The Secret1979
Introduction
Introduction for The Secret (1979) is being prepared.
Body of Work
It is abundantly clear watching The Secret , Ann Hui's debut feature, that the director had mastered the film medium from day one. Hui, who went on to become a monumental figure of Hong Kong cinema, skillfully utilises the dynamics of the Hollywood suspense genre to tell a decidedly local tale. The story takes off from a horrific crime inspired by a real-life incident, turning sensational headlines into a mapping of social and psychological currents. The script by Joyce Chan, who had penned some of the most noteworthy projects by New Wavers dating back to their television years, is informed perceptively by a woman's sensibility at once intelligent and compassionate. It also site-specifically sets the story in Hong Kong Island's Western District, effectively using neighbourhood landscapes for dramatic ends. Source: Hong Kong Film Archive Leisure and Cultural Services Ltd. Ann Hui says about her film:
\"After I'd finished making the film, I felt that it lacked something. I think it's because I was not certain during the shooting exactly what kind of film I was aiming to make.
\"This has nothing to do with the audience the film is made for. It's more a matter of my own uncertainty about my aims. Let me explain: our point of departure was a real-life murder case, which had a number of intricate features that could easily have been given a very commercial slant. There were various ways we could have approached this subject: we could have treated it as a documentary-style study of a murder; we could have concentrated on the inter-relationships between the characters, that led up to the murder; or, again, we could have treated it as a thriller, tracing the course of the investigation to find out the murderer. In retrospect, I think we made a basic error in failing to decide whether the film should be a thriller or a pyschologicai movie. Had we gone for one or the other, our approach would certainly have been different.
\"In fact, this was a basic misunderstanding between scriptwriter Joyce Chan, the producers and myself, right from the start. When I decided on the story in the first place, I didn't think of it as a thriller, but rather as a psychological drama. I felt that the heroine's character had some resemblances with Electra, and that was what first captured my interest.\"
\"After I'd finished making the film, I felt that it lacked something. I think it's because I was not certain during the shooting exactly what kind of film I was aiming to make.
\"This has nothing to do with the audience the film is made for. It's more a matter of my own uncertainty about my aims. Let me explain: our point of departure was a real-life murder case, which had a number of intricate features that could easily have been given a very commercial slant. There were various ways we could have approached this subject: we could have treated it as a documentary-style study of a murder; we could have concentrated on the inter-relationships between the characters, that led up to the murder; or, again, we could have treated it as a thriller, tracing the course of the investigation to find out the murderer. In retrospect, I think we made a basic error in failing to decide whether the film should be a thriller or a pyschologicai movie. Had we gone for one or the other, our approach would certainly have been different.
\"In fact, this was a basic misunderstanding between scriptwriter Joyce Chan, the producers and myself, right from the start. When I decided on the story in the first place, I didn't think of it as a thriller, but rather as a psychological drama. I felt that the heroine's character had some resemblances with Electra, and that was what first captured my interest.\"
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