Tell
me Something
Chang Youn-Hyun
Eastern Eye
R4 DVD
Tell me Something
is a moody, grisly and melancholic Korean police thriller. It mixes together a number
of different genres to surprising effect; it is a serial killer film, a police
drama and a detective tale. It certainly has some blood thirsty moments and
some scenes which are gore ridden ranging from dismemberments and a rather
graphic impaling to bags of blood and body parts exploding in some very
inconvenient locations, but these are not gratuitous and form part of the arc
of a complex tale that unfolds over nearly two hours. Indeed I enjoyed the way
in which character development was considered as more important than the shocks
and gore and that the more violent scenes were part of a well developed and
interesting plot.
The film opens with a confronting scene
of dismemberment. The victim, who is
clearly still alive but has been anesthetized, is being carefully dissected
into various parts. The police are discovering various limbs and heads, organs
and heads strewn throughout the city, but as they are examined by forensics are
found to be mismatched and come from various victims.
At the same time we are introduced to
Cho, the detective investigating the case. It seems his mother was ill for a
long time and the large bills for her hospital stay were paid for by the very
criminal he was supposed to be catching.
We see him being interviewed about his possible corruption and not being
able to offer any credible defense. Did he accept tainted money or did the
unnamed criminal simply pay the bills to compromise his investigation, we never
know. This secondary strand of this film is constantly in the background - is
Cho reliable or corrupt and can he redeem himself through this investigation.
At first there are few leads, but then
one of the victims is identified by dental records and a pattern emerges, they
have all dated the same girl, Su Yeon-Chae. When she
is interviewed she is cool and aloof and seems unwilling to discuss her life,
her lovers or anything to do with her past. The question however is whether she
is a victim or perpetuator and this motif continues throughout the film
applying to various characters including Cho himself. She does not co-operate
with the investigation and only after many killings and much pressure does she
reveal her childhood trauma of abuse and incest.
While Cho seems a vulnerable character,
these is something detached and cold about the way she describes her previous
relationships and her lack of reaction to what are the very brutal killings of
her previous lovers. She seems to manipulate her relationship with Cho is this
because she is in fear of her life or is it some form of strategy for personal survival.
Throughout the film Change explores the
dynamics of power and relationships ranging from Cho and other policemen who
think he may be corrupt, to Su and her relationship with her past lovers and
family and her current friends and acquaintances. We get introduced to a number
of particularly intense friends who does
not seem to be exactly what they seems, but then none of the characters are
what they seem in this film, so which ones are important and which are merely
eccentric is the key to his tale.
The filming is impressive and the
soundtrack is creative, rather than overusing intense and dark scores as most
Western serial killer films tend to do, the soundscape
created is sparse, places a strong emphasis on ambient effect and when it does
use music (from modern to classical), it does so with great effect. There is an
economy in the soundtrack which makes it especially effective, in many cases it
deliberately works against what is being shown on scene so you are not sure how
to interpret what you are seeing.
The strange ending of the film is
certainly one of the most extreme turnabouts seen in similar films. While there
are a number of anti-climatic events during the film where possible killers are
found murdered, the ending takes it to a whole new level. This is a somewhat
problematic in that all the threads of the tale are not really brought together
and too many questions are left unanswered. Is Su really capable of having
manipulated and controlled all the events that have occurred, has she
consciously used Cho to cover her tracks or is she so disturbed by her father’s
abuse that she is pathological. Was she the sole killer or is there something
in the story which suggested multiple killers. Even watching the film a number
of times leaves unanswered questions.
The cinematography, score and look of
Tell me Something cannot be faulted and the acting is
solid if not a little patchy in places. On the whole I felt the film lacked
emotion and that the ending should have been longer and wrapped up the story
better. This is not to say this isn’t an interesting and intelligent film, it
is more successful than most crime dramas, certainly offers it’s shares of
shocks and horrors as well as having lots of strange turns, I just thought with
such potential Chang Youn-Hyun could have achieved a
lot more.