothing more disturbing than being treated like a bumbling idiot by a director or screen writer. I want to think. I want to question. Just like the old saying if you have to have a joke explained to you, you don't get it. This movie needs no explanation. It needs critical thinking people to watch it. Just like reality, not everything is explained. This is a thinking-person's thriller. I certainly hope Hollywood does not re-make this film. It is perfect the way it is with it's Asian sensibilities and rhythm. I loved it!

It certainly is one of the best movies I've seen in a long time and probably the best thriller in recent memory.

Tries to be bleak but ends up being a little too dull.

[shadowman123 · 6/10 · 3 September 2007]

I am a huge fan of foreign cinema and it is no secret that we are all going looking abroad for a good thrill or scare with the Japanese and Koreans leading the way, I mean if you want further proof then check out Battle Royale and Oldboy but unfortunately they have fallen short with this one. From the cover and recent reviews people have given this good reviews and I was very looking forward to watching this but unfortunately it just did not take off well enough for me. Tell Me Something is a gruesome tail of a lunatic that seems to kill people by cutting them up and mixing parts of their bodies together leading police on a puzzler rather than a wild goose chase. Leading the investigation of this is an officer that is being investigated him-self for corruption .... now normally Asian thrillers move on at a quick pace and we are introduced to our main characters and their woes as the film moves along at a nice pace but however this time round the film seems to take a very long time focusing on character development with a stubborn officer who is trying to suss things out between spots of doing a little bit of detective work ! The movie kind of trundles along a little to slowly and although thats not really a bad thing, it tries to make its-self bleak and but instead ends up becoming dull and the good use of camera angles don't help it out at all. However it does kind of redeem its-self as it does not truly rely on shock value but it kind of becomes easy to piece things together but then it becomes rushed towards the end with little or no explanation offered for all that. To conclude Tell Me Something is a bit like a Lamborghini Gallardo, for the out-side you want one, but then when you actually drive it you find out that it is no all what it was you would hope it would but because it was a Lambo you went along for the ride anyway! Thats how I felt about Tell Me Something, a thriller made by a nation which has a reputation for making great films but instead they just give us something very average which does not really seem to cut the mustard.

TELL ME SOMETHING : 6.7 OUT 10

SOME CRIMES ARE BETTER LEFT UNSOLVED!

good pieces don't add up to a good whole

[dbborroughs · 6/10 · 26 August 2007]

When the pieces of bodies begin to be found around the city in cars and in plastic bags, a cop with money problems is put in charge of the case. It soon becomes clear that the parts found are from different people and that the killer seems to be mixing and matching leading to the unhappy conclusion that more victims are in the offing. As the investigation progresses it becomes clear that all of the victims seem to have been ex-lovers of one girl. As the detective interviews the girl, and asks her to "tell me something..." her story begins to emerge... I had heard good thing about this film and was looking forward to seeing it since I had read it was a good thriller. On a lot of levels it is quite good with some great sequences and some good performances, but at 2 hours the film seems to drift to nowhere or perhaps heading to a conclusion that is the guessed at the outset. Twists and turns aside (some of which didn't make a great deal of sense to me) I had a really good idea who was behind it at the start. While I like a good number of the films "set pieces" for lack of a better word, I didn't find it all that special. Worth a look see for those who love thrillers for the good piece

Stylish but full of holes

[chanw · 6/10 · 27 January 2003]

I viewed this movies on VHS dubbed in English.

Some of my favorite films are the Silence of the Lambs sequence and 8mm. Although not as appealing to me, I have also watched and enjoyed Seven. After watching Tell Me Something twice, I have to question how one can compare the quality of this film to the other thriller classics.

To give it credit, this movie was high in production style, which is rarely found in Asian films. It also has a wonderful cast and their acting was definitely above average. On the other hand, the plot quality was highly questionable. The movie has more holes in it than swiss cheese. And, I am not referring to the places where room was left for the viewer's interpretation/imagination either.

Many of the events and surprises throughout the movie just suddenly appear without any previous storyline, explanation or even a slight bit of implication.

Too bad, with a little bit more work, this average somewhat disappointing movie would have been one of my favorites.

makes imperfect sense

[palmereldritch · 7/10 · 27 March 2005]

really,closer to an 8/10. this movie was well-acted,skillfully shot,and attractive without having that disgustingly fake,over-polished look that everyone seems to use now. and it Does make sense,if referring to the progression of clues and false leads and how the movie ends. the things that were definite drawbacks and did Not make sense were more mundane; the cops have a very laissez-faire attitude towards their guns(and even More annoying,each time it's an obvious Portent Of Doom :P ),those dippy cops also missed a handful of important and somewhat obvious clues at first glance(even second and third glance). it's disheartening how many ppl apparently got lost in the 'mystery' part of this psychological thriller/murder-mystery. as long as you pay attention the whole way through,the whole set-up pans out rather well and i thought the effort put into Both the idea and the execution of it was admirable. not perfect,but being coerced into a little analysis-in-the-midst is always nice.

Korean Horror at it's best and worst.

[scarecrowman · 8/10 · 22 February 2003]

I gave this film an 8 out of 10. It was hard to give an Asian suspense film less than a 9, but this film has a few holes. While the acting is superb and the atmospheric scenery is only rivaled by the American film Seven, it's plot falls weak towards the end. It all comes together and makes sense at the end, but there is something disturbing about it. We know there are atleast 2 killers for shear continuity reasons. Because Detective Oh (Yes that is his name), dies while the main villain is in the custody of the lead detective. (Side note, not to sound stereotypical, I admire the Asian community a great deal, but that is the only problem I have with watching Asian film. The names do not stick out because they are all almost the same. With the exception of Detective Oh. So my appologies on not naming anyone other than Detective Oh.) Anyway, what we do not know is why in the hell she wanted to attack the lead villain in Tower Records. We do not know why the family back story turns into a big mess at the end. We do not know why the lead killer would leave evidence of a drastic nature behind. Nor do we know why that eerie painting did not raise the attention of the police when the knew good and well a head would turn up next. I don't know, maybe the subtitles we not translated well enough. Maybe if I knew Korean I would understand the film better. Maybe if I saw the film outside the US it would have had scenes that America did not show. What I do know: This is a great cinematic achievement both visually and acted. The film has some great special effects, such as what I am sure is real animals blood. You see Eastern film is so uncompromising because they do not have to deal with a disturbingly PC Hollywood community. Anyway the only flaws may lie in the American cut, so I cannot go below an 8. I believe the film made since in Korea. If anyone knows where I can get a subtitled Director's Cut of this film please let me know. It breaks my heart to give this film less than a 9.

Excellent Korean thriller....

[MovieGuy01 · 7/10 · 7 January 2010]

I watched the Korean film Tell Me Something last night and i thought it was an excellent film. The film starts of in In Seoul, where there are body parts found which do not match with the severed copses of three men that are found. They have been in cars and bags and public spaces around the city. Detective Cho, is under investigation of the discovery and is assigned to lead the investigation with his team. When the true identities of the men are discovered, the police finds that the artist Su-Yeon Chae, who lives with her friend Seungmin Oh, was a former lover of each of the men that have died. Detective Cho and his police force follows the leads on the information Su-Yeon tells them. I thought that this was a very good film which kept you gripped throughout. 7/10

A long time to go nowhere

[abercleaner · 2/10 · 6 June 2007]

Having missed this on Film four UK I was delighted to purchase it off ebay recently. What was waste of time. I understand there is a homage to Seven and yes the technical side of the film is superb, but the plot, acting, pacing, length and direction leaves so much emptiness. I will be honest I have a problem of credibility with female serial killers, they are as rare as having the winning ticket to the lottery whilst being hit by a meteorite, but that could be over looked if the characters were interesting, unfortunately they are not. The whole film lumbers and creaks and when finally it gets to its first surprise ending, believe me it is not a surprise, it's pretence and over use of slow motion is irritating rather than dramatic. After this the audience is left bored and uninterested when the killer/victim leaves and lines up her next victim, imagine Basic Instinct on Valium. Who actually watches this, it was a huge success but I can't quite understand who it would appeal to.

Very interesting concept, but inadequate execution

[yurivangeest · 8/10 · 17 April 2002]

After seeing all the reviews, I must say that my opinion is mixed. On the one hand, the plot and concept of the movie are very interesting and surprising. On the other hand, the form and style of this movie are blurry and slow/repetitive at certain moments. It is true that this movie needs to been seen at least twice to fully appreciate its intricacies. It's a family thing and somehow it is a combination of Miikie Takashi's Visitor Q, Seven and Silence of the Lambs.

Overall, I would say 7/10.

I would recommend Frailty (2001) from Bill Paxton to people who like this plot.

Grisly serial killer tale from Korea

[Bogey Man · 4/10 · 23 March 2003]

Black plastic bags of human body parts swimming in blood are found in various places in the city of Seoul in South Korea. Police investigates them and soon sees they belong to various victims and are "mixed" together in order to confuse the minds of those that are investigating. A mysteriously silent and beautiful female becomes number one lead for them and target of police investigation and questions and the more the film runs, the more we get closer to the truth and revealing the identity of the violent killer. Much more cannot be said about Korean film maker Yoon-Hyun Chang's disturbing serial killer thriller Tell Me Something (1999) without spoiling its many surprises and plot turns coming.

Unfortunately, this film, in my opinion, and after my first viewing, has more flaws and holes than real merits in it. First of all, it is sadly too long as it runs 117 minutes in NTSC speed. That would be okay if the film had very interesting, multi-leveled, characters in it that would make the whole ride much faster and more fluent to sit through, naturally. Now the characters don't develop too interestingly and also the film hasn't got any real message to deliver and thus is "only" a serial killer horror film, not much else. Many have compared this to the US film maker David Fincher's masterful tale of wickedness living inside ourselves and our society, Seven (1995), but that film is not only visually much more stunning and brilliant than Tell Me Something but also has its message and themes to make the whole piece much bigger and more noteworthy. I felt very bored during many scenes of this Korean film as they don't give anything to the film as a whole. They should have shortened the film by some 30 minutes without harming the end result.

The typical "traumatic childhood thing" feels also pretty stupid and like it was just fastly written to give some kind of a motivation for the killer's act. Traumatic childhood and horrors related to it is a very serious subject matter in cinema and in a film like this, it feels a little unnecessary and also even repellent. If they had given a more interesting and different explanation for the killer's acts, it would be more interesting to watch even in this too long form.

The positive things are also there, fortunately, and especially the few shock scenes (like the head on the seat of the car) are truly effective and done with great fast editing and merciless elements on the soundtrack. Worth mentioning is also the "kubrickesque" elevator scene that has a remarkably effective soundtrack behind it and making it stronger. The silent scenes and especially the face expressions and eyes of the female lead are also very impressive and once again show how much more powerful cinema can be without words, silently. Also the scene inside some industrial building (followed by a brutal murder) is effective and uses the daytime setting, empty room and distant sounds in the sountrack very effectively and gives also a strong feel of loneliness in such a big city. If they only had wanted to give us more than just murder mystery with this film of their's..

The graphic horror elements are very strong in this film, and the nastiness of them even surprised me. The film opens with a grisly depiction of dissection and nauseatingly realistic body parts and blood, which are shown for several seconds in close ups without any other reason. Similar scenes follow and the film also includes one of the nastiest highway multi car accidents I've ever seen, and that is definitely an unusually horrific scene! Also, equally sudden and nasty is the elevator scene and these scenes involving bags full of body parts are as graphic and slippery as they just can be so the film makers seemingly wanted to deliver plenty of gore with this film. It all comes also a little gratuitous as sometimes the real suspense and other more noteworthy horror elements suffer and leave on the background due to these easier scenes. The film includes also one brutal killing that definitely belongs to the mentioned category of being noticably calculated. The scene is distantly close to the "impalement killing" in Japanese Toshihara Ikeda's disturbing masterpiece Evil Dead Trap (1988), a film that has wonderful soundtrack and equally wonderful (and gruesome) surreal imagery and terror atmosphere and on any level greater film than Tell Me Something.

Tell Me Something has potential but doesn't use it as near as completely as would have been preferred. It will probably please most "slasher and horror fans" that like their films bloody and mysterious, but if you're looking for a more intelligent and effective (both mentally and physically) piece, then it will probably come as a more or less slight disappointment as it came to me. Still, due to its few merits and overall Eastern status (meaning there are NOT any stupid lightening "entertainment" elements usually found in, for example, modern Hollywood horror films) make this to 4/10 category. And with capital G I would add.

The Best Film of 1999

[bdeyes81 · 10/10 · 1 November 2001]

I had been working on a fairly in depth discussion of this film to post on the IMDB, but I decided to just shorten my lengthy diatribe to one word: RUN!

I don't want to give away ANY of the plot, because the less you know the better. And all you need to know is that this is the BEST serial thriller to come along since The Silence of the Lambs...it's better than Seven, it's better than Copycat, and it's even better than The Crimson Rivers. In fact, I would rate this top notch film on the same level as Dario Argento's Deep Red and Tenebre...and for those of you fortunate enough to have seen those classic films..yes, it really is THAT good! Yet whereas acting and even the screenplay are secondary to classic Italian thrillers, this gem boasts an exquisitely constructed screenplay (the ending will surely take you by surprise!) and two outstanding lead performances by the commandingly handsome Suk-kyu Han and the breathtakingly beautiful Eun-ha Shim.

Sadly, Tell Me Something has yet to get a US release (outside of all too rare arthouse screenings from time to time), and after two years it remains unreleased on VHS or DVD. So I would HIGHLY recommend that you all purchase the code-free NTSC Hong Kong DVD. The A/V transfer is stunning, and the English subtitles get a surprisingly accurate translation.

I have no idea why none of the Hollywood studios have yet given this film a theatrical release, but like the equally brilliant Japanese horror film RING, I'm guessing it's because they are first planning an American remake...so before that dark day comes, experience for yourself the film that I consider the Best Movie of 1999 (besting even The Matrix), and one of the Top 5 Horror/Thrillers of the decade!

My Grade: A+