And grimy this is. It feels odd to complain about the depravity of a CAT III film. Generally that's part of the appeal. But there's a difference between a bug-eyed Anthony Wong gorily murdering a family in Untold Story or even Red to Kill's sweaty Ben Ng committing extraordinarily inappropriate acts in a home for the mentally disabled and this. There Is a Secret in My Soup mostly consists of a woman being horrifically beaten and humiliated in a variety of gut-churning ways. It's closer to something like the Japanese nihilistic nightmare Concrete than a typical CAT III flick.
Only Concrete is a much better film. In Concrete, there's a resonance to the disgusting acts. The hopelessness of it all utterly destroyed me and said something truly overwhelmingly horrible about humanity. I never want to see Concreteagain, but I can't deny its power. There Is a Secret in My Soup is mindless stupidity — which I suppose moves it closer to its CAT III brethren in that regard — and just left me angry and bored. There's no reason for this film to adapt a true story other than to exploit it. And once the violence comes to an end, its victim is dead and disposed of, the film just fucking stops. It ends on a still frame of a court room and a voice over hurriedly tells us about the sentences of the antagonists. Roll credits. It's like everyone lost just lost interest. I lost interest much earlier on, yet for some reason I watched it to the end.
I suppose if I had to say something positive about There Is a Secret in My Soup, there are admittedly flashes of stylistic inspiration. I liked how several scenes were played out in single wide shots, though they were often ruined by a concluding, jarringly hacked in, Dutch-tilted close-up. The opening scene, which is captured in one long take, is fun and fooled me into thinking I was in for a good time. The actors do what they can. For the rapey villains, that means cackling a lot. For the victim, sobbing and playing unconscious. Michael Wong — Hong Kong cinema's least charismatic star — is in this, but his screen time is mercifully limited.
To be honest, if I read this review, I'd probably be keen to check out There Is a Secret in My Soup just to see how obnoxious it is. But if you have more self-control than me, don't bother. It's really not worth your time. There's plenty more enjoyable obnoxious CAT IIIs you could be killing your brain with." - Some Dude On The Internet That Took A CAT III Murder Movie Way Too Seriously