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

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.

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.

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 brilliantEND OF POSSIBLE SPOILERAll 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.