Review: Tell Me Something

This South Korean thriller-chiller is as shamelessly predictable as it is memorably grim.

Tell Me Something
Photo: Kino International

Hollywood fingerprints are all over Chang Youn-Hyun’s Tell Me Something, a South Korean thriller-chiller that’s as shamelessly predictable as it is memorably grim. Not unlike The Crimson Rivers, Something’s serial killer narrative owes plenty to David Fincher’s Se7en though its gruesome set pieces owe more to Italian giallo director Dario Argento. Down-on-his-luck Detective Cho (Han Suk-gyu) is sent to protect Shim Eun-ha’s silent artist from the looming threat of a mysterious killer who has eliminated all her ex-boyfriends. A series of garbage bags containing the body parts of the killer’s victims appear randomly about town. Cho’s Freudian fright-trip exposes the girl’s secret past and while the endgame may feel reductive, Chang’s grisly tableaux morts are anything but (see the highway bloodfest and audacious elevator sequence).

Score: 
 Cast: Han Suk-gyu, Shim Eun-ha, chang Hang-sun, Yum Jung-ah  Director: Chang Youn-hyun  Screenwriter: Chang Youn-hyun, In Eun-ah  Distributor: Kino International  Running Time: 116 min  Rating: R  Year: 2000  Buy: Video

Ed Gonzalez

Ed Gonzalez is the co-founder of Slant Magazine. A member of the New York Film Critics Circle, his writing has appeared in The Village Voice, The Los Angeles Times, and other publications.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.