Inner Senses (2002)

Excellent but underrated film

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

A watchable diversion here for those that enjoy the slow paced Asian spook films but have grown tired of the technological interests and or patently contrived jolts built on raw psychological grounds like Ringu or Phone. For Inner Sense the psyche takes precedence, rather than serving as mechanics bench upon which scare tactics are assembled the psyche itself is what we see put together. And the interest is in how the assembly comes to affect the assembler, the relationship of faulty mechanism and mechanic. Unfortunately this is on the whole a pretty basic film though, without too much to say it makes its mark chiefly as a slickly oiled emotional engagement, well performed with a couple of fun scares and a few interesting visuals. In his final role Leslie Cheung is likable with carefully measured darker shades, his psychologist character drawing up the roots of his co stars eerie visions and in the process unloosing troubles within. A convincing turn that one is hard pressed not to find somewhat drawn from tragic reality, it makes for a poignant swansong. Kar Yan Lam is the lady haunted, repressed, high strung and impressionable she succeeds in conveying the tight wound character. A few familiar faces like Waise Lee and Norman Chu appear for solid support, but this is for the most part a sealed off affair and sufficiently compelling in its isolation. Downcast and rain-slicked yet clear eyed cinematography from Kwok Man Keung contributes suitably glum atmosphere and grants the rather obvious (it even gets spelled out) symbolism moments of visual flair. Things all come together to make the film work, though the treatment of story and themes is generally shallow and unadventurous. I didn't expect something of the calibre of Persona (which this film in its fashion resembles), but I did hope for something with less simmer and more heat. Actually in fairness it does heat up in the finale, but in the way of maudlin melodrama that leaves an unfortunate taste. Ultimately I had a perfectly reasonable time here, and as a somewhat interesting filler piece this works well enough, but more pop was really needed. 5/10.

Jim is a psychiatrist that convinces people that ghosts are just in their mind and doesn't truly exist. Yan is a girl with a troubled past that haunts her. She sees ghosts in her new Apartment, but Jim convinces her that these are all in her imagination. The psychiatric part of the film never gets dull and repetitive, and some if it is actually quite convincing. Jim talking to himself about his patients and this and that of psychology is one of the most interesting parts in the film. It never gets forced or unnecessary.The horror parts of the film are usually just jump scares and most of it has to do with music, but it's still effective. The first part that made me jump was when the title appeared. So, it's pretty much expected to be jumping up and down throughout the whole film. The plot isn't original. But then it doesn't have to. It's simply about people thinking that they're seeing ghosts. It's not entirely a horror film. The scares come in quite surprisingly, and all of them are just the imagination of the characters. Nothing really memorable, but still effective.I liked how the film tried to stay away from the clichés that most Asian horror have: A girl in a dress slowly walking with her long hair covering her face. I'm quite convinced that they made the long dead girlfriend of Jim's hair to be very short so that they wouldn't end up with that effect (which is pretty much unavoidable, long hair or not).The characters are played excellently by the actors. Leslie Cheung (his last film, to which after making this movie, is said to have completely changed and got severely depressed. Jumped off a building and died soon in the hospital) is fantastic as Jim, the psychiatrist with the troubled past. Karena Lam and other supporting roles give out excellent performances as well. Although the film has great performances and a pretty good story to tell, it's the ending where it fell apart. The movie suddenly becomes a lovestory with lots of cheese. It truly felt very, very different, and was quite unnecessary to end it that way. Yes, Jim overcoming and accepting, instead of forgetting, his past was how he was able to be cured. I loved the part when the character's roles are switched after Yan has recovered. After facing her parents, Jim is now the one that needs help. But the ending was simply a disappointment. But the film does give out some great messages. Ghosts aren't what horror films, T.V. shows or books would have us believe to be. It's our troubled past that haunts us. And letting go of this past and not remembering it isn't the only thing you can do. You can simply accept it and choose to live a normal life. This is the conflict that almost all the characters are facing. We find out that the landlord, in what could possibly be the creepiest part of the film, actually prepares his long dead wife and kid's slippers in the doorway and cooks extra food for them.7.5

There are two sides to every coin and in this movie, there are two sides to ghosts. Do they really exist or are they figments of the imagination. What happens when a psychologist, after convincing a patient that ghosts she sees are part her mental illness, begins to see ghosts himself? Now set all that in the context of Chinese folklore and views on ghosts and mental illness and you have a terrific movie!Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing, in his final movie performance, plays Jim, a psychologist who tries to help Yan (Karena Lam), a disturbed young woman who see ghosts. As he gets close to helping her purge her demons, he begins to show signs of some kind of mental disturbance. That's when his demons appear.While others may call this movie a "Sixth Sense" knock-off, I found it to be full of good old-fashion movie scares. Cheung delivers a wonderfully deep and faceted performance, while Lam had me convinced she was seeing ghosts. Second or third viewings of the film wil reveal slight flaws with stunt and make-up but the performances overwhelm any little errors.Much comparison has been and will continue to be made over the events in this film and the death of Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing and that would do a great injustice to this last record of his enormous talent.

The title may allude to M. Night Shyamalan's Sixth Sense but this movie is more of a psychological thriller than a ghost story. Like the title suggests, most of the ghost scenes are imagined (and they are scarier that way...)Story started off with Cheung Yan (Lam Ka Yan) moving from one place to another to escape the ghosts which she could actually sees them and also following her around too. Her cousin sister's (Valerie Chow) husband (Waise Lee) recommends that she sees a psychiatrist, Dr Jim Law (Leslie Cheung). As time goes by, Jim managed to draw out Yan's past and cures her. As also expected, they fall in love. However instead of living happily ever after, Yan slowly began to find Jim getting more and more edgy like sleep-walking at night and... Now the thriller is about to begin...Undoubtly Inner Senses has its share of scares and jolts. However the film-makers seem so proud of their make-up efforts and stunt-work that they repeat the ghost sequences so often that they become a drag. In one close-up scene the flaws can get rather embarrassing.Leslie Cheung still has the look of a mid-30's although he is almost 50 years old while Lam Ka Yan is a pretty face but with a lot of potential to be a great actress. Waise Lee provides the comic relief (and he did not disappoint either) for a change from his usual bad guys role. The strength of the movie lies in the lead cast.