Cham chau Chou Chieh Lun

Hidden Track (2003)

Starring: Pou Lok Tung, Shawn Yue Directed by: Aubrey Lam

Oh, this could have been an excellent movie, and it all started so well. But it just misses the mark for excellence due to some shortcomings in the storyline.

Hidden Track tells of Po Po (Pou Lok Tung), who after her breakup with her boyfriend, goes in search of 'their song', a hidden track on one of Jay Chou's albums. The problem is, only 500 of these limited edition albums were made in Hong Kong, so she decides to go to there in search of it. Her trip to HK leads to Yu's (Shawn Yue) second-hand CD store. However, the CD has been sold and passed on a long line of people, so she tracks down these people, only to encounter each person's different definition of love.

The overall plot, though somewhat cheesy at first lance, is actually a good one, and some good direction and camera-work reminds you of Amelie. However, what doesn't carry it well enough is the story itself. Whilst cute, there isn't enough interlinking between story lines, and many of them are too short - more flesh would have made the whole film much more powerful. And then there were the negatives: pointless animation between scenes and the pre-ending where it was inevitable, but shouldn't really have been there. Plus, I never quite understood why the film wasn't written and performed in all Cantonese or all Mandarin in conversations - Pou Lok Tung and Shawn Yue converse in Mandarin and Cantonese respectively, although Yue does speak good Mandarin. Well at least it's not all dubbed...

And whilst Pou Lok Tung was great in her role, she can't quite match the levels Audrey Tautou reached in Amelie. Nonetheless, as it is a very good effort early in her career. Shawn Yue is as magnificent as ever, as he demonstrates, no matter how quirky the role, he can pull it off brilliantly.

And for fans of Jay Chou, you'll only be disappointed as he makes a short cameo towards the end of the film. However, his repertoire as part of the score is used cleverly, particularly the hidden track, whilst the non-Jay Chou score was also very good.

But despite the all the negatives listed, I enjoyed the movie. I hesitate to say more, because it would spoil it. It is beautifully made, cleverly crafted and well executed. But I have seen better. Unfortunately, and probably quite unfairly, that's what stops me from saying it's an excellent film. However, I do admit that this is probably better than you'd get normally from HK cinema these days. It's almost as cute as Amelie, it has a decent basic storyline, and the actors and director make something of it, so I welcome anyone to give it a try and be pleasantly surprised.

One not just for the Jay Chou fans.

I can honestly say that this 'movie' was one of the worst I've ever seen, and this is coming from a rabid Jay Chou fan who is convinced that she is his long-lost soul mate. The only good thing about this movie is those three sacred minutes during which Jay Chou finally made his long-awaited cameo appearance, as well as the expectedly beautiful songs that he penned. The rest of the movie was, quite frankly, a waste of film whose sole purpose was to prolong the agony of Jay Chou fans in the theatre waiting for their idol to appear (and when he did, some members of the audience actually screamed).

The movie was excruciatingly pretentious, shamelessly plot less, and obviously trying to cash in on Jay Chou's fame, considering how he's THE biggest song-writer/singer in Asia. This soundtrack-of-life dribble takes pointless meanders into places whose purposes were never really quite uncovered, but you really cease to care after thirty minutes into the movie, all thanks to Po Po's terrible acting. Obviously marketed as the next Faye Wong (excuse me while I puke), she went for acting cute a la typical Chinese pop stars with sweet faces but bland voices and hence, you never quite take her seriously either. The oddball characters that showed up were more annoying than intriguing, and they served no real purpose in and to the plot, except to fill up the ninety minutes, perhaps.

But the worst crime that Hidden Track committed was that it didn't even attempt to be entertaining. I lost track of how many times I checked my watch and I fidgeted throughout the movie. It was flat, it was dull, and it was an absolute bore. The only moments during which I perked up were when Jay Chou's songs were playing in the background. It's pretty obvious that the people behind this non-film were aiming for an avant garde, deep and philosophical film, but sadly, they never had material that was credible enough to come remotely close to their target. The script - a primary school kid can write something like that, and the movie is so all-over-the-place that its point is lost in all the turns that the female protagonist took in search of that rare (and non-existent in real life) Jay Chou album with the hidden track in it. Clearly, what is obviously missing from this poor excuse for a movie is a story worthwhile enough to sit through while waiting for Jay Chou to appear.

Strictly for Jay Chou fans. I may have hated the first 87 minutes, but I definitely enjoyed and loved the last three. Long live Jay Chou and his brilliant songs.