Jack (Eason Chan) and Ching (Jo Kuk) are newlyweds and have just moved into a new apartment. Everything is great until a fateful night when Jack gets hit by a car. Luckily he escapes with an injured leg but after the accident he starts to have strange visions of an old fashioned dressed woman lying dead on the sidewalk. His wife has hard time believing in him and his claims that the house may be haunted but soon she starts to act strange, almost like she's possessed...

Abe Gwong showed off some good writing in Visible Secret and as the director and co-writer of the second installment, he doesn't copy Ann Hui's movie. You shouldn't compare the two since they feature different story structure as well as filming techniques but one thing Visible Secret II fails in doing is avoiding certain genre-clichés. Certain plot points and setups we've seen in American and even Hong Kong productions and it was something the first movie managed to stay away from.

Visible Secret II therefore doesn't come across as good as the first one but it's still good film on it's own. Abe Gwong has crafted a less complicated and more straightforward ghost story and he turns up the scare-factor a few notches while we watch the plot untangle. The character of Jack believes his apartment is haunted and that of course results in some well executed haunted house type of scenes. They don't feel lifted from other movies and feels unique for the moment at least. Thanks to some very good camerawork we too feel almost stuck in Jack's situation while the camera slowly movies through corridors and such. I also really liked the static setups used by Abe and the way he lingered on object or even persons. Hard to describe but you could almost call it silent directing. When the story doesn't have tense moments it follows our main characters slowly through the urban- and country side of Hong Kong and the camera rarely feels like it's there, which is a good thing. Visible Secret II takes it's fair share of time to fully reveal the story, something the first part also did. It was slower paced though and the viewers who found that bad, may feel more positive towards the sequels pacing.

They ghost like scenes are at times creepy thanks to the fact that so many aspects of filmmaking comes together to create movie magic. Directing, camera work, lightning, editing and sound design are combined nicely to make something, that probably didn't seem special when filming, tense and creepy. The script lets the ghost presence take a bit of a backset during the middle section where more facts are revealed about the characters but the intensity is turned up quite a bit during the climax of the movie. Going into it, it felt like Abe was trying to squeeze in way too much information and reveals in the end but he manages to stand straight and not overly confuse the audiences. Abe delivers a fairly powerful ending that scores high on both an emotional level as well as the fright one. The final twist of Visible Secret II will probably be debated but to me no rules are laid down as to what can or can't happen so I didn't have a problem with the ending.

With Mark Lee (Princess D) as the cinematographer, Abe further distances himself from the first movie and the look created by Arthur Wong. It's a new scenario, new characters and therefore a new look. Inside Jack och Ching's apartment strong bold colors dominate but it works as a contrast to the pitch black also present there. That does seem simple but if you have skill, much isn't needed to create an eerie feeling to an apparently haunted house. Outside of that's setting the photography is natural or rather uncomplicated, which may be a conscious choice since the movie is also that.

Eason Chan plays this time a married man but the character isn't that far off from Peter in Visible Secret. As with that movie, he gets fired from his job but being a slightly older man, he has more visions of what he wants to do. Whether or not he can or will realise them is a different matter. As written, the character goes through some familiar (read: cliche like) situations like when his close ones doesn't believe him and what he's experiencing. It's in those scenes and moments that Eason tends to overact but he does carry this movie well enough. I did like some of his acting in the emotional climax and he shows nice chemistry with Jo Kuk. Certainly not the most interesting actor working today but it shows he's striving to gain respect in this profession also (Eason also enjoys a successful singing career).

Jo Kuk does steal the show from the leading man though. She was of course the female subway train ghost that was cut out of the first film and she partially reprises that character here. After Jack's accident, you could almost touch the tragedy present in her face but where she shines the most is when she shows her dead, stone cold face (both in and out of ghost make up). Extremely chilling and a true homerun in terms of casting. I think there is still room for development of the ghost character she plays and I hope she will return to it an eventual Visible Secret III. . Also in a crucial supporting part we see Cherrie Ying (from Fulltime Killer).

Visible Secret II is a competent piece of work that stand well on it's own as the so called sequel. It isn't as interesting as the first movie but it's still an enjoyable well above average horror/ghost-story.