The Secret (2007)

Country: Taiwan

Genre: Romance, mystery, music

Format: movie

Cast: Jay Chou, Kwai Lun-mei, Anthony Wong, Alice Tzeng, Devon Song, Huang Jun-lang, Yunhao Zhan,

Synopsis: Ye Xianglun (Jay Chou) transfers to a music school, where many talented young musicians study. On the first day he hears a beautiful melody coming from the old piano room. He finds there Lu Xiaoyu (Kwai Lun-Mei). Between them grows a relationship, which is full of mysteries like why cannot be that beautiful song played on the old piano, why doesn´t Lu Xiaoyu attend classes  and many more. At the same time Qing Yi (Alice Tzeng) is in love with Ye Xianglun.

Rating: 5/5

There was never a moment, when I thought it is boring - oke I wasn´t able to think or do anything else than watch it. It is interesting, beautiful, mysterious! I cannot find the right words to explain the feeling this movie leaves.

Jay Chou played the lead Yie Xiang Lun. In addition, it is also Jay Chou´s first directed movie, written movie and he also wrote the music for it. His talents does not stop there as all the piano playing is done by himself too. Despite being so talented, most of the critics do not approve him as an actor as acting skills are lacking the most. 

Xiang Lun is mostly lone wolf – he gets along with everybody, but he prefers to be alone as there is few connections between him and others. He is a music genius whose piano playing cannot be distracted by anything or anyone. He is a perfect son for unperfect dad. He does not relieve his thoughts to almost anybody which makes him strange in the eyes of others. Only Lu Xiao Yu becomes his most precious friend with who he can talk about anything. I like how Xiang Lun is like socially awkward, yet loved and admired by everyone.

Lu Xiao Yu is a sensitive girl who was was hurt by everybody she trusted. There are few moments when I thought that she should have at least listened to Yie Xiang Lun before dashing away, but at the same time I understand that almost all girls would have misunderstood the situations. She is very mysterious character and even more mysteries lay around her. Lu Xiao is a bit jealous type of girl, but at the same time she really likes to tease him and make him jealous, though many times it happenes unintentionally. 

Father of Xiang Lun plays a big role in the storyline. He never understands his son and he can be over-protective. He thinks he does the best for everyone, but most of the time he makes everything more difficult. At the same time it can be just his ignorance that causes everything. I believe that if he had looked deeper into Xiao Yu business and checked closely the music notes, most of the tragedy would have not come. Anthony Wong plays this character amazingly good – all his looks and aura suits into this role and of course he has really great English.

On top of everything that is already happening, another classmate Qing Yi has a crush on Xiang Lun, while he sees her only as a friend. Despite being one of the prettiest and outgoing girls, she can be seen daydreaming about him many times. She adds the misunderstandings to the story and in a way I feel sorry for her,  because it can look like she is also a victim of misunderstandings. 

I did love the piano playing scenes. They mostly play Chopin´s music (and music done by Jay Chou). Thanks to that I was able to pass my music test too. Chopin is one of my favorite composers, but listening it in gallery everyday for hours and hours is too much (I used to work in art gallery).
Movie also has a beautiful scenery - it is actually filmed in Jay Chou´s school. Movie was nominated for all kind of different awards thanks to its scenery and best visual effects more than once. Every time I watch it, I find something new, which I have not seen before (and I´ve watched it at least 5-6 times).  It is impossible to see all the hints with one watching and that actually makes the watching more interesting every time. 

If I could, I would add some more stars to it. It is not a usual movie, it is not another love story, it is not a school-drama or music movie - It is something of all of them and from everything else too. There are so much comedy in this tragedy or tragedy in this comedy. From all of the movies (Asian as well as Western movies) I think it is the most fantastic movies ever. I really consider it as one of the greatest movies I have seen. It is like, if somebody is searching for a perfect movie then it might be it.

SPOILERreview: 
I do not understand the end, because my really great subber (Really thank you!) has not translated the last sentence which is written on the photo.. so I really appreciate if someone is willing to translate it to me. I know it is something about the girl and graduating, but I actually do not speak a word of Chinese or Taiwan dialect. But it is cool to think that they traveled through parallel universes – one was the past, one the present and other is time dimension where they both existed?