Reviewed by: JohnR Date: 07/18/2007 Summary: Ghost movie for accounting assistants Jo Kuk Cho-Lam is Mak Ching, a mousey, modest young woman with the vibrant, out-going nature of a librarian. Newly wed to Jack Kwok (Eason Chan), they begin their life together in their newly purchased apartment, acquired at a bargain price. That's the first hint that they are soon going to encounter the spirit world and others are just as obvious. As Jack begins to notice odd things happening and suspects a ghost is responsible, his old friend September turns up. September (Cherrie Ying) is as vivacious as Mak Ching is staid; she appears to be twenty going on twelve and has the energy of a shoe-chewing puppy. After a few scenes in which their relationship is established, she begins to help him investigate the odd goings on, which are centered around Mak Ching. But hey, who's the creepy guy across the way, and the old woman on the bench, and what are those two women Jack sees through the window all about? And what is September's relationship to Jack? He treats her like a younger sister and she acts the part for the most part, even referring to him as "brother," but she appears to maybe like him a bit more than that. As you might be able to tell from that plot summary, Visible Secret II has nothing to do with the original. It's a sequel in name only. Is it as good as No. 1? No. I preferred No. 1, but since it doesn't have anything to do with No. 1, I probably shouldn't compare them. Though it has a general air of spookiness and building tension, it wasn't really scary. My guess is that No. 1 is better because Ann Hui directed it, whereas here she's only the producer (and I suppose owner of the franchise name). Eason Chan does his usual everyman performance. I enjoy his performances. Sometimes the character is just supposed to be an average joe and when that's the case he's a good actor to call on. He doesn't have the charisma of Tom Hanks, the uber-joe, but who does? I thought Jo Kuk Cho-Lam was new to me, but after watching I looked her up in the database and see that she's been in several movies I've watched. So I guess she must be good, since she can lose herself into her character. Her character in VS2 makes Eason's seem hopped up on caffeine and amphetamine, but I appreciated seeing her sexual shyness. Kind of refreshing. And finally there's Cherrie Ying, who was one of the main reasons I bought this DVD. Her loyal fans will probably like her here, but I found her juvenile adult annoying. Still, when she flashes that smile... Recommended to those who enjoy a quiet ghost movie and aren't expecting the re-birth of Visible Secret. You can look at a movie like this as a window open into the lives of a few folks/ghosts, sort of a there's-a-million-stories-in-the-naked-city. This story wasn't the best or most compelling, but it was still interesting in a voyeuristic way. Reviewer Score: 6

Reviewed by: Sydneyguy Date: 04/13/2003 Summary: Boring Does it have anything to do with the original which actually was scary?? Hmmm not sure apart from annoying Eason chan!! Predictable is what i would say about this movie in one word. After seeng the first one, you have a general idea what would happen. There is nothing to recommend here, it's boring, it's not scary, it predictable, what other bad thigs should i say about it?? I better stop and just give this 3/10

Reviewed by: danton Date: 12/30/2002 Ann Hui's original movie starring Shu Qi and Eason Chan was a gorgeously filmed and very atmospheric ghost movie with a strong script and good acting performances that opened the floodgates for a bevy of similarly-themed films of the "I see ghosts" variety. The strongest and most effective of those recent copycat movies was probably THE EYE. So how does Visible Secret II fare in comparison? Well, it doesn't quite reach the standard set by its predecessor, but still manages to hold its own. The film starts extremely slow, and for the first 30 minutes or so the story really drags quite a bit. Newlyweds Jack (Eason Chan) and his wife Ching (Jo Kuk) move into a new apartment, Eason gets run over by a car, resulting in a coma from which he then miraculously recovers. However, creepy things start to happen at the apartment and furthermore, his wife shows signs of being possessed by a ghost. All of this has been seen in hundreds of movies before, and is presented at a slow pace that borders on being boring. However, things pick up with the arrival of Jack's friend September (Cherie Ying) - together, they start to investigate the cause of all these spooky shenanigans, and the film immediately starts to become more interesting. Unfortunately, the film presents the audience with a lot of twists and angles that turn out to be red herrings (eg the pervert neighbor) and that are unrelated to the actual storyline, resulting in some degree of viewer frustration. Only towards the end do the various narrative strands finally start to come together, building up to a tense finale that ends in yet another surprise twist. Overall, the film presents the story in a rather pedestrian fashion, with some pretty dull passages and a few too many twists, and while it aims for atmospheric suspense, it never manages to become truly scary or frightening (the way THE EYE did). Still, it invests the main characters with enough flesh and blood to make the audience care about them, with Jo Kuk in particular giving a strong yet restrained performance. Marginal recommendation.

Reviewed by: magic-8 Date: 11/14/2002 Summary: Visibly Disappointing, Too Abe Gwong takes the director's chair in the sequel "Visible Secret II," with Eason Chan reprising his role from the original film. Right from the get-go the absence of Hsu Chi and a coherent script is apparent. In the sequel, Eason doesn't have Hsu to exchange reactions. Chi's work in "Visible Secret" was quirky and vibrant, and without her, Eason by comparison resembles the knot in a chunk of wood. The plot is very convoluted. It centers on Eason's marriage to Jo Kuk and how she becomes possessed. The story takes the entire movie to develop, and once it reaches that point, the film ends. Abe Gwong's work was industrious, but the story lacked cohesiveness and had terrible character development, especially when it had to introduce Cherrie Ying, because Kuk's role was so underwritten. There were also so many dull moments that any attempt at creating tension or frights was yawn inducing. The DVD contains commentaries (in Cantonese) from Abe Gwong and Ann Hui. They discuss the film, but Abe generally talks about what's on the screen. I would like to have heard more about the back-story and some of the ideas they had for the sequel. You know you're in for a tough viewing time when the commentaries are more entertaining than the movie itself.

Reviewed by: risbac Date: 08/15/2002 Summary: Lacks the technical qualities of n°1 Visible Secret was quite uneven, with very good directing, cinematography and Hsu Chi, and a bad too complicated plot. Visible Secret 2 is still too complicated and uninteresting, but it also lacks a good directing. It's not so bad, it's quite well done, with a love story which could have been moving. But it's still a disappointment and another very very avoidable ghost movie from HK.