Starring: Jay Chou, Kwai Lun Mei,
Anthony Wong Chau Sun, Alice Tseng
Director: Jay Chou
Scheduled release: 2 August

It’s no secret that Secret is a Jay Chou film. After all, the Mandopop megastar is this romantic drama’s leading man, director, co-composer of the great bulk of its music and gets credited with having come up with its story. Also, many of the elements that crop up in the movie – be they references to composer Frédéric Chopin, piano-playing, basketball or even the school attended by its protagonist – can be directly linked with him.

Reports that a large part of Secret is loosely based on the 28-year-old’s experience of first love should be taken with a pinch of salt though. To explain why would let the cat out of the bag and, since the secret in the film isn’t revealed until more than an hour into it, it’s best not to do so here. Instead, I’ll just report here that Chou has assured the media that his own tale of first love is far less exciting than the depicted romance between two music enthusiasts who first meet in an atmospheric practice room in their school’s old music building.

On his first day at Tan Jiang Senior High School of Arts (Chou’s real-life alma mater), transfer student Jay is taken on the tour of the picture postcard perfect campus by a girl named Sky (Alice Tseng). Although it’s pretty obvious she thinks he’s quite the dish, Jay doesn’t have eyes for her at all. Instead, as the two of them near the old music building, which Sky tells him will be demolished on their graduation day, his attention is captured by the sound of a piano solo being played by another female schoolmate – this one named Rain (Kwai Lun-Mei) – who gets all mysterious when he asks her the title of the piece that she had been playing.

Early on during what turns out to be a very chaste courtship, Jay complains to Rain “No matter what I ask [you], it’s always a secret.” He also observes that she doesn’t seem to have many friends at all. Since he is a bit of a loner himself (with potential friends getting scared off by his teacher dad (Anthony Wong Chau San)), he’s not too put off by this aspect of her. Besides, this gives them more opportunities to spend time romancing each other and sharing their piano-playing passion.

And pianos loom large in this music-filled movie as Chou, who began playing the instrument at the tender age of three, is given plenty of opportunity to show off his piano-playing prowess. Something else that is patently obvious is how beautifully shot (by ace cinematographer Mark Li Ping Bing) so much of the film is. For the most part, it could be said that this is a work with top production values.

Now if only Secret’s main story were deserving of the care and effort that evidently went into the making of the film. But as things stand, it – and particularly its key plot twist – ensures that the chances are very high indeed that all but die-hard fans of Jay Chou will look upon the movie more as an ultimately disappointing dud than the charming cinematic counter-programming for the summer those behind it evidently had hopes it would be.

Yvonne Teh