I don’t do recaps so I’m grateful to those who do. I’m basing my comments on the information I found on these two sites about the 2007 Taiwanese movie, “The Secret That Cannot Be Told.”

http://telly-tales.blogspot.com
https://opionator.wordpress.com

It should go without saying that this post contains spoilers.

The movie “Secrets” is best described as a drama in two acts.

The first act is your garden-variety love story. A piano prodigy transfers to a Juillard-like high school. He’s shown the music building with a piano room that has a 100-year history. He’s told however that the building will be demolished at the end of the year, on their graduation, to make way for a new music hall. Curious, he explores the building on his own.

He hears piano music ending as he enters. He investigates where the music is coming from but the whole floor seems deserted. He spies an antique piano in one room and enters. To his shock, there’s a girl standing on a bookcase ladder. This is the fated girl.

The second act is the time travel portion of the drama. When the girl plays the mysterious music again, he asks for the title. She replies with the title of the film. It’s “a secret that cannot be told.” He later finds out that this composition, literally called “Secret,” can magically transport the pianist back and forth in time when it’s played.

It says so on the piano sheet:

“Follow the notes upon the journey
At first sight marks one’s destiny
Once the voyage comes to an end
Return lies within hasty keys”

Unfortunately, the boy discovers the magic of the “Secret” a little too late. The girl has already disappeared back into her time, 20 years in the past. The girl he thought he was dating is, in reality, a hallucination — or a time-traveler who NOT only traveled 20 years in the future to meet him, but who ALSO died in the past of a broken heart because of him. In his timeline, she no longer exists because she passed away in her timeline, 20 years ago.

Determined to reunite with her in the past, he rushes to the music building which is about to be knocked down. He must play the piece in “hasty key” (or quick tempo) to move back in time. And in order for the magic to actually work, he must play the piece without mistake.

The problem is he’s only heard the piece once.

But this where his musical prodigy comes in handy. He plays the music in doppio movimento (or twice as fast) without a single wrong note. He’s neither distracted nor unnerved by the wrecking ball crashing through everything around him. Then, on the last note, in perfect timing, he escapes the wrecking ball heading toward him. He’s transported to the girl’s world.

She’s the first thing he sees thereby fulfilling the riddle of the “Secret,” that “At first sight marks one’s destiny.”

That’s the long story.

How does this film relate to this episode?

Let me crack my knuckles first. Lol.

I’ll give you my six points of comparison.

By the way, do not plagiarize my work. Don’t be like that creepy bovine Rosa Mae Aguilar on Facebook. 😡

1. The “secrets,” obviously

Link: Our Beloved Summer: Ep 5 A Secret, Part 1

2. The extraordinary talent

The boy in “Secrets” is a prodigy.

Ung never bragged about his artistic gift because one, he’s low-key about it and two, he’s a late bloomer. But yeah, he’s phenomenal in his own right. Everybody, except for Yeonsu, knew how he lose himself while he was working.

The night before the duel, Yeonsu wanted to check on Ung, but couldn’t contact EunHo. She ended up calling JiUng.

JiUng: What’s up?
Yeonsu: JiUng. How’s Ung? Is he doing okay?
JiUng: Yes. He was doing fine the last time I saw him.
Yeonsu: I see.
JiUng: If you’re worried, go ahead and call him.
Yeonsu: No, I’m fine. Eunho is with Ung, right?
JiUng: No, Eunho left with me. He said he wanted to finish up by himself.
Yeonsu: Will he be okay alone?
JiUng: He won’t die. I guess you don’t know. He’s like that when he works.
Yeonsu: Oh I see.

Then later that night, Yeonsu complained that he didn’t call on her to report on his progress. She found him frustrating.

To be honest, I found HER frustrating. She should have checked up on him earlier. She couldn’t possibly think he was doing nothing better than call on her to give her updates. She didn’t know how artists work. Her subordinate voiced more concern about Ung’s condition that she did.

3. The artistic duel

One of the highlights of the Taiwanese film is the piano duel between one character considered the “Prince of the Piano, and the hero, played by Jay Chou. I’ve never heard of the actor Jay Chou before but apparently, he’s a famous pop artist/musician in Asia. Aside from playing the leading role in this film, he also wrote the script, directed this film, and composed the musical score. Lol. In other words, he’s a great team player; the team comprised of him, his, himself, and His Honor. 😎

Anyway, here’s the YT clip of the piano duel.

In our drama, instead of a piano duel, there’s a drawing duel between Nu-A, and Go-Oh. I’m sure Ung will win it without being flashy.

4. The goal of the performance is to be reunited with the girl.

In the film, the boy gave a desperate piano performance in order to be reunited with the girl. In this episode, Ung drew his heart out in order to change the way that Yeonsu looked at him.

For Ung, the plagiarism charge nor the artist rivalry with Nu-A didn’t matter. The way I see it, he wanted to show Yeonsu his cold and professional, and artistic side…like what his manager EunHo wanted him to do.

He wanted her to see his creative work process and to believe in him. To me, this was real reason he agreed to 100 hours of work with 5 hours of live drawing.

He aimed to impress her with his competence so she would stop looking down on him like he was still a pathetic guy that he was in high school and start looking at him with a fresh pair of eyes.

Remember in Episode 1 when Yeonsu scoffed at his childish ways? She accused him of acting immature when he sprayed water and threw salt at her. Ung shot back, “What if I was serious and didn’t act childish? Would you have managed?”

That was his motivation for this drawing performance: to reveal his serious side.

5. The time pressure

In the film, the boy had to play the music rapidly, and without a single mistake, to make the “Secret” work. But he was also racing against time because the wrecking ball was about to obliterate the piano room, taking him along with it.

In this episode, Ung was also under time pressure. Although he didn’t have a wrecking ball hanging on top of him like the sword of Damocles, 100 hours (or 19 hours a day for five days) was the maximum amount of time he could push himself to draw with little food and rest. It was both a physical and mental marathon for him.

6. “At first sight marks one’s destiny”

This is another highlight of the show. This line in the riddle signifies that the first person the pianist sees after his performance is the only person that can see him in that new time dimension. That’s the rule. The explicit message here is that first sight, like first love, is destiny.

Every time the girl crossed over to the future where the boy was, she had to close her eyes to avoid seeing anybody else, and open them only when she was near his classroom or when he was nearby. When she accidentally opened her eyes and met somebody else, she had to meet him another time.

“At first sight marks one destiny” means she’s only visible to the person she sees first. Nobody else can see her.

When the boy escaped the wrecking ball, and traveled back to the past, the first person he saw was the girl.

Now how does this rule work with our drama? 🙂

Well, in this episode, after Ung finished 95 hours of drawing, he opened the door to Yeonsu. She was the first person he saw after he came up for air.

Yeonsu: I rang the bell, but you didn’t answer so I called you.
Ung: (bleary-eyed)

Yeonsu: (blabbing) I didn’t come to interrupt. I wanted to check how it was going for the even tomorrow, since you…I mean, checking up on the artist is also a part of my job. I came because I was told to. This is jujube tea. I know you have a hard time falling asleep. I mean, they told me to give it to you. Have some tea and get some sleep.

She was denying personal responsibility for her actions. She was telling him that she was only doing this out of obligation, out of duty… as if that was a critical point she needed to make right now. Really, girl?

Ung: It was 95 hours.
Yeonsu: Huh?
Ung: (repeating himself) I just finished working for 95 hours.

Yeonsu: (stunned)
Ung: I’ll draw the rest in front of the audience tomorrow.
Yeonsu: Really? Did you really manage to do it? You really are amazin—

I think the word she was about to say was “멋있다 or “meositta” or cool, amazing, awesome. But she stopped herself.

She looked so cute here. Like a puppy.

Yeonsu: Anyway, drink this and get some sleep. (handing him the bottle and thinking) There. That wasn’t so bad, right? (aloud) I’m going to go now. (mentally) I was very professional.
Ung: (holding her) Do you want to sleep over?

I guess, I’ll have to watch Episode 6 to find out whether anybody else saw Yeonsu at Ung’s home that night she stayed over. Lol.

But yes, the “at first sight marks one’s destiny” rule of “Secrets” applies to the kdrama.

Moving on to Episode 6.