Esprit d'amour

As a teenager, I saw this movie with my girlfriend back in the early 90's at one of those laser-disk places, it was already out a few years by then and was a random choice. Stumbling across this page certainly brings back memories, I recall we both loved the film.In fact my girl was moved to tears after watching it.We broke up not long after that, I moved away to further my studies and lost contact with her. I don't know what became of her. I would love to see the movie again, I'm not sure if it would have the same effect on me. But this film will always have a special place in my heart as a reminder of the happiness of my teenage years and hopefully for my ex-sweetheart somewhere out there too.

I remember having seen the 1983 romantic fantasy "Yam Yeung Choh" (aka "Esprit D'amour") before, probably around the early 2000s, but I didn't recall the story. So as I had the opportunity to revisit it in 2022, of course I opted to do so.

And while "Yam Yeung Choh" is watchable enough for what it is, this is by no means a particularly golden moment in Hong Kong cinema. Writers Raymond Fung, Clifton Ko and Kin Lo managed to churn out a fairly generic supernatural romantic fantasy with this movie, and actually not giving director Ringo Lam a whole lot to work with. So "Yam Yeung Choh" is a movie that has some appeal to fans of the Hong Kong cinema, but not overly much so for a casual viewer unfamiliar with Hong Kong cinema.

For fans of the Hong Kong cinema, then there are a couple of familiar faces on the cast list, with the likes of Philip Chan and Fui-On Shing as the most noteworthy.

The romance aspect of the movie is fairly weak and doesn't really strike me as being a driving factor for the narrative. Nay, "Yam Yeung Choh" is a supernatural fantasy movie first and foremost.

Visually then "Yam Yeung Choh" didn't bedazzle or impress me, but then again the movie is also 39 years old already and haven't aged all that gracefully.

My rating of "Yam Yeung Choh" lands on a four out of ten stars. And this is hardly a movie that warrants more than a single viewing, and this is not a movie that I will be returning to again in the future.

This Movie is Fun and pretty Scary. this movie is modern ghost story. but this movie haven't action much as "Sinnui yauman". but pretty romantic! and actress is beautiful. well.... not much Joey Wong. Whatever this movie is good. I like this movie's Style! Ringo Ram! he made this movie very well!

I came across this movie at least 12 years ago when a TV station was showing a number of Chinese movies. And to say that I remember this film at least 12 years on is saying something. This film concerns the death of a young woman in somewhat bizarre circumstances. Her young sibling is left behind and an insurance agent is dispatched in order to investigate the death with the brief being that he must report her death as suicide in order for the insurance firm to avoid paying out.

This young lady is now a ghost who is only visible to the insurance agent and they fall in love. What happens next are comic moments but then the film takes a serious turn as the family of the insurance agent recognise that there is a ghost in his life and hire an exorcist (for want of a better word) to get rid of it/her.

The final scenes of the girl spirit battling the exorcist,finally losing and the insurance agents desperate attempts to accompany her to the spirit realm are really quite moving.

The song at the end is sang by the lead actor and this was moving too although I did not know what he was saying. It just goes to prove that music is the language of love.

Every now and then I scan the TV guide to see if this film is coming on again and as I write this I am thinking that I will try ebay to see if I can get a hold of this movie on video or DVD.

This is one of those foreign movies that prove the the US by no means holds a monopoly on good movies. If fact I think Hollywood or the UK would struggle to make an English version of this movie and have it make half the impact of the original. This is a gem of a movie and if it is to be shown on your local TV, record it and watch it. You will not be disappointed.