Esprit D'amour

Esprit D'amour (1983)

陰陽錯

A young woman has a tragic accident, slipping on a skateboard and falling off the roof of a tall building. Koo Chi Ming, an insurance investigator, is sent to determine whether the girl's death is an accident or a suicide and he recognizes the young woman from an earlier chance encounter.

Date of release
1983-12-15
TMDB
5.4 / 10 (8)
Runtime
1h 38m
Genres
Horror, Comedy, Romance
Director
Ringo Lam Ling-tung

Casting

Interesting facts

Esprit d'amour is a 1983 Hong Kong supernatural romance film directed by Ringo Lam and starring Alan Tam, Shu-Chun Ni and Cecilia Yip. Shot in modern-day Hong Kong, the film centres on protagonist Koo Chi-Ming, a hapless insurance investigator who while investigating the death of a young woman begins being haunted by her spirit.

Production

The film is based on an American film from 1970 and on an original story by Raymond Wong. Wong's inspiration for the film came on a trip to worship his ancestors, while his family was making preparations. Wong was wandering around nearby and came upon a grave. There was a picture of a girl on the tombstone. She was quite pretty so he stopped to look at the picture when suddenly he felt a chill go down his spine.

Alan Tam was quickly chosen for the starring role but the lead actress was undecided. Maggie Cheung was originally meant to play the role of Siu-Yu, but was rejected by director Po-Chih Leong.

At the Golden Horse Awards in a cocktail reception the director spotted a young girl called Joyce Ni and instantly wanted her to play Siu Yu, however she had never acted before. In an interview, co-producer Raymond Wong said that he respected the director's choice and casting her was the right decision.

Filming began in late 1982 under the direction of Po-Chih Leong, director of the generally well-received Hong Kong 1941. According to Ringo Lam around one-third of the film had been shot when Leong resigned after arguing with producer Karl Maka. In need of a quick and inexpensive replacement Maka gave the previously unknown Ringo Lam his big break.

The film's theme song (Chinese: 幻影; Jyutping: waan6 jing2), known in English as "Illusion", or sometimes as "Phantom" or "Mirage", is used throughout the movie in a music box and is also used in the ending credits. It was composed by Chinese composer and music producer Lam Manyee, written by Lam Man-Chung and sung in Cantonese by lead actor Alan Tam. A version in Mandarin, also sung by Alan Tam, was later released under the same Chinese name.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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