Inner Senses

Did You Know?

• In the Philippines, the film was released on 24 September 2003, with marketing that exploited Cheung's death by stating it occurred under the same circumstances as his character Jim Law's.
• The film's cast includes Hugo Chim as young Jim Law and Maggie Poon as Cheung Siu-yu.

Summary

Dr. Jim Law, a psychiatrist, takes on Cheung Yan, a patient who claims to see ghosts. Law, a skeptic of the supernatural, believes Yan is suppressing memories from her past. By reading her diaries, he discovers her parents are divorced and neglectful. As Yan slowly improves, the two develop a romantic connection. Law, however, worries about the ethics of dating a patient and tries to hint at keeping distance. Yan misinterprets this as another rejection like her ex-boyfriend’s, which triggers new hallucinations of her landlord’s dead wife and son. She attempts suicide by overdosing on antidepressants and cutting her wrist, but survives. Later, Law visits her apartment, hears odd noises from the bathroom, and blames the upstairs neighbor. He then spots a female ghost three times—once from his window, again while driving, and while swimming. Law starts taking antidepressants himself and tries to electrocute himself, but is saved in time. He eventually helps Yan recover by reuniting her with her parents, after which he begins dating her, since she is no longer his patient. One day at a restaurant, a woman attacks him; he recognizes her as the mother of the ghost he saw. Law suffers nightmares, sleepwalks, and acts violently when questioned. The ghost turns out to be Siu-yu, his high school ex-girlfriend who killed herself after their breakup. Law flees in terror to a rooftop, where Siu-yu’s ghost tries to make him jump. He expresses remorse, and the ghost vanishes. Yan then approaches, and they embrace, sitting together on the roof.