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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Korean "Seven" Ends Up Closer to a Six, May 29, 2003
A man enters a door in a darkened hall; moments later, we get to watch every gruesome detail of his half-conscious dissection. As the story progresses, dismembered bodies keep turning up everywhere: a basketball court, an abandoned area, a crowded elevator--although none of the body parts found together match each other. The victims, all male, share only one thing: a previous relationship with a beautiful, mysterious woman named Su-Yeon Chae.For all but the final five to 10 minutes of this film, "Tell Me Something" matches its American kindred spirit, the Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman thriller "Seven." It narrows down the focus by limiting the film to four major characters: Chae, two Detectives Cho and Oh, and Chae's closest current pal, Sung-Min. This allows director Chang Youn-Hyun to develop each character extremely well, and allows him enough time to grow the relationship between Cho, who is slowly falling for Chae, whom he has been assigned to watch. "Tell Me" betters "Seven" in making the past play such an important role in the film. Each character's past, save for Detective Oh, is explored enough to set up their particular personality flaws, insecurities, and perhaps motivations. Cho starts off the film under investigation as to how he has been able to fund the care of his dying mother on his policeman's salary; the case is a tainted badge's shot at getting back its luster. Sung-Min has her own intricate past that somehow ties in to Chae. Chae's tangled web is the most important, mixing father issues, former lovers, and a penchant for dating talented, successful men, then going single again when the men become too aggressive. Each performance is top caliber. The film's dirty, unlit urban landscape is excellently portrayed. The camera angles are cropped tightly enough to keep you paranoid and at the edge of your seat. The sound is selectively suspenseful, be it the biting music clips, or the footsteps and labored breathing of a character. Very technically sound, and on the same level as the top American efforts. But then comes the film's final sequences. They are riveting, fast-paced and...ultimately confusing. I watched the entire film three times in a row, and the end sequences twice that; I still ended up having to go online to see if anyone, anywhere agreed with any one of the number of theories I had about the movie's ending. That didn't help. It's not so much a question of who the bad guy eventually was--that's answered in the film--but a question of who else was involved, why, since when...etc., etc. If you're easily frustrated by movies that force you to think through the plot again--be prepared to be frustrated. If you're a thinking man's movie watcher, bring some like-minded friends along, pay good attention, and try to solve the thing afterward. It's still, I believe, a must see for all fans of a good grisly murder mystery in the "Seven" mold. A 3.5 stars would be a more appropriate rating if they had one; I'm just one of those people for whom loose ends are like a fishbone stuck in my throat. For those less bothered by that, four is all good.
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DVD ~ Chen Chang
DVD ~ Kang-ho Song
DVD ~ Seo Jeong-min
DVD ~ Maki Horikita
DVD ~ Angelica Lee
