INNER SENSES

(a.k.a. YEE DO HUNG GAAN; YI DO KONG JIAN)

Pretty young Yan (Kar Yan Lam, HEROIC DUO) is shown round a new apartment by an ever so slightly landlord. She accepts the place, advising that here she will be spending some time alone, as her family have moved to Australia.

Having moved her gear in, it's not long before Yan is tormented by whispering voices coming through the bathroom radiator pipes, and visions of a sobbing boy in her bathroom mirror.

Meanwhile we meet psychiatrist Jim (Leslie Cheung, FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE; THE BRIDE WITH WHITE HAIR), holding a seminar to explain to a bunch of students why ghost stories are merely part of our psyche instilled into us from an early age as warnings from our parents to behave.

When a friend hooks depressed Yan up with Jim, he invites her to his office and tries commendably to convince her that there are no such thing as ghosts - that her hallucinations are due to suppressed guilt that together they must coax to the surface. Jim initially rejects the opportunity to work with the spooked Yan, but eventually falls for her cute smile - and is plainly intrigued by the razor-blade scars across her wrists.

Later that evening Yan accepts an invitation to dinner round her landlord's place, but flees back to her apartment when he starts acting all weird about his late wife and son. In her apartment, Yan is convinced she is visited by the ghosts of the woman and boy - and rings Jim who comes to her rescue.

As Jim and Yan grow closer, and he delves into her background to try and make some logic out of her supposed "hauntings", it becomes apparent that she has taken a shine to the psychiatrist. Ever the professional, Jim puts his own temptations to the side and spurns Yan's advances. As a consequence, she attempts suicide.

Jim decides to cool his relationship with Yan upon realising that she is a possessive nut who tries to kill herself each time a boy rejects her. But, just as he believes he has found the root of her mental problems, he starts getting visits from ghosts of his own ...

INNER SENSES is riddled from start to finish with the standard Asian horror clichés - creepy silent girls with long greasy hair covering half their faces; weird dream sequences of no subtextual significance; sub-SIXTH SENSE ghost-appears jolts, and so on.

The soundtrack is so overly eerie too, it signposts the "scares" with almost insulting obviousness. The whole thing smacks of unoriginal piffle, hardly surprising from the director of the similarly corny (though slightly more successful) KOMA.

Although briskly paced and pleasingly not as indulgently weird as a lot of its Asian counterparts, INNER SENSES is ultimately a well-photographed, instantly forgettable spooker of little distinction. No set-piece stands out, no performance deserves special mention. In fact, the most interesting thing I can find to say about INNER SENSES is that this was Cheung's last role - he killed himself shortly afterwards. Given the movie's theme and his character's later suicidal leanings, that's the only "spooky" thing about this production.

Tartan, as ever, have delivered a solid uncut presentation for their film. The 1.85:1 anamorphic picture shows some grain, surprisingly, in the darker scenes - but is altogether a reasonably sharp and clear transfer.

The audio tracks - with choices of the original Cantonese soundtrack in 2.0, 5.1 and 5.1 DTS - are all tremendously satisfying. The 5.1 track is big - just as you'd hoped for. Removable English subtitles are typo-free and easy to read.

Animated menus include a scene selection menu allowing access to the main feature via 16 chapters.

Extras are restricted to a Making Of featurette and the original theatrical trailer.

The featurette clocks in at 11 minutes, and includes some laughably melodramatic interviews with the lead cast members and director Chi-Leung Law. Ghosts are real, you see, as the movie's troubled production proves ... English subtitles are available if so desired.

The trailer is a grainy 2-minute affair with optional English subtitles.

So, the glut of Asian horror films continues with no sign of slowing down. And Tartan keep releasing the bulk of them onto us hapless Brits. Still, INNER SENSES may be over-stylised, unoriginal and ultimately humdrum, but it's still worth 20 GOTHIKAs ...

Review by Stu Willis