Inner Senses
(aka; Yee Do Hung Gaan)
(2002)
review by Don't Feed the Dead

Inner Senses was Leslie Cheung’s last credited movie before he committed suicide. The irony then of Inner Senses, is that you’re watching a movie about ghosts starring, well, a ghost. Inner Senses pays homage to the American release the Sixth Sense, a movie that I admit to loathing more often than not. So why decide to pick up a film that parallels an American movie that I so despised? The answer is simple – Asian films involving the supernatural phenomenon are far superior than their American counterparts. Perhaps it’s the spiritual convictions involved in making the film, or that Hollywood doesn’t supersize a budget to water down the acting with “special” effects and CGI. Whatever the case may be, I believe that Inner Senses is a far better film than the Sixth Sense.

The story revolves around a young woman, Yan (Lam) who has just moved into a new apartment, similar to the one featured in Dark Water. The apartment is dank, dark and undesirable, but she takes it none the less because of its isolated location. It doesn’t take long for the film’s plot to surface, as Yan begins seeing ghosts the night she moves into the new apartment. In a twisted bathroom scene, Yan is soaking in the tub when she hears voices coming from the water pipes. She exits the bath in a later cut scene and opens the medicine cabinet to get some toiletries. Upon closing the cabinet she sees the reflection of a young man cowering and crying behind her. Frightened, she slams the cabinet shut and the ghost disappears. A terrifying night follows as she hears the same voices and experiences sensory debilitations due to the constant drip of water in the tub.

Around the same time, we are introduced to Dr. Jim Law (Cheung), a psychiatrist at the university and doctor at the local medical clinic. During Jim’s opening presentation to his class, he adamantly states that he doesn’t believe in ghosts (take note kids). After the presentation, he meets up with his good doctor friend Wilson, who informs him that he needs his help in evaluating his cousin Yan, whom is hallucinating heavily. Similar to the Sixth Sense, we now see a doctor – patient relationship develop where the doctor is the strong willed one and the patient is viewed as weak and fragile. Jim decides to take on his friends case and sets up to meet with Yan. During his session, Jim conveys to Yan that the ghosts that she sees are all fragments of her mind brought on by traumatic circumstances that she needs to forget. Once she forgets these instances, the ghosts will go away.

Yan returns to her apartment where she meets up with her landlord, requesting that he fixes the problem with her leaky tub. The landlord invites Yan to dinner where she learns that he lost his wife and son in a landslide while he was living in her apartment. Apparently off his rocker, the landlord still leaves a new set of shoes out for his lost family and toys for the boy to play with upon their return. Seeing that the landlord is not right in the head, Yan flees back to her apartment where she immediately begins to hear voices again. Yan heads into the bathroom to the source of the voices and opens up the medicine cabinet. Inside are the heads of the mother and son covered in mud, which happens to be one of the movie’s least terrifying scenes. Yan quickly calls Dr. Law for help and he rushes to her apartment.

After an unsuccessful attempt at recording the ghosts in the apartment, Yan’s cousin’s suggest that perhaps a more unprofessional relationship develop between Jim and her. Yan’s attempts at coming on to Jim are immediately rejected, and he calls for an end to the sessions and relationship. Soon after, Yan attempts suicide for the nth time, and Dr. Law has no choice but to see her through her therapy. By talking to Yan’s family, Dr. Law finds that her parents abandoned her at an early age, and that this trauma might be the cause of her hallucinations. He call upon the mother and father to visit Yan in the hospital, and when she is confronted by them her inner demons begin to speak. Finding that the confrontation with her parent helped release the trauma from her mind, Yan is suddenly cured. She begins to develop a relationship with Dr. Law now that her treatment is over and his ethical standards can no longer be violated. It is now that we see Jim recess into the same state Yan was in due to a past trauma that he experienced.

Although Inner Senses parallels the Sixth Sense on many levels, the presence of real live people throughout the movie gives it a more believable storyline. Even though both Yan and Dr. Law can see ghosts, we learn that their “hallucinations” are only a result of an inner conflict that they have refused to confront for quite some time. The apparent hook in the story line comes midway through the movie where Jim begins to develop the weaker personality traits and relies on Yan to help him confront his trauma. The presence of Leslie Cheung and noteworthy performance of Kar Yan Lam were dynamite and their efforts sold the story with ease. The ever evolving character development kept the movie flowing at an enjoyable pace and the fact that the ghosts were used sparingly for the majority of the movie allowed the viewer to develop more of an understanding of the characters and their personas, giving more of a connection to the heavily emotional acting and storyline. Again, I must emphasize that the lack of SFX and CGI added greatly to the ability of character roles to develop and storylines to unfold. Since the theme of the movie focused on confronting inner demons, there was no need to rely on an abundance of external hype.

As far as special features go, Inner Senses comes with the standard scene selection, bios and trailers. Not much by way of info provided in the extras, as I would have like to seen a nice heavy piece on Leslie Cheung, perhaps delving into the parallels of his life and death with the movie’s subplot of love triangles and insanity.

Inner Senses will definitely challenge the viewer’s beliefs regarding the existence of the paranormal, and whether or not repressed feelings and experiences play a role in accounted “sightings”. The psychological aspects of the film were a huge plus for me, as will be for any viewer more concerned with character development than flashy effects. Keepin’ it real homies, or as real as your mind will allow.