COMMENTS
The plot for this movie may sound a bit silly, but it's far from it. The film has great visuals and haunting music. I loved the atmosphere and the directing. It also has a really cool opening scene.

Starts off with a bunch of people waiting to cross a busy street. One guy gets pushed and accidently falls into the street where there's oncoming traffic. Next thing you know it, he gets his ass decapitated and he's walking around the street without a head. I thought the effects for that scene were sweet and it was funny to watch the guy stumbling without his head.

This movie had a mixture of smart comedy, which I liked because it brought more life to the film at times when it would seem to get a little slow. This movie has many similarities to the Sixth Sense, because the main female actress in the film can be compared to the little boy in Sixth Sense since they are both able to see ghosts and are sort of forced to help them.

There really aren't any scary scenes, but some nice tension-filled ones. I really don't think this movie was necessarily meant to be scary, but more-so entertaining with an interesting love story thrown in the mix.

What I didn't really like about the movie was the somewhat confusing ending. It was a nice ending with an interesting twist, but it totally defeats some of the events that happened throughout the film, so then the viewer is left wondering what the fuck the ending is really supposed to be. Never-the-less it was a good ending, but a somewhat predictable one.

I would have given the movie a higher-rating, but I didn't quite understand how it ended, so I had to just settle for a 7, which is still a good rating. Even though Hollywood is already making 2 remakes of Japanese horror films, I doubt they'll do one on this.

An interesting fact is that apparently the poster for the movie, which you can see on the top left, was banned by in Hong Kong as being "too scary." I don't see what's so damn scary about it, but the tagline "What's that sitting next to you?" is very sweet.

OVERALL
Good movie with haunting music and great visuals. Had a weird plot, but a good story behind it. Lots of nice humor to lighten up the mood. Bad thing about the movie is the confusing, and somewhat predictable ending. Check this Hong Kong horror film if you ever find it.

Peter (Eason Chan from If U Care...) meets June (Shu Qi from The Transporter) at a rave party and despite her odd mood swings, Peter can't help but to slowly fall in love with her. As they get to know each other June tells him that she can see wandering ghosts, a revelation Peter doesn't take too seriously. As time goes by more and more strange things start to happen and Peter realises that he have to take June's claims seriously. The question is whether it's him or June who lies in grave danger...

That Ann Hui took on this project felt exciting from the start since she's more associated with dramas like Boat People, Story of Woo-Viet and the recently acclaimed July Rhapsody. One thought I had though was that Ann would go for a full on commercial movie with Visible Secret but you soon realise that she's hidden a much smarter movie than that under the glossy surface. With Abe Gwong's carefully structured script Ann creates a very low-key and slowly unveiling ghost/romance story which seems to have divided fans into two camps. The 100 minute running time requires your full attention since this movie isn't really over until it's over.

We get a taste of the supernatural elements of the movie during the opening and some sections to follow but to give the characters and the love story between Eason and Shu some depth, Ann consciously concentrates on them for a while. Her experience really shows since she maintains interest and commitment from the viewer during this quite slow paced part of the film. Much has to do with the performances and chemistry she carves out of Eason and Shu and to get good acting out of idols like those two isn't always a given thing. Real characters are in the end created in the two and makes this movie more special than other ones out there, albeit in a subtle way. Their relationship is therefore well established when the ghost part slowly takes over again. I say ghost because it's more of that than real horror like The Eye and Visible Secret deliberately doesn't try to score high on the fright scale because of that choice. There is a creepy atmosphere present at appropriate moments though which may result in something jumping out at you or perhaps not. Ann has fun playing with the audience and in some scenes we're kind of on the edge of our set only to be utterly fooled when nothing happens. As I mentioned, you have to really focus on what's going on and some viewers may not have been prepared for that or the slow pace.

Ann Hui seemed to have worked closely with DP Arthur Wong to combine her very straightforward way of directing with his knowledge of any way of shooting. If she'd chosen to make the movie more commercial then we might have seen a visual style akin to an MTV-video for 100 minutes but thankfully she holds back and only use a distinctive visual style when needed. The viewer has to get a good look at the events to take it all in and thanks to the restrained camera language the plot is made clear throughout. In the ghost scenes the level of intensity is higher and here the choice of angles reflect that also. What that means is we often get tilted angles in combination with camera push in's and they're used quite effectively.

Master-cinematographer Arthur Wong (Purple Storm and the upcoming Highbinders) has no small part in making this movie work the way it does. Some of you may know that I'm no fan of photography that uses one strong colour in the entire frame to reflect and set different moods. Visible Secret do look very stylized but at the same time is devoid of strong colors, making the entire world look bleak and slightly surreal. Now and then we get scenes that are totally blue or green and to be honest I didn't find any choices to fully serve the story. However, after a while I ignored it and was sucked into the story and it's a real testament to our director and DP to make someone like me forget about what I criticized before. Even in Gen-X Cops I didn't mind Arthur's photography-choices and I think in a lesser cinematographers hands, that and this movie would've seemed worse.

Eason Chan made his debut in my DVD-player with this movie. Abe Gwong has written a character that sure feels realized and fleshed out but you can't judge that 30, 50 or even 80 minutes into the film. It's only right at the end you can start doing that. Eason plays it fairly low-key without resorting to huge hysterics like other characters in the same situation would. His rough-look also suits Peter very well and he's stumbling his way through life not really knowing what to do even if he has skill to do things. If Eason has any more range beyond this remains for me to see but it was a good introduction to him.

Shu Qi has shown that she isn't just a pretty face after award winning turns in movies like Portland Street Blues. Her almost gothic look in this film doesn't make her less beautiful or less of an actress either. She sees ghosts and has to examine that further making her feel very disjointed and even frustrating in Peter's eyes. This is played in a effective and most importantly professional way by Shu Qi and while the role doesn't elevate her status, it doesn't hurt it either. Also in nice supporting performances we see James Wong, the nominated Kara Hui and Wayne Lai.

Visible Secret is wrapped up nicely towards the end and it is that far you have to go with this movie before deciding what you thought of it. I don't guarantee that you will be satisfied but for me this was a very enjoyable and fairly chilling tale from Ann Hui.