Esprit D'Amour: Viewer Comments

I don't really know why they threw this French title on this Hong Kong horror movie, and honestly, I don't even know what it translates to either (someone did tell me once that it meant "LOVE SPIRITS", so that would now make sense), but one thing's for sure, the Chinese babes are so gorgeous (especially the midnight taxi girl) that it's enough to make you watch it as is. And who knows, you may just find yourself liking it after all. But Let me warn you though, there's not a whole heck of a lot to the movie actually. It's a collection of 3 short stories (a TALES FROM THE CRYPT kinda thing) all with a "love from beyond the grave" theme tied in together by a fatal car accident. The first story revolves around a corporate office head honcho who helped in killing his co-worker's girlfriend so he would leave the business in grief. Her ghost comes back and, of course, seeks vengeance. The second part is pretty good with a girl who calls for a taxi every night at midnight to visit her dead boyfriend's grave. Down and out taxi driver, SIMON LUI (co-star of the JORDAN CHAN saberknife flick, KILLER) falls in love with her and the pair have to then fend off the boyfriend's ghost who doesn't want her to see anyone else. And the last story tells the tale of a Triad gang member who's trying to leave the "business" to start over with a nice girl he meets at his apartment complex. Things don't always go the right way and the sins of the past finally catch up to him in the end. Now, don't be fooled, for the most part, all 3 stories have probably been done better in a separate full length movie so you're not going to see anything really new or fresh. And don't expect heaps and heaps of gore either. In fact, there's not any "wetworks" to really speak of other than a little bloodshed in the first segment. It's all fairly tame compared to most of the other horror flicks for the Far East. But it DOES work pretty well as a "date movie". There's enough scares, not gore mind you, that will cause your girl to snuggle a little closer and there's enough "love from the afterlife" to cause her to cuddle a little tighter as well. So get the condoms ready, fellas, sometimes the HK Cinema just keeps giving and giving...