On April 1, Asian cinema lost one of its crowed princes with the suicide death of Leslie Cheung, an actor whose films were instrumental in bringing me into the modern age of Chinese and Hong Kong films. His performances in BETTER TOMORROW and FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE alone would be enough to secure his place in cinema history. But take a look at his work with Wong Kar-wai (HAPPY TOGETHER, ASHES OF TIME) or THE BRIDE WITH WHITE HAIR, TEMPTRESS MOON, the list goes on. He wasn’t often showy, and he displayed a subtlety that I find refreshing in Asian films. And I can’t think of a better piece of acting than the one he puts forth in INNER SENSES, his last film.

INNER SENSES starts out as a very scary ghost story. A young woman (Karena Lam) believes she has the ability to see ghosts. Strangely enough, however, she only sees ghosts of people whose death stories have been recently relayed to her. For example, she moves into a new apartment (to get away from the ghosts in the last apartment), and her landlord tells her of the tragic death of his wife and young son in a car accident. That night, the ghosts of those two show up to scare the crap out of the young woman (and us, of course).

She begins to see a psychiatrist named Dr. Law (Cheung), who believes that the ghosts are actually manifestations of the woman’s inner torment stemming from events in her past. About halfway through the film, the woman confronts her past and the doctor’s theory seems to be proven true...until he starts seeing the ghost of a long-dead woman from his past. INNER SENSES is both powerfully frightening and psychologically challenging and complex. Cheung performance is masterful. Law’s character unravels into guilt-ridden madness as the ghost’s visits become more frequent, and the performance culminates in a jarring moment where Law stands on the roof of a tall building preparing to jump (Cheung died from a similar high-rise plunge). I believe that Cheung won the best actor prize at the recent Hong Kong Film Awards, as well he deserved to, death or no death. His sensitivity as the woman’s doctor is strongly countered by his frailty as a scared victim of his own history. The movie is great and his performance is incredible and stands as a lasting tribute.

FULLTIME KILLER (QUAN ZHI SHA SHOU)

This film is a couple year’s old but the American trailer for it has started popping up around the country, so it looks like people might get a chance to view this great actioner. The prolific Johnnie To and Wai Ka-fair co-direct this look at two killers for hire who basically get in a pissing contest over who’s the more reliable and most awesome hitman in town. On the one hand, there’s the flashy as hell Tok (the amazing Andy Lau); on the other, we have the methodical, cool as ice O (Takashi Sorimachi). The two have never met, but they often compete for the same jobs, for the dominant reputation, and the love the same woman. The staging of the action sequences is breathtaking, and throw in Simon Yam as a police detective who almost loses his mind trying to capture and understand these two men, and you’ve got yourself a hell of a film. Always moving, FULLTIME KILLER is the best current example of today’s thoughtful Hong Kong action films.

THE EYE

This may be the most well-known of these four, mainly because (I’ve heard) Tom Cruise bought the remake rights to it last year. If his production company handles the remake the way THE RING was remade, you might have your self another pretty frightening piece of largely bloodless filmmaking. And it looks like this original version of THE EYE is on the brink of getting a well-deserved theatrical release here in the states (in Chicago, it’s supposed to open on June 20 at the Landmark Century Center Theatres). The eye is about a young woman named Mun (Angelica Lee), who gets a cornea transplant and is given the gift of sight after being blind almost her entire life. Her vision is slow to return, but as she patiently recovers in the hospital and waits for the fuzzy images to become focused, she starts seeing hazy visions of people walking the halls, including a dark figure who visits the near dead patients in their sleep and walks them away into the shadows. Mun wakes up after these visions only to find out patients died during the night.

Once she leaves the hospital, she continues to see these creepy figures that no one else can (some of whom have some pretty nasty bodily trauma), and she enlists the help of a kind younger doctor (Lawrence Chou) to help her track down the donor of her new corneas. THE EYE is brought to us courtesy of the Pang Brothers (directors of BANGKOK DANGEROUS, editors of INFERNAL AFFAIRS), and their visual style is incredibly effective. The blurriness of Mun’s early visions makes them even scarier, and the film is capped off by an amazing and over-the-top (in a good way) climax that tests the limits of Mun’s abilities and sanity. THE EYE is a terrific film that does emphasizes the skill and mastery of the horror genre by Asian filmmakers.

SO CLOSE (CHIK YEUNG TIN SAI)

Think an updated HEROIC TRIO without the mythic elements or CHARLIE’S ANGELS without as many jokes. Two of the hottest female assassins and one of the hottest female cops I’ve ever seen kick major martial arts ass in their attempt to steal something computerized. Okay, I don’t remember exactly what their mission was, but who cares? The acrobatics are intense and the women (Qi Shu, Vicki Zhao, Karen Mok) are gorgeous. Director Corey Yuen (Jet Li’s THE BODYGUARD FROM BEIJING and the two FONG SAI YUK films) manages to keep things light while not ruling out the possibility of nasty death for any of the characters. I believe Columbia TriStar is putting this out on video before the end of the year, but I don’t know whether it will be dubbed or edited. If you can see it in its original form (either on the big screen or on Asian video) do so.

Have fun, you mooks. Oh, by the way: I’m the one who corked Sammy Sosa’s bat. Watch out or I’ll cork yours!

Capone

If yousa in Chi-Town and want two pairs of cement shoes, drop me a line!