Troublesome Night 7 (2000)
Reviewed by: JohnR on 2006-11-18
Summary: Simple Ghost Story
I can't compare this to any of the other Troublesome Night movies because it's the only one I've see.

As is usually the case with Hong Kong films labeled as "horror," this is simply a ghost story with nothing really frightening in it. The only attempts at scaring the audience are the times a character will jump up suddenly from off-screen with his face inches from the camera lens; a cheap trick that's annoying, not scary.

Not that it being simply a ghost story is a bad thing; I like ghost stories. I just put it out there as a warning to those who might pick this up thinking it's a horror movie. This is the kind of ghost story you might tell sitting around a campfire when there are young kids present and you don't want to frighten them to the point that they won't be able to sleep later on.

The plot centers around a film crew come to a remote area for three or four days to tape an MTV of a 3-girl singing group. Which could be the story of this movie, as it doesn't look like it took them more than four days to finish the whole thing.

Louis Koo detractors who are tempted to avoid this because he's in it can take heart in the fact that he speaks about two lines in the entire film and just shows up periodically, hovering in the background, to remind the audience this is a ghost movie.

While this isn't a particularly good movie, it's not a stinker, despite the low production values, serious lack of acting skills, and absence of sub-plots. It's the kind you might watch on a Wednesday night when there's nothing going on and you have a jones for a HK film and you spot this lying forgotten on your shelf. It'll get you through to Thursday.
Reviewer Score: 5