Following the success of Chang's debut movie, Internet romancer The Contact (top local grosser of 1997), Something opened in South Korea in November after an unprecedentedly long marketing buildup that raised expectations to fever pitch. Response by crix was mixed, but auds gave it the thumbs-up, for a nationwide tally of 1.6 million admissions (about on a par with Star Wars: Episode I), making it the third largest local grosser of 1999, behind sleeper Attack the Gas Station! and mega-hit Shiri. Although marketed as a "hardgore thriller", it's more a creepy psychological drama with highly visceral moments. Title sequence sets the tone with credits over scenes of a young man arriving at an apartment and ending up unconscious on an autopsy table, where an unseen killer slowly dismembers his body with a scalpel. Said victim is just one of several cadavers that turn up in black plastic bags all over Seoul during a hot, rain-drenched summer. Detective Jo (Han Seok-kyu, from The Contact), a burned-out cop in need of a break after an investigation by Internal Affairs, is told to set up a special unit, and the first lead throws suspicion on museum restorer Chae Su-yeon (femme idol Shim Eun-ha), who knew all three victims. Premise is totally hokey (though no more than that of, say, Basic Instinct or Seven), but Chang keeps the viewer's disbelief suspended thanks to the script's complexity and his highly cinematic management of atmosphere. Partly through the unforced play of light and shadow, partly through the low-key acting, there's a sense of horrific foreboding and imminent danger that is expertly maintained.
Derek Elley