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Ian Stanley reviews

Distributed by
Universe Laser (HK)

Cert: IIB

Cat.no: DTS6073

Running time: 100 minutes

Year: 2001

Pressing: 2002

Region(s): 0, NTSC

Chapters: 8

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital Stereo, DTS 5.1

Languages: Cantonese and Mandarin

Subtitles: English, Chinese (Traditional), Chinese (Simplified).

Widescreen: 1.85:1

16:9-Enhanced: No

Macrovision: No

Disc Format: DVD 9

Price: Varies. Can be picked up for as cheaply as $40HK (£2.82 approx) $9.99US at YesAsia

Extras: Making-Of (11m 20s), Original Theatrical Trailer, Trailers for 'July Rhapsody' & 'Tiramisu,' Cast and Crew Biographies.

---

Director:

Lo Chi Leung

Cast:

Jim Law: Leslie Cheung
Yan Cheung: Karena Lam
Cheung Siu Yu: Maggie Poon
Wilson Chan: Lee Chi-Hung
Mrs Chan: Valerie Chow

I'd been wanting to see this film for a long time, but had just never gotten around tO it until a few weeks before star Leslie Cheung sadly took his own life. Given some comments about a scene in this movie which eerily points towards 'life imitating art,' it was with some trepidation that I placed the disc into my player. It's sad that the first time I saw it was to be in the shadow of such a tragic event.

Leslie Cheung plays an unorthodox psychiatrist who, on the urging of a close friend, takes on a new patient, an attractive, disturbed young girl (Karena Lam) who claims to see dead people. So far, so Sixth Sense right? Well, in broad strokes the movies do bear a similarity but Inner Senses does take things in a different direction and also doesn't rely on a gimmicky last minute twist. To flesh out the story somewhat I'll add that some way through the patient's treatment the doctor starts to see things he can't explain, a ghostly figure haunting him, and the roles of believer and sceptic start to become reversed.

OK, I'll get this out of the way first, Inner Senses is not the best movie in the World, but it is a damn fine example of why Leslie Cheung's talent will be so sorely missed! The best element of this movie is the acting, not just from Cheung, but from all involved. Cheung's performance is the standout though, one particultar scene from the latter part of the movie sees him go between fear, remorse and anger with total conviction, making it seem more like the character than 'good acting.' That's not to say that the acting is the only good thing about this movie... I enjoyed it as a whole, I was expecting another cheap HK rip off of the Sixth Sense and I got something more.

The story was pretty interesting, in the twists and turns it took, nothing too suprising but nothing too obvious either. It also, for the most part, leaves the events of the movie open to the viewer's interpretation, of what is real and what is imagined. The scare moments are pretty disturbing and effective too, especially when the pace ramps up in the latter half of the movie. Another bonus is that, unlike other recent HK Horror output, the film-makers have not felt the need to lumber the movie with ill-fitting comedy moments, but, that's not to say it's po-faced and devoid of humour, it's not. The photography is really nice, dark, atmospheric and moody when it needs to be, the score is also very atmospheric. Production values overall seem very high.

Now onto the bad points... There are two moments when the movie descends into pure cheese the first one being, I kid you not, a dating montage complete with a happy couple eating ice-cream cones overlooking a beach scene... The second appears right at the very end and I'm not going to risk spoilers to point it out. The only other really bad point I can come up with is that some of the movie's imagery is blatantly nabbed from elsewhere, some like The Ring are pretty obvious, but, a very important portion of the film was spoilt for me when I spent it pondering the audacity of the director, for blatantly stealing sections from a Short Yuki Terai animation called The Mirror. If you've not seen it, it won't bother you and the imagery is effective - but still...

Onto the disc itself...

The picture is Letterboxed at around 1:85:1 and the transfer is OK, nothing more, quite soft and lacking in detail, disappointing for such a recent film. I noticed some print damage in the shape of black and white marks at various points and I also noticed some edge haloing in the bright hospital scenes, quite bad at some points! It's a shame that Universe neglected to make this an Anamorphic transfer as that would have sorted a few of the problems.

I watched this with the DTS track and it's a cracker! The surrounds are used very effectively, it being a ghost movie and all, and the jumps are a hell of a lot more effective when they're coming out of all 6 speakers. I enjoyed this a lot! I briefly took a listen to sections of the other three soundtracks on the disc there are Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks in the original Cantonese language and also a Mandarin dub. There is also a Cantonese Dolby Digital 2.0 track. All of the tracks are good but the DTS is the clear winner, especially in the Wall Trembling Bass stakes. Go on... Crank it up loud and make your neighbours hate you!

The subtitles are rather decent, with only the occasional spelling/grammatical error. I hardly noticed any and you'll probably find more in this review! Sadly, along with the letterbox transfer Universe have also decided to place a line of the subtitles in the lower black bar, meaning that Widescreen TV owners won't be able to make use of the 'Zoom' function.

Extras wise we have a trailer for 'Inner Senses' (no subs) and trailers for two other films called 'Tiramisu' and 'July Rhapsody.' which have burnt-in english subs. There's also a shortish 'Making Of' which looks pretty cheesy, has no English subs and, also, is best left until after you've seen the movie as it gives away quite a few of the jumps. The disc is rounded off by Biographies of Cheung, Lam and producer Derek Yee.

All in all, a pretty decent disc for a pretty decent film. Both could have been improved upon in certain areas, but for all that, it's well worth a purchase... If only to remind ourselves of the talent that Cinema has lost!

R.I.P. - Leslie Cheung

FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS
OVERALL

Review copyright © Ian Stanley, 2004.

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DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.

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