For Jay Chou's directorial debut, I say Secret was a success. I mean its not Francis Ford Coppola or Spielberg or Zhang Yimou or Quentin Tarantino kind of superduper but good nonetheless. Very commendable.
Jay stuck with what he is good at, Piano and Puppy-Love. Two ingredients that would surely get his legions of female fans all signing up for Ivory Lessons at Yamaha in a jiffy. As for the males, I think he got us all, hook-line-and-sinker, with Taiwanese SYT-heartthrob Kwai Lun Mei. She's a hottie, a cute pixiefied-hottie, not the Megan Denise Fox kinda sultry smokin'-Hottie if you know what I mean.
Well I have new-found respect for Prince Mumbly who also does an admirable job playing one of the leads (although no Golden Horse is in sight anytime soon I reckon). He has significantly improved from his days as a Tofu-racer in Initial-D and playing that constipated Prince Jai in Curse of The Golden Flower. And I am not saying this just because I'm totally and absolutely enamoured with Ms Kwai who plays Xiao Yu (Rain), his excrutiatingly adorable tom-boy love interest (its a mutual thing lah).
The plot starts off as a schoolboy-schoolgirl love story, a nice kewtsy one that makes you feel warm all over. Not overly diabetes-inducing. And then takes on a novel twist two-thirds into the show. I mean you suspect something is amiss from the beginning as there are subtle hints here and there but when you finally realise what the clincher is, you grin to yourself as you realise how skilfully Jay has crafted the meanderings into the plot. Very old-skool romantic...Sigh...
And for Chopin fans, wow wow weeee....You get to hear more than a couple of his keyboard-defying, flying-finger pieces. The Maestro's Piano Concertos and Waltzes take the limelight in this movie. And if Jay was the one who really tinkled the ivories with such Competition Finesse, then my hat is well and truly taken off.
In the end, Secret's message is that true love cannot be eroded by the tides of time. You never know when you will find The One. But when you do, even the prospect of a Wrecking Ball coming straight at you won't stop you from seeing the one you adore.
You guys will get the Ball reference when you catch the movie =))
Xiao Yu
wo ai ni =P
8/10
Labels: Movies