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Review
by LunaSea: |
Fans of director
Ann Hui, who set Hong Kong Cinema on fire during the eighties,
didn't have too much to be excited about in the last decade.
After her masterful Song of the Exile, Hui seemed
to encounter a creative block. Summer Snow was the
only work of note she produced in the nineties, and some
unexpected stinkers like Ah Kam even started to emerge.
Visible Secret marks a comeback to quality filmmaking
for Hui, even if it doesn't feature her usual pungent social
commentary, and is much more commercially conscious than
usual.
Eason Chan is Peter, a slacker
of a hairdresser who's losing his job thanks to his incompetence.
One night at a club, he meets June (Shu Qi), an attractive
and decidedly unusual girl. She uses him to dump her annoying
boyfriend, and the two develop a weird friendship. Peter
is increasingly more interested in her, but there's something
strange about June. She confesses to Peter she's able to
see ghosts, and from that moment on Peter's life drastically
changes. He has visions of possessed people, including his
father (James Wong). He has a hard time separating reality
from fantasy, gets upset by her ever-changing mood and mysterious
disappearances, and starts to suspect June's true nature,
Like in Yoon Jong-chan's Sorum,
the plot is not really that important. What the story lacks,
the director is able to compensate for with a unique visual
and emotional atmosphere. The production team worked hard
to give an eerie feeling to the Hong Kong that Peter and
June live in. Both sets and soundtrack fuel Peter's instability,
and slowly reveal details to piece together the fragmented
plot. The fact that the film doesn't try to scare its audience
makes the mix of comedy, romance and horror more interesting.
With a lesser director, this genre-bending could have resulted
in an uneven pace, but Hui has a flawless handle on what
she's trying to achieve. Be it silly comedy, Peter and June's
lighthearted (and unusual) romance, or the ghosts' shenanigans,
the film flows smoothly. You never feel the director has
any problem switching themes.
While Shu Qi is her usual
reliable self, sometimes she falls into her childish side
abruptly, which can prove annoying for some. But, that could
be an intentional choice, made to further project the character's
volatile personality. Eason Chan's role is not too difficult,
and he's reasonably effective. The rest of the cast, including
Sam Lee and Anthony Wong in a memorable cameo, is adequate.
You shouldn't approach this
film expecting a classic Hong Kong ghost story. Visible
Secret is more similar to Korean genre-bending films
like Memento Mori and Sorum, where horror
is just a launchpad for character studies. Its production
values are excellent and never offset the main theme. They
instead contribute to the atmosphere generated by the director
and the interesting script. Visible Secret signals
the return to form of one of the most important directors
Hong Kong has ever seen. This is not only a good lead-in
to the current crop of genre-bending horror/thrillers (The
Eye, Inner Senses, Three, etc. etc.),
but also a good indication of Hui's comeback. She would
later go on to bigger and better things with the excellent
July Rhapsody. (LunaSea 2002)
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