It's the summer of 1999 and black garbage bags starts to appear at random places around Seoul, filled with different human body parts. The case falls into the lap of Detective Jo who discovers that the parts in each of the bags belongs to three different victims. Jo later learns that all three victims had one thing in common, they were all old boyfriends of a girl named Chae Su-yeon so Jo looks her up since he figure that she might be in danger as well. The better he starts to know the girl, the more he uncovers from her past and finds out things that might help him catch the serial killer, or is it Chae Su-yeon that is the killer?
Tell Me Something is a stylish South Korean thriller that is somewhat similar to Seven. Not that it has the same plot or anything, but it carries some of its atmosphere and overall feeling, dealing with a smart serial killer and all. It also has the tension and creepiness that Seven had and is a slick movie with a great plot and a good twist towards the end. Fortunately Tell Me Something is not the least bit predictable, something that otherwise easily could ruin a good thriller, and when you think you have the ending made, you'll see it's still far from it.
Little by little Detective Jo learns more and more about the killer and comes closer to solving the case, or so one would think. It sure has its slow moment like a lot of other Asian flicks out there but is never really a snore either. For sitting through those slow moments, you always get something back later on so it's really no big deal, one just have to be patient. Sometimes it feels a bit like a Hollywood movie, but still remains to have a genuine Korean cinema feel to it, and that might be a reason why this movie would maybe appeal to a different audience and not just the hardcore Asian film fans.
 
Even though I said this movie feels a little bit Hollywood, it's still definitely a movie where the viewer is required to think as nothing is fully explained, not even in the end. Sometimes you want everything to be tied together in the end to be able to feel completely satisfied, but sometimes it might as well suck when everything is fully explained. I guess some people will be left unsatisfied with the actual ending as it leaves a lot of questions to be asked, but this is also something that makes it come out more interesting. I think that if everything would've been explained it would've been a totally different movie. Sometimes missing pieces can be nice and leaves you to interpret it any way you want.
I don't wanna give the story away because if I do, there would be no reason for you to watch this. It's probably best to know as little as possible in order to get the most out of it and to be able to feel the real suspense this movie has to it. People with a short attention span might find themselves having trouble sitting through this two hour long flick as sometimes it tends to slow down a lot, Asian style, but if you're used to it there should be no problem.
The acting is one of the greatest things this movie has. Especially Detective Jo is a great character and is easy to get somewhat attached to, but all the others do a fantastic job as well. The directing is awesome and the movie is truly slick, plus that, the use of lights are really amazing as well. The score is very good too and fits the movie perfectly. There's especially one part of the movie that has a Nick Cave song going in the background that is "Red Right Hand" and creates an awesome feeling to what's going on.
Tell Me Something is a kind of dark and serious movie with a great story that really fits well in the thriller genre. It has suspense and it will make you think, and best of all it's not predictable as you'll probably think you have the answears a lot of times to later realize that you were completely wrong. It might be too slow for some and the fact that everything is not fully explained towards the end might be unsatisfying for some, but apart from that, it's a great Korean movie. Recommended.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE: Telmisseomding
MOVIE YEAR: 1999
DIRECTOR: Yoon-Hyun Chang
WRITING CREDITS: Yoon-Hyun Chang, Eun-Ah In
GENRE: Thriller, Horror, Crime
CAST: Suk-kyu Han, Eun-ha Shim, Jung-ah Yum
COUNTRY: South Korea
RUNTIME: 118 min
RATING: 7/10
Tell Me Something Website/IMDB Click here
Tell Me Something Trailer Click here
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