Following more of a career in socially conscious prestige films, director Ann Hui turned to genre fare much like her debut film “The Secret” to produce a solid hit in the quirky romantic ghost/comedy “Visible Secret.” After the underperforming “Ordinary Heroes,” “Secret” was a more suitable success with several acclaimed nominations at the Hong Kong Film Awards with one win and spawning a sequel a year later that earned the film a spot on an emerging impressive slate of releases from Radiance Films.
Check the interview with the director
After meeting at a club and starting a romance, Peter Choi (Eason Chan), an unemployed hairdresser, and June (Shu Qi), a strange nurse, decide that they can work as a couple and start a relationship. Since meeting her, Peter encounters unexplained things which she says are spirits she can see. They run into people apparently under attack by ghosts and unexplainable deaths, to the point that he wants to call off the relationship. The morbidly quirky mystery unravels as they track down details of the decades-old death of a loan shark.
Overall, “Visible Secret” was a pretty enjoyable feature. One of the brighter aspects here is writer Abe Kwong’s strong setup that allows for numerous strong elements to come into play. Starting life as a romantic comedy between Peter and June by arranging for the quirky charm of their meeting in the club and subsequent date around the city fits that genre wholeheartedly. Realizing that Peter is a bit more restrained and introverted compared to June’s more outgoing and free-spirited nature, the desire to find her after the first meeting and integrate himself into her life feels natural and earned. The spell June Peter thus feels far more earned as the burgeoning relationship is challenged by all the ghostly visions and encounters that go on, as the skill to be able to see them interacting around us that she possesses feels quite intriguing the more they hang out together. As the romantic interludes continues he tries to learn more about the condition and how to stop them from continuing. This strong mixture of romantic comedy and haunting ghost movie features is used to build a fun relationship at the core of the film.
With this established, “Secret” also scores quite nicely with the ghostly interaction. Starting nicely with a brutal decapitation scene in the middle of a crowded service station with a standout gag of the severed body wandering into the crowd looking for its severed head as if it doesn’t realize it should be dead, the activity throughout might not match but still comes off worthwhile. Other scenes here featuring the two confronting possessed individuals being controlled by a ghost to try to return his lost property, provide not just a mystery to unravel but also some frantic action in the attempts to rescue each other from the supernatural powers of the person they’ve encountered. The body-hopping nature and randomized targets make for a nice change of pace whenever it occurs and there are often enough interactions to get some nice jolts out of everything. This leaves the film with quite a lot to enjoy about it.
“Secrets” does have a few factors that hold it down. The main issue is a disproportionately more favorable storyline structure that favors romantic comedy than ghostly hauntings which might be somewhat discerning for some viewers. While glimpses are featured throughout the running time of the ghosts following June, that’s the overwhelming majority of them while far more time is spent on the two of them engaging in dates or hanging out. The two are fun together and it builds organically into a fine romance before the more intense hauntings later on, but the proportion is skewed heavily the other way in the first half which can have the effect of appearing more like a romantic comedy with ghostly hauntings to spice up their chances. This also causes the storyline about the true spirit haunting them to come out of nowhere with the incident featured so heavily later on, its connections feel tenuous at best. It also results in an overlong running time padded out with flimsy attempts at comedy or other unnecessary antics trying to spell out the relationship and get back together which adds unnecessary time to the film.
Despite focusing a bit more on outside elements than some might want, “Visible Secret” still has quite a lot to like and remains fun in many ways. Viewers curious about the mixing of genre qualities or are fans of the creative crew will have the most to like overall.
