"TELL ME SOMETHING" MOVIE- MYSTERY EXPLAINED
"Tell me something", is a 1999, South Korean crime thriller, from the director Chang Yoon Hyun, which one of the country's biggest hits. This 116 minute long has an IMDb rating of 6.5/10, and was made memorable with the mesmerizing acting of Shim Eum Ha as Cha Su Yeon, the lead actress.
The movie is all about the investigations of mysterious serial killing and the unraveling of the mystery by the lead detective Jo. What makes the movie a topic for discussion among the viewers is its confusing ending. So, here I'm trying to explain the movie, especially its ending. Beware, SPOILERS AHEAD!!
PLOT SUMMARY:
The movie opens with a murder- a man is let into a room in a somewhat cheap apartment / lodge and the next scene shows him lying on a metal table, (similar to the ones used in autopsy/ anatomy labs), anaesthetised. One of his arms is amputated at first. The scene which comes later, shows a peson coming out of the room with a plastic bag obviously filled with body parts.
The movie then progresses through the main lead detective Jo, whose hospitalised mother has recently passed away, and he was questioned regarding the source of money for paying his mother's hospital expense- (well, apparently the authorities didn't have enough evidence to frame him and he is allowed to leave). Soon the enquiry he had to attend a crime scene where a teenager has fallen from a building; the police speculates that he had fallen while trying theft, but his younger brother kept on refusing the same. After a squabble with a fellow officer, regarding the suspected bribery, Det.Jo leaves the crime scene after taking a button from the dead boy's jacket cuff (he took it because he noticed thet the button was missing in the other cuff).
Soon after his mother's funeral he is pulled into the investigation of serial murders, which began from the bridge case- black plastic bag filled with amputated body parts was found in an abandoned car under the bridge. After forensic analysis it was found that a perfect six part amputation was done by someone with medical knowledge, using surgical instruments and anaesthesia, and the legs do not belong to the same person.
Later, similarly abandoned body parts in a plastic bag are found inside a lift. Det Jo is asked to solve this case, as this may be a way to come clean of his allegations of bribery. He sets up a team in a seperate building and investigation continues.
In another scene a man with specs is shown to enter a car. Again abandoned body parts in plastic bag is found in a basketball ground. It was found out that the arms belonged to the bridge case victim and among the body parts, heart was missing. Until this case it was not possible to identify the victims, as there were no finger prints; but in this new case, dental implants were found, using which they could find out the identity of the basket ball ground (riverside park) corpse.
After analyzing the three body part groups from three locations , the investigation team finds about the pattern of mix up of body parts, and there were some parts still missing (explained in the diagram). So the det. team comes to the conclusion that the missing parts are stored somewhere to be revealed with the next victim.
Using the dental implants and hospital charts, the identity of the basket ball(riverside) corpse is made- Kwon Jong Hyun, a philisophy professor. And after tracking the person named in the realtive list, they come across the name Chae So Yeon, who is a curator in a museum. She identifies the corpse of the professor and after further interrogation it was found that she knows the other two victims. Chae So Yeon is the daughter of a famous artist Chae Yong Hoon who is missing for 5 years.
So , it is revealed that she had known all three men during her past years (see diagram). After the detectives drops So Yeon home, it is shown that someone is observing them from a car.
The detectives witretap her phone and observes secretly and finds out that she has not much friends and she had talked in phone with a man - Ki Yon and a woman Seung Min. Later when Det. Jo and his partner Det Oh reaches So Yeon's home, they meet Oh Seung Min, who is revealed to be So yeon's high school friend and is also a doctor.
The forensic doctor informs the detective of a special rare and high quality chemical preservative in the corpse. Mean while they question Oh Seung Min about So Yeon, and comes to know that So Yeon had tried to commit multiple suicide attempts and that's how they met again in hospital after high school. Oh Seung Min also tells that Kim Kiyon is an obsessed stalker of So Yeon. Det. Jo follows So Yeon around and had a somewhat touching conversation with her, and she tells that she trusts only him in the current situation.
The police finds out that Kim Kiyon has purchased the same kind of preservative used in the corpses and calls him for interrogation. He was found to have studied anatomy in France and had in fact followed So Yeon to France, and he was using the preservative for his work. Det Jo finds him staring right into the hidden cameras in the interrogation room. While Kiyon was interrogated, So Yeon was found unconscious inside her home by Seung Min, and was supposedly attacked by an intruder. So Yeon is not revealing the idetnity of attacker, and Seung Min as a doctor wants her to rest without troubles.
Kim Kiyon is released from interrogation and it is shown that at his home he talks to someone loudly over the phone and scribbles an address in a note pad and rushes out angrily to meet the person . Meanwhile at So Yeon's home det. Jo finhs out hidden cameras and instinctively links it to Kiyon. While the detectives search through the house det.Jo finds the notepad and finds a number 702 over it (after pencil shading) and they discover a dissected heart in the freezer, which was found out to be Kwon Jung Hyun's.
Meanwhile So Hyeon has gone to her secluded house for calming herself and Det Jo goes there along with Det Oh and persuades her to return and for her safety she stays with Det Jo at his house. Meanwhile Det Oh finds out an alternate address of Kim Kiyon and informs det Jo. Det Jo leaves a sleeping So yeon with his gun left in a drawer and informing the same via a note. So Yeon discovers the gun after waking up. Det Jo reaches the alternate address of Kim Kiyon unarmed.
Before the arrival of det Jo there is someone already in the house and that person has switched on the TV playing a VCR. Outside the house, det Jo finds Kim's car with a handicam in a bag inside it. He later enters the house and finds a room full of So Yeons photographs and then the video in the TV- which shows the amputation and murder of a victim (possibly Kim Kiyon). Det Jo finds that someone else is in the house and follows the sound, and ends up being attacked by someone in the car outside. Rest of the team arrives later, and Det Jo returns home to question So Yeon as she was the only person who knew he was unarmed. He finds that So Yeon was not at home and his gun was still in the drawer. So Yeon reaches the home in the meantime and apparently she had gone out buy some eatables. An argument arises between them, and later they come to terms and Det Jo teaches her to use the gun.
A bag of body parts is left in the high way, which was identified to be Kim Kiyons and his head was missing among them. Det Jo speculates that, the murderer has given a warning by placing Kwon Jung Hyun's heart in Kiyon's refrigerator- that Kiyon will be the next victim- Therefore the next victim will most probably receive a warning with Kiyon's missing head.
Meanwhile the investigation turns to So Hyeons missing father, as charcoal was found in the Kwon's heart and bag, which lead to the store from which So yeon's father had brought charcoal. Det Jo concludes that So Hyeon has a bad relationship with her father, as she has not contacted him in 5 years. Next day, Kiyon's head is found in Det Jo's car. Det Oh gives his gun to Det Jo for his self protection.
Seeing the danger to Det Jo, So Yeon decides to reveal her past to him. She takes him to her childhood home and there det Jo comes to know that So Yeon was abused by her father and she had a neighbourhood friend who tried to help her, this friend was hurt in a fire which broke out in her home and had not survived it (the fire was probably started by the friend himself).
Meanwhile Det Oh gets a call the selling of a painting- probably related to So Yeon's father- and traces it to the younger sibling of the teenager who fell from a building. The child leads him to a room in the apartment (which was shown in the beginning of the movie). Inside he discovers the head of So Yeon's father in the refrigerator and the place and equipments used for killing. He also notices some photographs and calls Det. Jo who was with So Yeon at her childhood home. While on phone, he is attacked by someone and killed. Before he dies he hides the photograph in the room. The killer leaves the room after taking most of the evidence and the head of So Yeon's dad.
Det Jo is devastated by the death of his partner and he was subsequently removed from the case. He later comes to know that in the neighbourhood hoyse of So Yeon's childhood house there was no boy, but that family had 6 daughters and the youngest was SeungMin. Meanwhile the police finds that Oh SeungMin's car was speeding on the night Det Jo got hurt.
Seung Min notices detectives at hospital and becomes suspicious. She rushed home and smears the wall of her bathroom with blood from blood bag and leaves the place. The police later arrives and discovers the surgical instruments and blood splattered walls . Seung Min who has escaped has called So Yeon to Tower records for meet up. So yeon messages Det Jo about this, who was not able to reach So Yeon.
Det Jo meets them both at Tower records and on seeing him Seung Min brings a knife to So yeons neck and threatens to kill her and she is shot by So Yeon using the gun given by Det Jo earlier.
The case seemed to have over and So Yeon decides to go to Paris for her studies. Before leaving she gives Det Jo a jar of small blue fishes and a note book with some of his sketches. At night det Jo goes through the hidden camera videos of So Hyeon and notices that she has the buttn of the teenager who fell from the building. He rushes to her house, and discovers the button and key to the killing site apartment. He goes to the apartment, opens the door with key and there he discovers the photograph of So Yeon, Seung Min, and all the 4 killed young men all holding a jar of blue fishes. He finds out the place in the photo to be So Yeon's secluded house and rushes there. He discovers a glass tank in the background which he had not noticed before and switches on the light to illuminate the tank- to reveal a headless male body inside, with the arms and legs apparently stitched to it.
Det. Jo devastated by the treachery of So Yeon smashes the glass cage . Mean while So Yeon boards the plane to France, and when enquired by the fellow passenger she says that it is her first time in France.
HIDDEN DETAILS AND EXPLANATIONS:
I'm theorizing that all the blue fishes belonged to So Yeon and they were initially in the big glass case in her secluded home. So Hyeon - who was friends with all the four victims as well as Seoung Min, - cleans out her aquarium and divides the fishes between them, leaving the big aquarium free for her own psychopathic activities.
The blue fishes are shown in So Yeon's home as well as with Kim Kiyon and Professor Kwon- So we can assume that the blue fishes must have been there with each one of them and they must have treasured it very mush as a gift from So Yeon
2. Painting of drowning OPHELIA:
In the scene where Det Jo visits So Yeons house for the first time he is seen inspecting the photograph of drowning Ophelia and later in So yeon's secluded home, he visualizes a similar painting where Ophelia is having the face of So Yeon. In the ending scene, the fish tank with the resutured headless body, is kept near the Ophelia painting, and in the endit is as if Det Jo is drowning in his own misery and sadness- because he had trusted the wrong woman who had a part in killing of his det.partner.
3. Who is the real killer?
Actually So Yeon and Seung Min are the killers. It is possible that Seung Min had taught So Yeon the exact dissection of human body to do her crimes in the perfect artistic way.
So Hyeon must have killed the 4 young men with the help of Seoung Min. There is a possibility that Kim Kiyon has also a part in this- in a scene it is shown that he is entering a car- probably So Yeon's or Seung Min's and he is the kind of person with a blind obsession for So Yeon and he would happily kill her previous boy friends to please her and have her all for himself. Moreover he is the one who purchased the preservatives. Also the heart of Prof. Kwon in the refrrigerator may have been placed there by Kiyon himself- because it is shown that the refrigerator door was already open when he left the house after talking in the phone.
Det Oh was killed by Seung Min, as So Yeon was with Det Jo at that time.
Kim Kiyon killed by Seung Min So Yeon/both
Teenager killed by So Yeon as he saw her gruesome crimes.
Not to forget- So Yeon's father- probably killed by them both.
4. What is the body found in the glass case?
As explained in the thematic diagram earlier, the missing parts of all the initial 3 victims were joined to form the headless human corpse in the glass case. I assume that So Yeon wanted to put her father's head to the corpse but couldn't do that because of the constant watch from detectives and others. Or it may be her own sick way of taking revenge to all the males who utilised her....
5. RELATIONSHIP OF SO YEON AND SEUNG MIN
The relation ship between them is that of a kind of submissive friendship. Seung Min is submissive to So Yeon- always trying to protect her- starting the fire in childhood- killing all the males So Yeon wants to kill- even killing innocent people like Det Oh to protect So Yeon. In the end she decides to take all the blame on herself, by planting all evidences in her home and got shot by So Yeon as planned.
The movie is all about the investigations of mysterious serial killing and the unraveling of the mystery by the lead detective Jo. What makes the movie a topic for discussion among the viewers is its confusing ending. So, here I'm trying to explain the movie, especially its ending. Beware, SPOILERS AHEAD!!
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| pic credit:imdb |
PLOT SUMMARY:
The movie opens with a murder- a man is let into a room in a somewhat cheap apartment / lodge and the next scene shows him lying on a metal table, (similar to the ones used in autopsy/ anatomy labs), anaesthetised. One of his arms is amputated at first. The scene which comes later, shows a peson coming out of the room with a plastic bag obviously filled with body parts.
The movie then progresses through the main lead detective Jo, whose hospitalised mother has recently passed away, and he was questioned regarding the source of money for paying his mother's hospital expense- (well, apparently the authorities didn't have enough evidence to frame him and he is allowed to leave). Soon the enquiry he had to attend a crime scene where a teenager has fallen from a building; the police speculates that he had fallen while trying theft, but his younger brother kept on refusing the same. After a squabble with a fellow officer, regarding the suspected bribery, Det.Jo leaves the crime scene after taking a button from the dead boy's jacket cuff (he took it because he noticed thet the button was missing in the other cuff).
Soon after his mother's funeral he is pulled into the investigation of serial murders, which began from the bridge case- black plastic bag filled with amputated body parts was found in an abandoned car under the bridge. After forensic analysis it was found that a perfect six part amputation was done by someone with medical knowledge, using surgical instruments and anaesthesia, and the legs do not belong to the same person.
Later, similarly abandoned body parts in a plastic bag are found inside a lift. Det Jo is asked to solve this case, as this may be a way to come clean of his allegations of bribery. He sets up a team in a seperate building and investigation continues.
In another scene a man with specs is shown to enter a car. Again abandoned body parts in plastic bag is found in a basketball ground. It was found out that the arms belonged to the bridge case victim and among the body parts, heart was missing. Until this case it was not possible to identify the victims, as there were no finger prints; but in this new case, dental implants were found, using which they could find out the identity of the basket ball ground (riverside park) corpse.
After analyzing the three body part groups from three locations , the investigation team finds about the pattern of mix up of body parts, and there were some parts still missing (explained in the diagram). So the det. team comes to the conclusion that the missing parts are stored somewhere to be revealed with the next victim.
Using the dental implants and hospital charts, the identity of the basket ball(riverside) corpse is made- Kwon Jong Hyun, a philisophy professor. And after tracking the person named in the realtive list, they come across the name Chae So Yeon, who is a curator in a museum. She identifies the corpse of the professor and after further interrogation it was found that she knows the other two victims. Chae So Yeon is the daughter of a famous artist Chae Yong Hoon who is missing for 5 years.
So , it is revealed that she had known all three men during her past years (see diagram). After the detectives drops So Yeon home, it is shown that someone is observing them from a car.
The detectives witretap her phone and observes secretly and finds out that she has not much friends and she had talked in phone with a man - Ki Yon and a woman Seung Min. Later when Det. Jo and his partner Det Oh reaches So Yeon's home, they meet Oh Seung Min, who is revealed to be So yeon's high school friend and is also a doctor.
The forensic doctor informs the detective of a special rare and high quality chemical preservative in the corpse. Mean while they question Oh Seung Min about So Yeon, and comes to know that So Yeon had tried to commit multiple suicide attempts and that's how they met again in hospital after high school. Oh Seung Min also tells that Kim Kiyon is an obsessed stalker of So Yeon. Det. Jo follows So Yeon around and had a somewhat touching conversation with her, and she tells that she trusts only him in the current situation.
The police finds out that Kim Kiyon has purchased the same kind of preservative used in the corpses and calls him for interrogation. He was found to have studied anatomy in France and had in fact followed So Yeon to France, and he was using the preservative for his work. Det Jo finds him staring right into the hidden cameras in the interrogation room. While Kiyon was interrogated, So Yeon was found unconscious inside her home by Seung Min, and was supposedly attacked by an intruder. So Yeon is not revealing the idetnity of attacker, and Seung Min as a doctor wants her to rest without troubles.
Kim Kiyon is released from interrogation and it is shown that at his home he talks to someone loudly over the phone and scribbles an address in a note pad and rushes out angrily to meet the person . Meanwhile at So Yeon's home det. Jo finhs out hidden cameras and instinctively links it to Kiyon. While the detectives search through the house det.Jo finds the notepad and finds a number 702 over it (after pencil shading) and they discover a dissected heart in the freezer, which was found out to be Kwon Jung Hyun's.
Meanwhile So Hyeon has gone to her secluded house for calming herself and Det Jo goes there along with Det Oh and persuades her to return and for her safety she stays with Det Jo at his house. Meanwhile Det Oh finds out an alternate address of Kim Kiyon and informs det Jo. Det Jo leaves a sleeping So yeon with his gun left in a drawer and informing the same via a note. So Yeon discovers the gun after waking up. Det Jo reaches the alternate address of Kim Kiyon unarmed.
Before the arrival of det Jo there is someone already in the house and that person has switched on the TV playing a VCR. Outside the house, det Jo finds Kim's car with a handicam in a bag inside it. He later enters the house and finds a room full of So Yeons photographs and then the video in the TV- which shows the amputation and murder of a victim (possibly Kim Kiyon). Det Jo finds that someone else is in the house and follows the sound, and ends up being attacked by someone in the car outside. Rest of the team arrives later, and Det Jo returns home to question So Yeon as she was the only person who knew he was unarmed. He finds that So Yeon was not at home and his gun was still in the drawer. So Yeon reaches the home in the meantime and apparently she had gone out buy some eatables. An argument arises between them, and later they come to terms and Det Jo teaches her to use the gun.
A bag of body parts is left in the high way, which was identified to be Kim Kiyons and his head was missing among them. Det Jo speculates that, the murderer has given a warning by placing Kwon Jung Hyun's heart in Kiyon's refrigerator- that Kiyon will be the next victim- Therefore the next victim will most probably receive a warning with Kiyon's missing head.
Meanwhile the investigation turns to So Hyeons missing father, as charcoal was found in the Kwon's heart and bag, which lead to the store from which So yeon's father had brought charcoal. Det Jo concludes that So Hyeon has a bad relationship with her father, as she has not contacted him in 5 years. Next day, Kiyon's head is found in Det Jo's car. Det Oh gives his gun to Det Jo for his self protection.
Seeing the danger to Det Jo, So Yeon decides to reveal her past to him. She takes him to her childhood home and there det Jo comes to know that So Yeon was abused by her father and she had a neighbourhood friend who tried to help her, this friend was hurt in a fire which broke out in her home and had not survived it (the fire was probably started by the friend himself).
Meanwhile Det Oh gets a call the selling of a painting- probably related to So Yeon's father- and traces it to the younger sibling of the teenager who fell from a building. The child leads him to a room in the apartment (which was shown in the beginning of the movie). Inside he discovers the head of So Yeon's father in the refrigerator and the place and equipments used for killing. He also notices some photographs and calls Det. Jo who was with So Yeon at her childhood home. While on phone, he is attacked by someone and killed. Before he dies he hides the photograph in the room. The killer leaves the room after taking most of the evidence and the head of So Yeon's dad.
Det Jo is devastated by the death of his partner and he was subsequently removed from the case. He later comes to know that in the neighbourhood hoyse of So Yeon's childhood house there was no boy, but that family had 6 daughters and the youngest was SeungMin. Meanwhile the police finds that Oh SeungMin's car was speeding on the night Det Jo got hurt.
Seung Min notices detectives at hospital and becomes suspicious. She rushed home and smears the wall of her bathroom with blood from blood bag and leaves the place. The police later arrives and discovers the surgical instruments and blood splattered walls . Seung Min who has escaped has called So Yeon to Tower records for meet up. So yeon messages Det Jo about this, who was not able to reach So Yeon.
Det Jo meets them both at Tower records and on seeing him Seung Min brings a knife to So yeons neck and threatens to kill her and she is shot by So Yeon using the gun given by Det Jo earlier.
Det. Jo devastated by the treachery of So Yeon smashes the glass cage . Mean while So Yeon boards the plane to France, and when enquired by the fellow passenger she says that it is her first time in France.
HIDDEN DETAILS AND EXPLANATIONS:
- BLUE FISHES IN THE JAR:
I'm theorizing that all the blue fishes belonged to So Yeon and they were initially in the big glass case in her secluded home. So Hyeon - who was friends with all the four victims as well as Seoung Min, - cleans out her aquarium and divides the fishes between them, leaving the big aquarium free for her own psychopathic activities.
The blue fishes are shown in So Yeon's home as well as with Kim Kiyon and Professor Kwon- So we can assume that the blue fishes must have been there with each one of them and they must have treasured it very mush as a gift from So Yeon
2. Painting of drowning OPHELIA:
In the scene where Det Jo visits So Yeons house for the first time he is seen inspecting the photograph of drowning Ophelia and later in So yeon's secluded home, he visualizes a similar painting where Ophelia is having the face of So Yeon. In the ending scene, the fish tank with the resutured headless body, is kept near the Ophelia painting, and in the endit is as if Det Jo is drowning in his own misery and sadness- because he had trusted the wrong woman who had a part in killing of his det.partner.
3. Who is the real killer?
Actually So Yeon and Seung Min are the killers. It is possible that Seung Min had taught So Yeon the exact dissection of human body to do her crimes in the perfect artistic way.
So Hyeon must have killed the 4 young men with the help of Seoung Min. There is a possibility that Kim Kiyon has also a part in this- in a scene it is shown that he is entering a car- probably So Yeon's or Seung Min's and he is the kind of person with a blind obsession for So Yeon and he would happily kill her previous boy friends to please her and have her all for himself. Moreover he is the one who purchased the preservatives. Also the heart of Prof. Kwon in the refrrigerator may have been placed there by Kiyon himself- because it is shown that the refrigerator door was already open when he left the house after talking in the phone.
Det Oh was killed by Seung Min, as So Yeon was with Det Jo at that time.
Kim Kiyon killed by Seung Min So Yeon/both
Teenager killed by So Yeon as he saw her gruesome crimes.
Not to forget- So Yeon's father- probably killed by them both.
4. What is the body found in the glass case?
As explained in the thematic diagram earlier, the missing parts of all the initial 3 victims were joined to form the headless human corpse in the glass case. I assume that So Yeon wanted to put her father's head to the corpse but couldn't do that because of the constant watch from detectives and others. Or it may be her own sick way of taking revenge to all the males who utilised her....
5. RELATIONSHIP OF SO YEON AND SEUNG MIN
The relation ship between them is that of a kind of submissive friendship. Seung Min is submissive to So Yeon- always trying to protect her- starting the fire in childhood- killing all the males So Yeon wants to kill- even killing innocent people like Det Oh to protect So Yeon. In the end she decides to take all the blame on herself, by planting all evidences in her home and got shot by So Yeon as planned.
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