Secret: Untold Melody

Story: Yoo-joon (Do Kyung-soo) is an outstanding pianist and studies in Germany, where he enters a contest. However, he has a panic attack and therefore decides to go back to Korea for the time being and continue his studies there. In Korea, the student In-hee (Shin Ye-eun) immediately sticks to his heels and shows him the campus. Apparently, she is interested in Yoo-joon, but he suddenly hears a beautiful melody and hurries into a music room which is normally only used by couples as a retreat and has an old piano in it. In fact, the girl Jeong-ah (Won Jin-ah) sat at the piano and played it. Yoo-joon was fascinated by the melody and now he wants to get to know the girl. Jeong-ah also instantly takes a liking to the pianist. She has the same lectures as him, but she is always absent, and therefore it is extremely difficult for Yoo-joon to meet up with her. She doesn't even have a cell phone. The student is quite unhappy with the situation, and on top of that his father (Bae Sung-woo), who works as a professor at the same university, can sense that something is wrong with his son. But when he correctly guesses that his problems are related to a girl, he only makes fun of him. In the meantime, Yoo-joon notices more and more peculiarities about Jeong-ah. She seems to have some secrets. Still, the pianist is not prepared for the whole truth ...

Review: A movie that positively surprised me in a big way, largely because it was a romantic flick which I don’t watch that often, was the Taiwanese work "Secret". Especially because of the classic piano pieces, I really wanted to watch the movie a second time at some point, but the fact that you would probably have a lot less fun watching it when you know about the big twist has always kept me from doing so. Luckily, nowadays everything gets redone in remakes, and so we get a reinterpretation of the original with "Secret: Untold Melody". To be honest, though, you have to start with the fact that it stays extremely close to the original - so close that after almost eighteen years I still immediately recognized certain scenes. However, you can't really go wrong with that. The magic of the love story is captured beautifully, and especially in this respect the remake even manages to trump the original. But you probably didn't expect anything else, after all, Korea is known for its super-cute romances. Nevertheless, in this context it is important to mention that the movie generally stays clear of kitsch. One or two scenes may sometimes lean in this direction, but the relationship never feels artificial at all.

The reason why the romance on screen is so convincing: the actors. The chemistry between them is a good deal better than in the original, and on top of that, character-wise the two protagonists also differ from those in the original script. Mostly, this works so well thanks to Do Kyung-soo ("The Moon") as he has the necessary charisma to carry the role. Something that Jay Chou was not that good at in the original. In this remake Yoo-joon seems a lot more vivid, his feelings and fears are more visible, and he is not simply the piano genius. But Won Jin-ah ("Long Live the King") has a lot to offer too, as it is precisely her honest smile that gives the love story its credibility and innocence. In this respect, I have to praise how warm and cozy the first meetup on campus turned out here. You feel thrown back to the 2000s, when Korea still put romantic dramas with depth and honesty on screen, so that even those who didn’t have a soft spot for the genre could simply enjoy watching a good movie. Here, director Seo Yoo-min ("Recalled") clearly oriented herself towards the original, and she was able to capture its spirit quite well.

However, I liked the Taiwanese version a little better in terms of atmosphere. This is mainly due to the setting. There, the campus looked like you were in Oxford, and everything was kind of magical. In "Secret: Untold Melody" the director tries to create a similar atmosphere, but she only succeeds to do so to a certain extent. Even the opening credits of the original had something magical to it and therefore gave a small preview of what to expect. You can't really say that here. It is surprising that even though the special effects in 2025 are of course a lot better than in 2007, the style of how time-lapse is used in a scene, for example, was and still is a lot more impressive back then. Despite the fact that this review is not supposed to be a constant comparison with the original, it has to be mentioned that the Taiwanese "Secret" did better when it came to the direction. Jay Chou may not have been incredibly convincing as an actor, but his directing work was excellent, and apparently, his screenplay was so good that hardly anything was changed in the remake either. But that’s especially where I would have liked a few more deviations from the original, or at least a few novel ideas. Still, this chance has only been made use of when it comes to the characters.

Particularly the new interpretation of the father, who is simply charismatic, lovable and easy-going, but can also give a few pieces of wisdom in his own style, is quite appealing. Bae Sung-woo ("Beasts Clawing at Straws") gets more out of his role than would have been necessary. When it comes to Yoo-joon's mother, however, you would have wished for a little more, as she only appears in one scene. In the end, the focus is on the relationship between the protagonists, though. There is a constant up and down (towards the end more of a down), and also some logical errors. For example, Yoo-joon is sometimes really slow to catch on when it comes to the girl's secrets, and Jeong-ah could have been a bit more honest here and there, that way there wouldn't have been so many problems at the meetup. It's also hard to point out all the other flaws without giving away the big twist, and there are so many of them that it should actually harm the movie. But fortunately, this is not the case, because the rest is so good that you are eager to overlook all of this. The combination of classical music, romance and magic simply takes you into another world, in which you are willing to accept other rules without questioning them too much. A nice accomplishment, even though it would have been even nicer if the remake had eliminated at least a few of the script’s flaws.

Let's get to the music: At least according to my personal impression, it was more present in the original, but we get the same "Piano Battle" as we did in 2007, and the same pieces too. It's also nice that Jeong-ah's piano piece, which has a special meaning, is still the one written by Jay Chou. In addition, with its running time of just over 100 minutes the flick doesn't unnecessarily drag on. A lot of the movie lives off of its atmosphere and it simply works. You might criticize the fact that there aren't a few more original ideas, but the fact that the chemistry between the two actors works so well is a pleasant plus. So, if you are able to warm up to romantic flicks, you can’t go wrong here. Thanks to the fantasy aspect and the classical music, "Secret: Untold Melody" can also catch the interest of viewers who are not necessarily genre fans. Nonetheless, this can only be said with a certain level of caution, because in some cases the twist might also catch someone on the wrong foot. If you are not willing to accept it, you could be inclined to simply roll your eyes. Still, the fact remains that we get a well-done remake here, which simply deserves a recommendation.

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