TELL ME SOMETHING (1999)
Starring: Han Seok-Gyu, Shim Eun-Ha
Directed by: Chang Yoon-Hyun

Black on black, Tell Me Something is a liquid-slicked Korean thriller that took lessons from the Brian DePalma/Dario Argento giallo school of faceless murderers re-enacting old traumas through serial killing, while auditing classes in the Basic Instinct sexual terror night school. The result is a movie full of lacquered darkness, creeping dread, and enough sick kicks for just about any viewer.

Black garbage bags of mismatched body parts start sprouting around Seoul like poisonous mushrooms after the rain. Disgraced Detective Cho (Han Seok-Gyu, Christmas in August) is handed the reins of the investigation and given a chance to redeem himself. A witness, fragile flower Suyeon (Shim Eun-Ha, Christmas in August), comes forward, and with her comes a suspect: bad-tempered stalker, Kiyon Kim. The police put everyone under surveillance but somehow the killer always strikes when they’re looking the other way. More bags blossom out of the toxic cityscape overnight. The killer begins to send in videotapes. He’s dissecting his victims while they’re still alive. Slowly, methodically, Detective Cho begins to break down, becoming obsessed with Suyeon; becoming obsessed with the killer.

As beautiful as a black velvet bodybag, Tell Me Something is the second film from director Chang Yoon-Hyun and it plays expertly with the audience, coming on like “Reviving Ophelia” with a bodycount one minute, tightening the screws like a Hitchcock thriller the next. Detective Cho is played by one of Korea’s most popular (and highest-paid) actors, Han Seok-Gyu. Fine bones and paper-thin skin make him look perfectly disgusting and kind of handsome at the same time. Decadent sexpot, Shim Eun-Ha, plays Suyeon with a hothouse orchid sexuality. The two of them were the couple at the heart of the subtle and sweet Christmas in August and here they appear as that movie’s dark side, sick where it was whole, deadly where it was delicate.

An IQ-enhanced Basic Instinct, Tell Me Something is a nasty thesis on art, misogyny, and rooms you shouldn't look in. It's a summer thriller that wields its high style like a slaughterhouse mallet.