User reviews

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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)

"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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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+