Telmisseomding (1999) Tell Me Something

Directed by Yoon-Hyun Chang

Starring Shim Eun-ha (Christmas in August, Art Museum by the Zoo), Han Suk-kyu (Christmas in August, Shiri)

Film number three in the Tartan Asia extreme tour 2005.

Memories of Murder dealt with the stupidity and incompetence of the police in the mid eighties and was very loosely based on a real unsolved case. Judging by “Tell Me Something” the police aren’t as incompetent these days, they’re even worse.

The film starts with a gruesome dissection taking place, blood flows freely as the scalpel slices slowly and carefully through the skin (I queried the flow of blood but the answer was given later). Following this body parts start appearing around Seoul in black bags, all the parts are there but they don’t connect, they have come from a few different people. Further mixtures of body parts are found in different locations until one is identified by his dental records.

The police manage to connect the head to a museum curator Chae Su-Yeon who manages to identify the (by now) three heads found, they are people who have been lovers in her past so the killer obviously has a connection, if not very unhealthy obsession with her. They pick up a male friend of hers and grill him, he definitely qualifies under “unhealthy obsession” and he becomes the main suspect until parts of his body turn up.

Delving into Su-Yeon’s past, we discover she was abused by her father as a child, now the father has disappeared and again becomes chief suspect until, yes you’ve guessed it!

As for the police, they’re bloody clueless! The main one Detective Cho almost gets run over twice yet fails to get any details of the car, other things give away his total stupidity (or should that be gullibility) but to explain them would give away too much of the story.

Other reviews have compared the film to “Se7en” and “Silence of the Lambs” but to be honest, each of those were far stronger and more competent, this is more in the league of “Basic Instinct” but without the sex, it is superior to the similar German film “Tattoo” though.

To be fair the actors are good (although I preferred the two main stars in another joint vehicle “Christmas in August”) there are some very good set pieces, like the multiple pile up caused by a bag of body parts. Also because of it’s construction it almost demands a second viewing.

Not bad but there are far better ones out there, worth a rental if you like this kind of film.

Cheers Trev.

BBFC rated 18.