疯劫

Hong Kong cinema doyenne Ann Hui’s feature debut, made when she was 32 years old, THE SECRET is a scandalous whodunit inspired by a veridical case of a double homicide. Not shying away from its lurid subject matter, Hui and screenwriter Joyce Chen hammers out a plausible plot to decipher the crime passionnel, but the real force lies in Hui’s distinct style of honing a spine-tingling ambience and unveiling the story in an evasive but enthralling way, which earns the film a niche as one of the vanguards of Hong Kong New Wave.

After establishing the premise of two lovers are discovered being brutally murdered, the film holds the point-of-view of a young nurse Lin (Chang), who is intrigued to seek out the truth not because she has her skin in the game, but propinquity, she is the neighbor of the purported victim Yuen (Chiu), and has already developed a close bond with Yuen’s blind grandmother (Lai). THE SECRET starts out like a ghost story, with Yuen’s alleged apparition (often shown only with her pair of shoes) lurking near her abode and spooking anyone who dares to go out in the darkness. But audience has no disillusion that anything paranormal is operative here, after piecing together the glimpses of the past, a love triangle emerges between Yuen, her boyfriend Cheuk (Man, really hoking it up gloriously in the risible death scene), and another woman Mui (Li).

The rest is none-too-complicated, the red herring of an unhinged young man Saw (Chu) turns out more than being a chance bystander, and what looks far too ludicrous is the denouement, a pregnant woman’s desperation and delirium is crafted too haphazard by half, and a last-minute affixation of a newborn’s delivery can only leave slack-jawed audience in total disbelief.

Save for a young Angie Chiu plays against the type of comely, innocent beauty, the cast is barely serviceable (some are quite laughable), Sylvia Chang, as versatile as she is, is reduced mostly to the footwork of investigation and has no backstory of her own to tell. However, THE SECRET still heralds a major filmmaker is in the making, the perspicacity of Hui’s idioms - the generosity in centering on female characters, the unhurried, unsensational unfurling of the story, not to mention the liberated camera movement and frame composition (did you notice the out-of-the-blue dolly zoom?) - permeate through a genre job that is not really up her alley.

referential entries: Hui’s BOAT PEOPLE (1982, 7.3/10); King Hu’s LEGEND OF THE MOUNTAIN (1979, 7.9/10).