Inner Senses (2002) User Reviews

A thoughtful ghost story

[Gafke · 7/10 · 14 August 2004]

People who are expecting unrelenting scares and a general feeling of creepiness should probably avoid this one. It's good, but it's more of a character study than anything else. The ghosts are real, but then, we're all haunted by our own personal demons, aren't we?

A young woman with the frightening ability to see ghosts seeks help from a handsome young doctor. The two soon fall in love and begin a relationship. However, as her ability lessens, his increases, and soon he is plagued by the vengeful ghost of a teenage girl he once wronged. The doctor, who never before believed in ghosts, begins to fall apart. Will he be driven to suicide by the restless spirit, or will he find a way to put both her and himself at peace?

This film is methodical in its careful construction of its characters. Some might prefer the term "slow moving." It's a ghost story with bookend ghosts, one of which strongly resembles Sadako of "Ringu" fame. Perhaps the creepiest aspect of this film is the fact that Leslie Cheung, in the role of the tormented Jim, committed suicide not long after this film was released. It is most disconcerting to see his character pushed to the brink of suicide by a ghost who wants him to jump off of a building when you know in advance that he actually did leap to his death from a tall building! This sad fact definitely lends the movie an unsettling quality.

The performances are all strong and quite believable, and the ghosts (when they appear) are frightening. This is a good, strong story of guilt and shame and the way in which they come back to "haunt" us. Fans of fast-paced, gore- splattered fare might find themselves bored silly by this one, but for the intellectual ghost lover "Inner Senses" just might be their thing.

Beautiful Horror

[pmdawn · 7/10 · 27 July 2008]

This one starts with the old, clichéd premise of horror movies - tormented girl can see scary ghosts. You'd expect the regular, mediocre servings of Asian horror taking place after that. Not in "Inner Senses".

Her psychiatrist, played by Leslie Cheung, doesn't believe in ghosts but is eager to help. Only problem is that he apparently has some psychological issues as well.

To say more than that would be a crime. Suffice it to say that this is a wonderfully crafted movie, that is almost Lynch-ian in its unweaving. Are the ghosts real or just in our minds? Watch and decide.

This movie deserves a second viewing and a lot more praise than it got. I would classify it as a psychological horror, but labels don't do this film justice. Don't expect much gore (thankfully) but there's tension and jumps in all the right places.

This gets extra creepy points because Leslie Cheung actually killed himself a year later. In a way, this movie it is incredibly fitting as his last work - a great one.

This is an above average Asian horror that challenges you to think.

7/10.

I sense sensibility

[moronicfables · 7/10 · 13 November 2004]

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

Leslie Cheung's last great performance.

[praxis18 · 14 July 2003]

`Inner Senses' is another great horror movie to come out of Asia in recent years. However, it suffers from a certain lack of originality. Its basic premise imitates that of `The Sixth Sense' i.e. psychiatrist tries to help troubled person who sees dead people. The horror scenes in the last minutes of `Inner Senses' also borrows heavily from Japan's `Ring'. Such weaknesses aside, `Inner Sense' is certainly an intelligent horror movie, much more so than my other Asian favourite to come out in 2002, `The Eye'. While `The Eye' goes all out to scare audiences, `Inner Senses' prefers to make audiences think beyond what they are witnessing on the screen. In what is probably his last great performance, Leslie Cheung is Jim, a psychiatrist who works in a mental hospital. Jim is an atheist who places his faith in science and has no time for superstitious nonsense, including religion. As he states in his lecture at the beginning of the movie, `ghosts' are all in the mind, the result of the mind putting together various randomly accumulated information about a society's superstitions. He agrees to take on a client as a favour for a colleague. Karena Lam is Yan, a troubled girl who claims to see dead people. She lives in terror of the strange visitors who visits her apartment, especially her kindly (but somewhat mentally unbalanced) landlord's long dead wife and child. She plasters all her glass windows and mirrors in her apartment with newspapers to avoid seeing `things'. Jim works hard to free Yan of her fears and successfully convinces her that none of her visions are real. They are the result of her loneliness, troubled childhood, failed relationships, overactive imagination and neighbours' pranks. But once Yan is freed of her visions, Jim starts to see a dead teenage girl himself . she hums a strangely familiar tune, giggles at some secret joke, and follows him around. He has flashbacks about his teenage years and sleepwalks looking for something from the past . something so terrible that he has buried the memories in unreachable places in his mind. Yan has to help him figure out what it is before his visions destroy him. `Inner Senses' will have audiences thinking long after the end of the movie. Although `ghosts' do make multiple spine-tingling appearances in `Inner Senses', we are not told unequivocally that they are, in fact, ghosts. The protagonists' experiences can rightly be attributed to their fractured mental conditions. Leslie Cheung and Karena Lam both give outstanding performances as flawed people coping with inexplicable and terrifying events. The last minutes of `Inner Senses' eerily foreshadow Leslie Cheung's suicide in 2003. The Chinese movie world has lost a great entertainer, but his memory will remain with us.

Almost Very Good

[NIXFLIX-DOT-COM · 6/10 · 27 August 2003]

INNER SENSES continues Hong Kong's trend of making movies where attractive young women see ghosts. Like Hollywood, Hong Kong has never met a successful film yet that it didn't want to copy...and copy...and copy...and copy some more...

The gimmick for INNER SENSES is that it takes a more psychological approach to its supernatural elements. The ghosts may be real or not, it's open to debate right up to the very end. Unlike other Hong Kong films cashing in on the "I see dead people" trend, INNER SENSES does try to approach the subject from a somewhat common sensical direction, even if the ending comes across as awfully camp.

Of note is that INNER SENSES is one of Leslie Cheung's last films before his untimely suicide earlier this eyar. It's a shame, because the world is going to miss his talent.

6 out of 10.

In the end, only kindness matters

[jmbwithcats · 6/10 · 9 August 2004]

The film 'Inner Senses' is almost two movies. The first chapter is about a young female college student, Yan, who sees ghosts. Yan moves into a small apartment alone, and begins to have strange hallucinations, so she sees a doctor, Jim, On the behest of her cousin. Through her vulnerability she starts to fall for her doctor, who is also her professor, but they are able to keep a professional relationship, and she actually gets cured through the reconciliation between her and her estranged parents that Jim orchestrates.

The next chapter soon begins though, with Jim and Yan living together, and all is well, until he begins sleepwalking, or rather renews a pattern he lived years ago. He though is in deep denial, and will not believe it is his problem, even when he watches a tape of his nightly activities.

We soon find he is haunted by his own ghosts. The love he outgrew and cast aside in high school, who took her life in a terrible way, never resolved, now demands a forum in the hall of the heart. Will he survive the meeting?

The film is very touching, with intermittent spooks, well placed, without being overdone, with obvious ideas taken from Hideo Nakata, an overall very enjoyable, and moving film about love, loss, self discovery, and the battle of the mind and heart to move on. Slightly sappy at times, the story and acting are good enough to overlook the flaws.

Overall Score 7/10

Great start! Bad Finish...

[King_Kestrel · 6/10 · 18 November 2004]

Inner Senses is a solid Chinese horror for those who are die-hard fans of the genre. It has a great soundtrack, a good cast (of people I've never heard of) and an impressive director style. The opening half hour of this movie looks promising; a movie that is truly eerie and is definitely worth a watch. It starts out with some very creepy scares. Past that point, the movie remains pretty eerie and makes you think "oh I think that tense music means a ghost is coming" or "I think I saw the shadow of the ghost in the corner!" but no, it was probably a cameraman. Nothing happens for about an hour. Topped with a confusing ending, the movie falls flat. If you want to see some great Asian horror, watch The Eye, Ju-on The Grudge, or Ringu first, then move on to this. Personally I think the first half-hour makes the latter 70 minutes of dead-time (no pun intended) worthwhile, but there definitely are better alternatives out there.

Watchable though mediocre psychological chiller

[Bloodwank · 5/10 · 17 January 2012]

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.

Ghosts and recovering from loss...

[christian-208 · 8/10 · 12 November 2005]

Good horror film with a serious plot about people who cannot recover from the losses in their pasts. The film builds up very slowly to build character but also produces some genuinely creepy scenes in the third act. The subplot about the landlord (which also acts as a catalyst for the main character) is a little under-explored, which is a shame, but other than that it's a very accomplished film. More Dark Water than, say, Ju-on: The Grudge.

Also Leslie Chungs last film before he threw himself out of a window...a little spooky considering some of the scenes in this film, which are similar.

The strength of the movie lies in the lead cast

[esteepswong · 6/10 · 18 May 2002]

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.

It's a Keeper!

[pawprivate · 10/10 · 4 April 2004]

Don't let the put downs deter you. Decide for yourself. This DVD is worth the patience it takes to watch. IF you like the Tomie series, Sixth Sense - etc. - then you will most likely be very pleased with this film. This is a Superb Ghost Story in the tradition of the above - and Ringu! I found it truly moving. It has some truly chilling moments! (The over-the-shoulder-apparition is a classic!) This is a Ten - for me.

Pretty frightening ghost story.

[HumanoidOfFlesh · 8/10 · 16 December 2006]

"Inner Senses" tells the story of Yan,a young woman seemingly haunted by fleeting images of dead people.Her psychiatrist Jim Law recognizes the source of the girl's problems and eventually helps her to regain equilibrium.With Yan now no longer his patient,the two become close to each other,but Jim's own well-being soon starts to disintegrate and he experiences the sort of inexplicable visions that previously drove Yan to attempt suicide."Inner Senses" is a well-acted and surprisingly creepy horror film that relies more on atmosphere than cheap shocks.Unfortunately Leslie Cheung who played Jim committed suicide a few months after the movie's release.The film,whilst nowhere nearly as creepy as "The Eye" or "Shutter" offers some decent scares.Check it out.8 out of 10.

a moderately good scare

[zoe_smith · 30 May 2004]

I've just completed watching all of Cheung's films now, phew....

Yes, it's true that there are many echoes of this film already out there, but I guess it's hard to be unique when producing a ghost story these days!

I thought the film had a reasonably plausable plotline. But most of all, I thought the main actors gave a thoroughly good performance. It's not always easy to discuss the topic of mental disorder in Asian societies, and you also felt that the two main protagonists were quite isolated from everyday events around them. Everything that goes on revolves around them and they have a powerful story to tell.

Cheung is looking more mature than in most of his other roles. He is not a happy-go-lucky comic playboy any more. In fact there is no humour in this film at all, and the tone just gets darker and darker as it progresses. It's a little sad to see how the fate of Cheung's character came to perhaps resemble the final moments in Cheung's real life. I would have loved to see Cheung continue playing in film roles for ever and ever.

A proud career end for Leslie Cheung.

All the World is a Stage

[mindless_junk · 8/10 · 19 April 2003]

Since I have the benefit to see this movie after Leslie Cheung committed suicide and all the news that came after it, I can't help but marvel at the irony between movie and real life... The depression, the drugs, love triangle, and the final moment of the movie.

Judging the movie on its own though... This is probably the 4th recent Hong Kong movie that came out dealing with the topic of "seeing ghost".. For horror scale, I consider "The Eye" has done the best job in scary factor, whereas this movie has its scary moments, but it focuses more on the plot and characterization. This is not to say that one is better than the other, they are just different.

POSSIBLE SPOILER BELOW:

I especially love the twist after the first half of the movie: the weak becomes the strong, the logical becomes the irrational, the imaginary becomes the real. Are there really ghosts? Or is everything just the imagination? Was Yan really cured, or did she continue to see but say nothing? Absolutely brilliant

END OF POSSIBLE SPOILER

All in all, a movie worthy to be Leslie Cheung's last (sadly enough). BTW, Leslie was nominated as best actor and too bad he did not win.

Excellant

[prddad · 8/10 · 21 November 2003]

I use a one word in the summary to describe this movie because frankly, it is. Within minutes of watching this movie I was entranced, seeing things that frankly, creeped me out. Not since the SIXTH SENSE has a movie like this gotten to me, and my last two horror movies from Hong Kong have both surpassed my expectations, and made me think twice about turning off any lights while watching it.

Two good films

[harry_tk_yung · 27 April 2004]

I'm not sure how I want to do this. I'll be comparing Inner Sense (Yee Do Hung Gaan) with another film. However, if you have seen one but not the other, the mere act of bringing them together will inevitably reveal the twist in the one you have not seen. If you are at all concerned about this eventuality, please stop reading now.

On the other hand, maybe I shouldn't be making such a fuss. While similar, neither of these twists is essential. We are not looking at the whodunit type of suspense thrillers. In both cases, the twist is there merely to support a plot for a story that explores the minds and emotions of the characters, how they react to different situations, how they face (or not face) certain problems.

The other film that I'm talking about is Funeral March (Sheung Joi Ngo Sam), a somewhat neglected film that should have been given more attention. Unfortunately, people who would have appreciated it might have stayed away when they saw the cast of two pre-adolescent idols.

Both films can be said to be roughly in two parts, with the twist in the middle. In Inner Sense, a mentally disturbed girl seeks medical help but when she is cured, it turns out that the doctor is suffering from an even severer mental problem. In Funeral March, a girl who believes that her illness in terminal refuses to take an operation but instead seeks a young funeral director's help in arranging her own funeral. After he has convinced her to undergo a successful operation, it turns out that he is terminally ill himself.

Inner Sense deals with mental instability that manifests itself in the patients seeing ghosts. The film has the appearance of, but is not, a ghost story. Funeral March tackles the subject of death, and how people handle it.

All these grounds have been treaded before, and their treatment in these two films is not outstandingly inspiring. However, both films deserve recognition in the way the stories are told. Inner Sense resists the temptation of stooping to sensationalizing the (illusionary) ghost scenes. There is a good balance between the unavoidable thriller element and the real intention of the film: exploring the inner world of the two characters.

Funeral March goes even further in cleansing the film of any flashy crowd-pleasing tricks, telling the story plainly. Even the revelation of the twist is very low-key. Nothing is allowed to distract from the main theme, that there are two ways of facing death: give up and despair, or meet it head-on with courage and dignity.

Both stories lean heavily on the development of the relationship between the two main characters. In Inner Sense, the frequently tackled doctor-patient infatuation serves two purposes. First, it is another one of the girl's failure in a relationship that is the root of her mental problem. Later, it also serves as the doctor's attempt to seek salvation. In Funeral March, the relationship initially takes a simpler shape as the funeral director's attempt to persuade the girl to take the operation. As the girl recovers and genuine affection naturally develops between them, he realizes that his own end is near, and faces a painful dilemma. The temptation at this point to come out with a cheap tear-jerker must be quite strong. Director Ma wisely avoids the snare.

In dramas such as these, the cast plays a big part in making or breaking the film. In Inner Sense, Leslie Cheung was a well-established actor. While not particularly versatile, he was suited specially to certain types of roles. The doctor in Inner Sense was neither a particularly good nor a particular bad role for him. So was his performance: passing grade. The sparkling new discovery by the Hong Kong film industry is Lam Kar-yan. Not exceptionally good looking, Lam has a rare combination of freshness and maturity that makes her....and I'm looking for words here....entrancing, shall we say? Talent is a hopelessly overused word but is absolutely appropriate in the context of Lam's acting ability.

Charlene Choi is quite inexperienced, although Funeral March is not the first movie in which she plays a lead role. She featured earlier in an independent, experimental film called Heroes of Love, playing the lead role in one of the three short stories therein. Choi tried hard in Funeral March, but really has a lot to learn.

The delightful surprise is Eason Chan who plays the young funeral director. Among the top Hong Kong pop stars, Chan is best known for his success in handling pestering reporters' questions with his unique clowning style. He can get away with just about anything he says, because nobody would believe it anyway. His charisma leans towards an almost reckless flamboyance. In the motion picture arena, he is a most sought-after comedy actor. It is therefore an eye-opener to see his solid, down-to-earth performance in Funeral March, which demonstrates convincingly his versatility.

Since its hay days, the Hong Kong movie industry has had a dubious distinction of being prolific in turning out trash. Inner Sense and Funeral March are two good examples that it is capable of producing respectable, good films.

The scariest Asian movie I've ever seen!

[farahdela_samad · 10/10 · 13 April 2004]

Wow! What a very scary disaster this movie! I was very excited when I bought the VCD of Inner senses and watch it on night alone. Wow! I said it is not scary at all but I was wrong! Oh My God I was really scared on this movie! This movie is my Scariest Asian Movie I've ever seen. Ringu, The Eye and Dark Water, get away cause Inner Senses is scarier than the two of you! Better than Tomie, Sixth Sense but a quite disgusting than Cannibal Holocaust and Ichi The Killer.

I'de say that Inner Senses is scary.

Creepy. Scaredy. Seek. Sak. World!

A good old fashioned thriller

[bettylewben · 9 April 2003]

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.