I can honestly say that this 'movie' was one of the worst I've ever seen, and this is coming from a rabid Jay Chou fan who is convinced that she is his long-lost soul mate. The only good thing about this movie is those three sacred minutes during which Jay Chou finally made his long-awaited cameo appearance, as well as the expectedly beautiful songs that he penned. The rest of the movie was, quite frankly, a waste of film whose sole purpose was to prolong the agony of Jay Chou fans in the theatre waiting for their idol to appear (and when he did, some members of the audience actually screamed).
The movie was excruciatingly pretentious, shamelessly plot less, and obviously trying to cash in on Jay Chou's fame, considering how he's THE biggest song-writer/singer in Asia. This soundtrack-of-life dribble takes pointless meanders into places whose purposes were never really quite uncovered, but you really cease to care after thirty minutes into the movie, all thanks to Po Po's terrible acting. Obviously marketed as the next Faye Wong (excuse me while I puke), she went for acting cute a la typical Chinese pop stars with sweet faces but bland voices and hence, you never quite take her seriously either. The oddball characters that showed up were more annoying than intriguing, and they served no real purpose in and to the plot, except to fill up the ninety minutes, perhaps.
But the worst crime that Hidden Track committed was that it didn't even attempt to be entertaining. I lost track of how many times I checked my watch and I fidgeted throughout the movie. It was flat, it was dull, and it was an absolute bore. The only moments during which I perked up were when Jay Chou's songs were playing in the background. It's pretty obvious that the people behind this non-film were aiming for an avant garde, deep and philosophical film, but sadly, they never had material that was credible enough to come remotely close to their target. The script - a primary school kid can write something like that, and the movie is so all-over-the-place that its point is lost in all the turns that the female protagonist took in search of that rare (and non-existent in real life) Jay Chou album with the hidden track in it. Clearly, what is obviously missing from this poor excuse for a movie is a story worthwhile enough to sit through while waiting for Jay Chou to appear.
Strictly for Jay Chou fans. I may have hated the first 87 minutes, but I definitely enjoyed and loved the last three. Long live Jay Chou and his brilliant songs.
