Troublesome Night 3 (1998)

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

This is the third film in Hong Kong's Troublesome Night movie series, a collection of films whose stories are based on the supernatural and features creepy ghosts. The third Troublesome Night movie is a little step-up from the second movie in my opinion, as I thought it was a little more entertaining.The first story is about mortician Shishedo (Allen Ting), who is grief-stricken when his favorite singer was killed in a car accident. As a result, he vows to help her get the most "appropriate" burial. This one has the least scare factor of the three and I thought Ting gave a rather whiny performance.In the second story, Gigi (Christine Ng) wants a memorial service for her departed mother (Lan Law) and gets coaxed into buying all sorts of expensive materials from the funeral workers. Afterward, the ghost of Gigi's mother returns to haunt the workers to teach them a lesson. This was the most scariest story, I think, as the dark atmosphere of Gigi's mother vacant apartment and the creepiest of Lan Law's portrayal really gave some hair-raising entertainment.In the third story, Hung (Fennie Yuen) was dating boyfriend Daviv (Michael Tse) and later he dumped her because the thought of her working at the mortuary didn't sit well with him. When Hung does the unthinkable to escape the pain, Daviv finds himself facing retribution. A bad karma story - nicely done with dramatic and good acting.Overall, this film is pretty fast-paced from start to finish and features some OK acting (some actors were annoying) and good special effects. The plots themselves were less intriguing than the original movie but it's still better the then second film.Grade B

The story evolves around the personal lives of funeral homeworkers. Stephen Chow fans will recognize an ambulance chaser, from a competing funeral home, as the nose picker(not in drag) from several of his films. Our funeral director visits the hospital to latch onto families with recently departed kin. The story weaves through the greed or romances of the employees. Sometimes funny, sometimes tragic, but never frightening. A so-so movie to kill a couple hours. Not the best from this series.