Youling renjian II: Gui wei ren jian

Eason Chan and Jo Koo star as newlyweds who don't have much time together before Chan has an accident and goes into a coma. When he awakes, he meets his old friend (Cherrie Ying) who helps him investigate his wife, who is acting more and more strangely. Lots of ghostly possession. Not as interesting on as many levels as the original VISIBLE SECRET, and though it still has a lot going for it, a tired rip-off of THE SIXTH SENSE fills a lot of the running time, making it predictable and somewhat boring. The plot elements not stolen from that film are complicated and unravel nicely. In short, a compelling mystery with a large chunk of plagiarism at its center.

We would have predicted this 'sequel' to come by as soon as we left the cinema after the first installment. Well who is so dumb not to cash in on a sequel after striking a hit on the first one, not to mention the ever `money-crazy' Hong Kong producers. However sometimes a good movie would be so much better if the producers would have just leave it alone and not creating unnecessary sequels to down-grade a movie. However in this aspect of Visible Secret, it is the other way round (vice-versa). Acclaimed director, Ann Hui has created enough of complications around in the first installment, therefore she needs this 'sequel' to tie things up a little but she seemed to leave one or two loose ends behind again - on purpose. This second installment basically is not a sequel but it is definitely a better effort than the first.

The first movie was a muddled and messy affair but Ann Hui seems to have polished her style and execution a bit this time round. The plot is about a newly-married man, Jack (Eason Chan) seeing visions (Again?! Aren't we lately having too much of this eye visual ghosts stuffs?!) and finding bizarre going-on at his apartment - after recovering from a road accident. Worse, Jack begins to suspect his wife, Ching (Jo Koo) is being possessed...

The psychological thriller plants a lot of suspicions around as well as a lot of loose ends unanswered like the creepy old woman (Law Lan) who appears outside the couple's apartment. We still do not know who she is when the movie finishes so let's get ready for installment no.3 then for the answer. This sort of loose ends has happened before in the first movie too of the powdered girl with an umbrella. However one thing which pleases me in this movie is most of the plots are reasonably resolved at the end. Nothing to shout about either about the casts as Eason Chan is again in a predictably role while Jo Koo is more of a 'flower in a vase'. As for Cherrie Ying, a young lass but needs more meatier roles in the future to prove that she is not only a pretty face.

I can foresee that there would definitely be a third installment as in terms of box-office as well as the trend of (nonsensical) pro-longing a continuation saga. However one word of wisdom to Ann Hui is that `spoiling more broth' doesn't do her reputation of an acclaimed director good. Be warned!