SYNOPSIS:
Jay Chou's directorial debut. This is the first day
Lun admitted to Tamkang Secondary School. When he walks through
the campus with his classmates, a mysterious piano solo draws
his attention. He follows the song and finds that an ethereal
girl is playing piano in the old music room. The piano girl
is Yu (Guey Lun-Mei), one of Lun’s classmates. The two
become intimate friends and spend a lot of time together.
“What’s the melody you played the first day we
met?” asked Lun, “That’s my secret.”
Yu whispered in his ear.
MOVIE REVIEW:
With a Mandarin title which literally translates into “a
secret that cannot be told”, all you smart alecks out
there must be predicting the plot twist that happens at the
end of the film. Is one of the protagonists actually dead?
Can one of them actually see ghosts? Are the two of them actually
siblings? Is the lovey-dovey couple doomed to be separated
forever?
For
the benefit of readers who hate spoilers, let’s just
say that the conclusion of the movie is something you had
seen elsewhere.
But
credit goes to Asian superstar Jay Chou for helming this gorgeous
picture about how two high school students meet and fall in
love, only to be separated by a secret between them. And since
Chou stars as the male lead, it is only natural that his character
is a gifted piano player with a penchant for music. Make the
female lead a music lover as well, and you’d have a
pretty love story that will make girls swoon and cry.
The
pretty factor of the movie does not stop at the story. You’d
be impressed with the picturesque cinematography by Mark Lee
(In the Mood for Love, Three Times). The dreamy-like sequences
are a romantic ode to those good old school days where first
loves and crushes were tender and sweet.
Then
there are the pretty stars. Guey Lun-mei (Blue Gate Crossing,
Sound of Colours) portrays the female protagonist with the
right dosage of cuteness and idealism without coming across
as being too sweet for comfort. The sparkle in the 24-year-old’s
eyes will lighten up anyone’s moody days. After stylishly
driving his race car in Initial D (2005) and donning an armour
suit in Curse of the Golden Flower (2006), Chou plays what
he plays best – a heartthrob schoolboy every girl wants
to fall in love with. And it doesn’t take a lot of acting
chops to do that, so that’s good for the Golden Horse
Award winner.
While
you won’t be particularly awed by the story, there are
certain tried-and-tested plot lines that will appeal to the
romantic in you. Watch out for the scene where the two leads
confess their love for each other using a very interesting
medium – correction fluid. As amused as we are at the
sheer ingenuity of this concept, we were also moved by the
Guey and Chou’s emotions.
The
music soundtrack is one highlight of this 110-minute movie.
The rousing piano pieces and occasionally stirring orchestral
cues composed by Terdasak Janpan and Chou himself are a treat
to the ears.
Chou’s
directorial debut is a decent piece of work that will make
teenage fan girls happy, as well as viewers who love their
high school romance dramas sweet and touching.
SPECIAL
FEATURES:
This Code 3 DVD contains 20 minutes of Behind the
Scenes footage which features several amusing happenings
behind the camera. Watch Chou as he performs his infamous
magic tricks, as well as surprise set visits by his mother
and director Andrew Lau. His pals from pop group Nan Quan
Mama, as well as his father have cameo roles in the movie
too. There is a Music Video which is actually
a short montage of scenes from the movie. If you wanted to
croon to the end title song ‘Secret’, we’d
suggest you go to the karaoke pub instead. There are also
Trailers and a Photo Gallery
in the disc.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
The
disc’s visual transfer makes the cinematography so mesmerizing
that we want to don our school uniforms and go back in time
to those days when days were simpler. The soundtrack is available
in either Mandarin Dolby 2.0 or 5.1.
MOVIE RATING:
 
DVD
RATING:
Review
by John Li
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