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.
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.
