re:mote voices

Title: Tell Me Something [Telmisseomding]
Cast: Suk-kyu Han, Eun-ha Shim, Hang-Seon Jang, Jung-ah Yum, Seok-Hwan An, Cheol-Ho Park, Jun-Sang Yu, Hwan-Jun Lee
Director: Yoon-Hyun Chang

When a series of bodies are found, a respected police officer who has just been investigated for corruption is given the job. With this he will he either be damned, once and for all, or redeemed from any implication. The bodies are jigsaws - limbs, torsos, heads from different people - left in public places to be reassembled and tease the police. When it is found that all the dead men have been involved with one woman, the focus of the investigation shifts to her. From no clues, they move to trying to find out everything about her - who will be the next victim and who is the killer?

Tell Me Something is a blood soaked serial killer film. Starting with a graphic amputation. Then continuing with a series of bloody discoveries. Via at least one nightmare sequence. Through the film we are provided with a number of suspects, none seeming as convincing as my first instinct. And sure enough we wind our way towards where i expect. From which it is clear that there will be twists, which in turn are delivered on schedule.

I can never decide - does the fact a film turns out the way you expect make it bad? The alternative can be a twist that comes so far out of left field that the film becomes nonsense. So in turn surely the answer is to find a middle ground. Tell Me Something does that to some degree - the suspects are there - but is it enough? For me, I would tend to say no.

Tell Me Something is a Korean film from 1999, currently showing in UK cinemas as part of the 2005 Asia Extreme season. While it is certainly the most graphically extreme of the first three films in the season, which are currently showing, it seems a little disappointing that the season includes something as old as this, presumably knocking out something more contemporary. For instance, this is the first year not to include something by Miike Takashi!