Secret (2007 film)

Plot

Yie Xianglun (Jay Chou), a music student majoring in piano, transfers to Tamkang (Danjiang) Secondary School. It is a school famous for musically talented students, especially in piano. On the first day of school, as he wanders through the piano building, he hears a mysterious melody being played that leads him to Lu Xiaoyu (Gwei Lun-mei), another piano major. When he asks her about the song she was playing, she tells him that it is a secret that cannot be told. The two develop a relationship that is clouded in mystery. When Xianglun tells Xiaoyu about the demolition of the piano building on graduation day, she teaches him the mysterious song.

However, when a mis-passed note leads to Xianglun accidentally kissing another student Qing Yi (Alice Tzeng) who was interested in Xianglun, Xiaoyu disappears for five months, only to return on graduation day and mysteriously disappear again. Xianglun asks around and discovers from Xiaoyu's mother and his father (Anthony Wong Chau-sang) that Xiaoyu was actually a student from the class of 1979, who graduated 20 years ago. His father tells him she claimed she traveled forward in time to the present with the help of a piano piece called "Secret" that she played on an old piano in the piano building. She had fallen in love with Xianglun, but the only barrier is that, in the present, the first person she sees on each trip is the only person that can see her. As such, she memorizes that it takes 108 steps to get from the piano building to Xianglun's classroom, and only opens her eyes after those 108 steps so that the first person she sees is Xianglun.

When Xiaoyu saw Qing Yi kiss Xianglun, she returned to her normal time. During her absence at home, her story spread and everyone believed that she was mentally ill. Remembering that the piano room would be destroyed on graduation day of 1999, she tried time traveling to see Xianglun one last time, but she spotted Xianglun wearing Qing Yi's bracelet. Believing that Xianglun now belonged to Qing Yi, Xiaoyu returns to her own time with a heavy heart. Due to an asthma attack, while writing on her desk trying to leave a message to the boy she loves, Xiaoyu dies heartbroken. The message formulates in the present due to the fact that Xiaoyu would not have written the message if she had not seen Xianglun wearing Qing Yi's bracelet. Xianglun sees the writing on the desk and desperately tries to write back using white out but when he gets no response he rushes to Xiaoyu's house only to find her room empty. Xiaoyu's mother finally recognises Xianglun as the boy her daughter had drawn a picture of twenty years before and Xianglun learns the truth about her time travels.

After finally learning of Xiaoyu's story, Xianglun realizes that the piece that she taught him was "Secret", which had the power to take the pianist forward or backward in time depending on the tempo at which it is played. He rushes off to the piano room, which is about to be torn down. Xianglun's father retrieves the manuscript of the musical piece that Xiaoyu had given to him for safekeeping, then realises that Xiaoyu had written a secret message for Xianglun. Meanwhile, Xianglun enters the piano building and as the demolition begins, Xianglun starts to play "Secret" from memory, recalling something Xiaoyu told him while teaching him the piece: "I always play it that fast when I go back". Just before the piano room is completely destroyed, Xianglun travels back to 1979. Because the time traveled backwards is dependent on how fast the user plays "Secret," when Xianglun recalls this he ends the song on the last key slightly later. When Xiaoyu played it she did not pause.

Xianglun rushes to the classroom and Xiaoyu sees him and smiles. The last scene is when the 1979 Tamkang (Danjiang) Secondary School graduation picture is taken, in which Xianglun and Xiaoyu are present. As the old piano and the piano building have been destroyed, Xianglun stays forever in the past with Xiaoyu. The magic that the time machine possessed was destroyed when Xianglun traveled back in time at the moment the piano was destroyed. This explains why Xianglun was able to appear on the 1979 graduation photo and live a normal life in 1979.

Cast

Production

The film tells a "simple but very beautiful" love story, which Chou denies was adapted from his personal experiences. When the film debuted, Chou admitted that he drew from childhood experience for the plot, although his personal story was not as romantic.

Filming began in January 2007 and was completed in March. Despite previous experience in filming music videos, Chou admits that films are much more challenging due to storyline complexity and time constraints.

Because Chou was worried that people might question if he actually directed the film himself, he even refused veteran director Andrew Lau Wai Keung to visit him during shooting. However, Chou says that he did send a pilot film to Lau afterwards.

Chou has announced his plans to direct a sequel to the film and plans to invite Andy Lau to star in it.

Tribute

Chou added elements to the film to pay tribute to his high school and his favorite composer Chopin.

A soundtrack album was released by JVR Music on 13 August 2007.

Reception

According to Cinema Online, Chou does a better job behind the scenes than in front of the camera. The pace of the story is satisfying, cinematography is beautiful and Chou is able to convey the magic of music: "You leave the cinema with the image of Chou's fingers dancing over the piano keys, creating that extraordinary music. It will be the image of Chou playing the piano one-handed, playing two pianos at the same time, and playing the piano with his upturned face in dream-like bliss. That is what makes this film worth the watch. As I said, its salvation. Music, so it seems, really can be magical."

LoveHKFilm.com agrees that Chou is not the best male lead for a romantic role, he is not able to produce the range of emotions needed to touch moviegoers. Instead, the female lead Kwai Lun Mei was praised for her excellent acting. The critic regards the film as a nice, romantic, fairly good picture and that Jay Chou directs with an able hand. Cinematography and art direction was also praised for its beauty, as well as the film score. The critic regards the illogical story as the biggest disadvantage for the film, saying that the plot often does not follow its own rules, creating logical gaps. The supporting actors were found to be boring, with the exception of Anthony Wong, who was praised for his acting diversity. According to the critic, there is a certain chemistry between Chou and Gwei but their dialogues lack depth and emotions, largely due to Chou's inability to act well. He regarded Chou as a likable, charming presence but utterly without any passion on screen, being too distant in his emotions.

Asianmovieweb is surprised to see Chou as a good director but dismisses him as an actor. The soundtrack is praised for its beauty as well as the cinematography and the attention Chou paid to tiny details. The critic also mentioned the logical gaps in the story being very distracting.

Variety thought the film was surprisingly good, with decent acting and praised the music as well. The critic sees South Korean cinematic influences in Secret and compared the style of the film to early Hollywood pictures from the 1940s and Taiwanese pictures from the 1970s.

movieXclusive.com states that it is rare to see such a well directed picture from a musician-turned-director but Chou is able to "pull it off". Casting choices were praised especially with regard to Anthony Wong and Kwai Lun Mei, the latter being praised for her ability to create a secretive air around herself. The best part of the film according to the critic is the "onslaught of piano performances" that were compared to action scenes of Jet Li and Tony Jaa. However, the critic was not satisfied with the editing and pacing of the film but nevertheless regarded the film as a successful piece of art.

Combustible Celluloid named Secret one of the "most enchanting, captivating features" of the 2008 San Francisco International Film Festival.

Remake

In March 2017, it was announced that Hive Media optioned the rights for a South Korean remake, with the main protagonists changed from senior high schoolers to music college students. The film is expected to enter into production in 2018.

Awards and nominations

Secret won three awards out of seven nominations from the 44th Golden Horse Awards in 2007 and 27th Hong Kong Film Awards in 2008.