NOOB FILM REVIEW: SECRET: UNTOLD MELODY directed by Seo Yoo-min

SYNOPSIS (Wikipedia)
The film is a remake of the 2007 Taiwanese film Secret by Jay Chou. It follows Yu-jun, a piano prodigy and music student, who accidentally encounters Jung-a playing mysterious music in an old practice room on campus, sparking a fantasy romance. The film was released on January 27, 2025.

THE QUESTION OF ‘ORIGINALITY’
After attending the premiere last month, I watched the 2007 film by Jay Chou on YouTube to a fair comparison of both. Yes, it is a remake and the only difference is its done in a Korean context, where the original is of Taiwanese.

What struck me when watching the original 2007 film, it says during the opening credit that the 'original story' is by Jay Chou. It thus has open up the question about 'originality' to me, because it reminds me so much of 1980's Somewhere in Time starring Christopher Reeves and Jane Seymour. His ability to time travel is because his detachment to the present materialistics and dwelve himself totally to the past.

In Jay Chou's 2007 film and the 2025 remake, its the old grand piano and its melody. In the 1980's Somewhere In Time, its the portrait of Jane Seymour's character.

In the 2025 remake, the audience is gradually made to realize the unfolding character plot of who the girl character really is, in a fashion that was pioneered by 1999 The Sixth Sense starring Bruce Willis. The audience too, was made to realized the true fate of Bruce's character which answers a lot of question posed in the earlier scenes.

For new audience that have not watched Somehwere In Time and The Sixth Sense, the ending reveal might suprise them but not really to those who have. Again it is the question on the claim of 'originality' by Jay Chou of the story, instead of saying 'inspired by'.

Regardless, both 2007 original and 2025 remake film subtly comments about the importance of knowing your foundation (in this case, in music) before going forward. Other than that it is of how tunes from the past can really bring you back towards the nostalgia of the past. Similar to the 2018 Malaysian film Guang, where a boy who suffers from autism fought to gather the tunes from the past with the gathering of a self-made glass harp, which took him to the past and the memories of his late mother.

TIME TRAVEL GENRE
Time travel genre is not about the technological advancement of going back and forth through time. It is a plot device for the character to overcome regret, make amends of his mistakes, and live in the present. Which is also what the ending of 2022 Everything Everywhere All at Once means. Michelle Yeoh's character came back to the same opening scene through time travel, instead of trying to solve the problem that havent occured yet, she looked around and be content of the present time.

Apart from it being a popular Buddhist idea, it is also in Hinduism where Advaita Vedanta teaches that time is an illusion (Maya) and only the present time is real. Also in Islam, where it says the Koran that "By time, indeed, mankind is in loss," because we worry too much about the past and the future, we are not living in the present. And also to be Kafkaesquely commit our whole life towards the modern commercialism time print posted on us the time we were born, while the real notion of it, (something that quantum scientist have recently discover) that time does not exist at all (Maya) and man is at a loss. A great reminder of that with the building of a great clock tower beside Kaabah in Mecca.

Rumi said "The lamp is different, but the light is the same". The great Yasmin Ahmad uses this quote at the end of her 2007 film Mukhsin. May the end of Ramadan transcend us all towards a clearer light of conscience.