The Secret

消失爱人

China, 2016, colour, 2.35:1, 105 mins.

Director: Huang Zhenzhen 黄真真 [Barbara Wong].

Rating: 6/10.

Well-made tear-jerker with a ghostly spin is quality genre cinema.

STORY

Somewhere in southern China, the present day. Ling Kaifeng (Li Ming), a wannabe pop musician-turned-recording studio manager, still misses his wife Qiujie (Wang Luodan), who disappeared a year ago during a mountaineering expedition the couple took in the Himalayas. One morning, after a heavy drinking session, Ling Kaifeng wakes to see Qiujie in the bathroom; she appears as if nothing has happened, but doesn’t seem to remember their young son, Mumu (He Chengwei). Ling Kaifeng realises it’s her spirit, and he has only a limited amount of time with her before she fades away. He re-visits a local clairvoyant he knows, Madam Qi (Ding Yetian), who tells him to (a) never let Qiujie go outside the house, as only those who truly love her can see and hear her, and (b) never tell her she’s only a spirit, as she will then fade away more quickly. Ling Kaifeng collects Mumu from some neighbours – his younger male cousin Jimmy (Lin Junjie) and his wife Yanzi (Zhang Rongrong) – and returns to spend as much time with Qiujie as possible. He recalls how she “stalked” him at high school for three years before later re-emerging as a beautiful young woman, and how during their marriage they used to perform the role-playing game “Hello Stranger” 陌生人你好 once a year. Next day, Jimmy freaks out when he sees Qiujie on her roof terrace; Ling Kaifeng tells him the truth and swears him to silence. Meanwhile, Qiujie goes out on her own and attends Yanzi’s birthday party, where she hears all her female friends gossiping about her. Realising they can’t see or hear her, she becomes aware of the truth. After talking to Jimmy, who can’t tell her how much time she has left, she prepares herself to leave Ling Kaifeng at any time. But then a news report from Nepal changes everything.

REVIEW

Proving, as she did with the rom-com Perfect Wedding 抱抱俏佳人 (2010), that she’s at her best when not trying to be trenchant, fashionable or pseudo-arty, Hong Kong writer-director Huang Zhenzhen 黄真真 [Barbara Wong] has come up with a romantic ghost story that’s slick, well acted and surprisingly effective as a tearjerker. Coming after three increasingly lame relationship movies (The Allure of Tears 倾城之泪, 2011; The Stolen Years 被偷走的那五年, 2013; Girls 闺蜜, 2014), The Secret 消失爱人 may not be compared in the same breath with Perfect Wedding but, like that film, knows exactly what it is and does the business professionally within its genre.

It’s Huang’s fourth Mainland-funded film in a row (again with Fujian Hengye Pictures) and again largely shot in Taiwan. The setting seems to be a deliberate no man’s land that could be China or Taiwan – a Mandarin-speaking location but with a mixture of Mainland and Taiwan accents and no distinguishing physical features. This sense of dislocation gives the film an abstract quality that actually enhances the story: a husband, still grieving for his wife a year after a mountaineering accident, wakes up one morning from a drinking binge to find she’s in the bathroom as if nothing has happened. The husband recognises she’s a passing spirit and, armed with some basic rules from a local clairvoyant, determines to spend as long as he can with her before she fades and passes on.

What starts as a ghost tale soon morphs into a simple love story, as the fact that the wife can only be seen and heard by those who truly love her takes prime importance. The film could easily be titled How to Say Goodbye, as that is the central theme of Huang’s screenplay – reportedly inspired by a dinner with her step-mother at which the latter ordered the favourite food of her dead husband (Huang’s father), convinced that his spirit was still lingering. That the wife’s spirit is only around for a short time, and will be curtailed if she realises she is only a spirit, generates a modicum of tension during the first hour, as the husband tries to recreate a family atmosphere with her and their young son without giving the game away.

These scenes are set either within their home or close by, with no locations to distract attention from a story which requires a considerable leap of faith by the viewer. This puts a heavy burden on the two main actors, especially as the film is peppered with flashbacks to the past. But both Li Ming 黎明 [Leon Lai], now almost 50 and finally starting to develop some character in his wooden features, and Wang Luodan 王珞丹, 32, who seems fated to play mostly kooky-cute roles as a cut-price Bai Baihe 白百合, develop a convincing empathy that sustains the drama. Both actors are stretched more than usual and, after the Big Twist an hour in (actually not such a big twist for horror fans), it’s a tribute to them that the final 40 minutes don’t come across as a limp postscript. That’s all the more so as the story appears to shift its focus away from the husband’s relationship with his wife to that with his parents (and especially his father). In fact, it just emphasises how the film is really about how to say goodbye to one’s loved ones.

Hong Kong veteran Shi Xiu 石修 is especially good in the role of the father, as is Taiwan child actor He Chengwei 何承蔚 as the couple’s young son who manages to avoid all unnecessary cuteness. Among the younger cast, onetime indie icon, French-Chinese actress Zhang Rongrong 张榕容 [Sandrine Pinna], shows extra depth here as a neighbour who accepts what’s going on and – in a moving scene – repairs her relationship with the wife. In his first film role, Singapore-born, Taiwan-based singer Lin Junjie 林俊杰 is OK as her husband.

All of this is not to over-rate The Secret: at the end of the day, it’s just a well-made tearjerker with a ghostly spin. The use of a role-playing game between the couple – “Hello Stranger” 陌生人你好 – almost tips the film into familiar Huang territory, but in general it avoids most of her usual writing weaknesses. The way in which the characters accept the situation as nothing unusual, just a part of life, is also convincingly done, and leaves the movie free to concentrate on more important things.

Widescreen photography by Mainland d.p. Chen Cheng 陈诚 (who also shot Huang’s The Stolen Years and Girls) is crisp and sharp, whether in home interiors or on the slopes of mountains, and visual effects for the snowy accident are suitably vertiginous. The copious piano/chamber score by Hong Kong’s Lei Songde 雷颂德 [Mark Lui] is a big help in sustaining disbelief without ladling on too much syrup, and editing by Peng Zhengxi 彭正熙 [Curran Pang] is trim. The Himalayan scenes were shot on Yulong Shan, near Lijiang, in Yunnan province, southern China. The film’s Chinese title means “The Disappearing Spouse/Beloved”. In Hong Kong and Taiwan its grammar was slightly changed, to 消失的爱人.

CREDITS

Presented by Fujian Hengye Pictures (CN). Produced by Fujian Zhenhengye Culture Communication (CN).

Script: Huang Zhenzhen [Barbara Wong], Hou Yingheng [Silver Hau], Zheng Shanyu, Du Guangting. Photography: Chen Cheng. Editing: Peng Zhengxi [Curran Pang]. Music: Lei Songde [Mark Lui]. Art direction: Li Dungang. Costumes: Lin Xinyi. Sound: Du Duzhi, Wu Shuyao. Action: Wu Yonglun. Visual effects: Zheng Wenzheng (Creasun Digital International).

Cast: Li Ming [Leon Lai] (Ling Kaifeng), Wang Luodan (Qiujie), Lin Junjie (Jimmy), Zhang Rongrong [Sandrine Pinna] (Yanzi), Shi Xiu (Ling Kaifeng’s father), He Chengwei (Mumu), Yang Menglin (young Ling Kaifeng), Yan Rouzhong (young Qiujie), Ding Yetian (Madam Qi, clairvoyant), Wang Xuan (Ling Kaifeng’s mother), Valeria Bilenko (Valeria, woman in Roppongi bar), Lin Yuxian (parcel courier), Xin Wanrong (Jimmy’s neighbour), Yu Wenwen [Kelly Yu] (Bobo), Ren Jiexin, Lu Pengyu, Du Zhichen, Gong Ruijun, Hong Chenying, Zhu Qiyu (Yanzi’s friends), Zhang Zhimin (building manager), Chen Yanting, Li Zongzhe (policemen).

Release: China, 15 Jan 2016.