Puzzling ‘Tell Me’ Has Its Limits

Chang Youn-Hyun’s “Tell Me Something,” a sleek police procedural of considerable ingenuity and even more grisliness, set box-office records in South Korea. It touches upon the vulnerability of girls to unspeakable horrors while growing up in their own homes, a persistent and potent theme in Asian cinema that has nearly universal resonance.

For all its style and assurance, “Tell Me Something” is not ultimately original enough to sustain its many horrific images, however brief they may be. Chang does let audiences know what they’re in for right at the top, with a shadowy figure slicing off the arms of a man who was alive though mercifully unconscious at the time. He is the first of four men who meet this fate, their body parts becoming pieces of a demented puzzle that Han Suk-Gyu’s Detective Cho strives to solve.

Under a cloud because his colleagues cannot believe he could care so lavishly for his dying mother on his police department salary, Cho sees this dreadful case as his chance for redemption--and so does his boss. Eventually, he thinks he’s got a break when he at last discovers a beautiful, enigmatic young woman, Su-Yeon Chae (Shim Eun-Ha) who not only knew all the victims but also broke off with them when their attentions became too ardent. Cho places himself at great peril when he’s drawn to her as he continues his investigation of the identity and motivation of the killer.

“Tell Me Something” has ultimately such a small pool of suspects that it depends for its impact not upon the revelation of the killer’s identity but rather on the imaginative way the mystery plays out. Yet don’t be surprised if you’re confounded by the intricate unraveling of the film’s climactic sequences. Audiences would be well-advised to keep two things in mind: Don’t trust in the veracity of flashbacks and remember that a certain family in Inchon had only daughters, no sons.

Han and Shim both hold the screen with ease, as do Chang Hang-Sun as Cho’s veteran partner and Yum Jung-Ah as Sung-Min, a young doctor in the second year of her residency, a forceful woman who is one of Su-Yeon’s few friends. “Tell Me Something” is stunningly photographed by Kim Sung-Bok, who can create a gritty neo-noir urban atmosphere with the aplomb of the top cinematographers the world over. Yet there is a limit to how much savagery even Kim’s brisk, elliptical approach can sustain.

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Unrated. Times guidelines: Exceptionally graphic images of extreme violence are totally unsuitable for children.

‘Tell Me Something’

Han Suk-Gyu: Detective Cho

Shim Eun-Ha: Su-Yeon Chae

Chang Hang-Sun: Detective Oh

Yum Jung-Ah: Sung-Min

A Kino International release of a Koo & C Film production in association with Cinema Service & Kookmin Venture Capital. Director Chang Youn-Hyun. Producers Koo Bon-Han & Chang Youn-Hyun. Executive producer Choi Gwi-Duk. Screenplay by Chang Youn-Hyun, In Eun-Ah, Shim Hae-Weon, Kim Eun-Jung. Cinematographer Kim Sung-Bok. Editor Kim Sang-Bum. Music Cho Young-Ook and Bang Joon-Suk. Art director Chung Ku-Ho. Set designer Chungsol Art. In Korean with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour, 56 minutes.

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