From HouseofHorrors.com
Asian Horror Series: Tell Me Something
By HammerFanatic
Mar 11, 2006, 08:56
In 1999, the Korean film, Telmisseomding (Tell Me Something) was released, the work of writer-director, Yoon-Hyun Chang. The film was co-written by, Eun-Ah In, Eun-Jeong Kim, Su-chang Kong and Hye-Weon Shim. The cast includes; Suk-kyu Han (Detective Cho), Eun-ha Shim (Chae Su-Yeon), Hang-Seon Jang (Detective Oh), Jung-ah Yum (Seungmin Oh) and Jun-Sang Yu (Kim Ki-yeon).
Detective Cho (Suk-kyu Han) is a cop who appears to be hanging on to his badge by the thinnest of hairs. It would seem he's somewhat of a renegade and not the most popular cop with his superiors. Cho is put on a case where dismembered corpses are found around the city, all the 'pieces' are found in garbage bags and the weird part of the case is, the body parts that are found, don't match up! With the help of the medical examiner, Cho discovers that with the finding of each victim, one body is completed. The medical examiner tells Cho that one victim did have the crowns left in and that it's possible to trace the crowns and medical records of the victim, thus giving them an identity to one victim and possibly the identities to the remaining victims. Once the medical records of the man are located, it's discovered that he had Suyeon Chae (Eun-ha Shim) down as his contact, in case of emergency. Cho locates Miss Chae and she tells the Detective that she had no idea she'd been put down as a contact, but the man's family had emigrated and he may of felt she was his 'next of kin'. Cho shows Chae a list of the known victims and she informs Cho that she knows all the victims. Cho feels Chae and her friends could be next on the list for the body piece puzzle, but there are some very unexpected turns in the case.
Tell Me Something is presented in widescreen (1.77:1) and the print appears to be problem free, with only minor instances of 'spots'. Colors appear solid and audio options are original Korean (with optional English subtitles) in Dolby Digital 5.1 or an English dub. Bonus features include the original theatrical trailer and an extensive photo gallery.
I'd never heard anything about this film, until I sat down to watch it and I must say, this was a pleasant surprise. Reading the synopsis on the rental cover never really tells you what you're in for, but once I'd popped this in the DVD player, it was 118 minutes of viewing that went by quite fast. It didn't take long for the first victim to pop up and then the second and so on.....it moved at a nice clip, the story was very interesting and the gore, while not buckets of it, was strong enough at times to cause this viewer to wince. Not an all-out horror film and not an all-out police drama, but, Tell Me Something, does combine the two genres in a neat little package. I watched this film as a rental, but it's definitely a film I'd add to my collection, it's that easy to watch and enjoy.
Buy Tell Me Something on DVD at Amazon.com
Read our review for The Ring Virus.
Read our review for Audition.
Checkout our Asian Horror section in The Vault.
© Copyright by HouseofHorrors.com