Some remakes stick so closely to the original, they’re the cinematic equivalent of a cover version. Others see room for improvement, bringing new ideas to the table or fixing things that didn’t quite work.
Taiwanese pop star Jay Chou’s directorial debut, “Secret” (2007) — an overripe youth romance with a mystical twist that made less sense the more you thought about it — might seem like a good choice for the latter approach. This Japanese remake, directed by Hayato Kawai, is an exercise in refinement. Based on a script by Saya Matsuda, it keeps most of the key moments but endeavors to plug the plot holes, resulting in a film that’s more grounded and coherent, but also less fun.
Minato (Taiga Kyomoto) is a would-be concert pianist who’s returned to study at music school in Japan after a traumatic experience at a conservatory in England. His old pal Hikari (Mayu Yokota) signals that she’s on the market, but Minato’s ear — and eye — are caught by a mysterious young woman whom he hears playing in a dilapidated wing of the university.
That’s how he meets Yukino (Kotone Furukawa), whose coquettish behavior and preppy fashion sense indicate that she’s not your average college girl, even before she reveals — red flag! — that she doesn’t have a cellphone. The lovebirds have to arrange their meetings the old-fashioned way, which sets the tone for the disarmingly chaste courtship that ensues.
After Minato’s nerves give out during a piano battle with the university’s reigning champion — a deeply silly scene that’s also one of the film’s highlights — Yukino helps him rediscover the pleasure of playing. Along the way, they go through many of the genre’s standard rites of passage (bicycle rides, beach trips, hitting the dancefloor). However, the sweetest moments are when they snuggle up at a shared piano, their hands performing an elaborate pas de deux across the keys.
Speaking of performances, the two leads do a credible job of faking it during the musical sequences, with an assist from Atsushi Yamanaka and Yusuke Takahashi, of piano duo Un Sept Six. They also both give off the air of people who know they’re a bit old for this kind of stuff. Furukawa, in particular, never seems entirely comfortable in a role that leaves little room for the kind of complex shading she brought to her breakout performance in Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy” (2021).
Minato is too besotted to realize something about his beloved that viewers will probably deduce within a few minutes. The titular secret is contained in the sheet music for the piece that he first hears Yukino playing, although it’s a mystery why a Chopin specialist would be drawn to a saccharine melody more befitting of Richard Clayderman.
Once the film reveals what’s been going on, it switches into an aggressively torrid register, as if determined to ensure that no tear goes unshed (yes, there’s terminal illness involved). The flashback-heavy final act does yield one genuinely poignant scene between Yukino and Minato’s dad (Toshinori Omi). However, the gloriously over-the-top finale of the original is replaced by a more somber denouement that’s altogether less interesting, without feeling any less manipulative.
The secret of Chou’s film was that sometimes it helps to embrace the ridiculous. “Secret: A Hidden Score” plays things far too straight.
| Rating | |
|---|---|
| Run Time | 114 mins. |
| Language | Japanese |
| Opens | June 28 |
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.