Film Review: Troublesome Night 3 陰陽路之升棺發財 (1998) - Hong Kong
Reviewed by Andrew Chan (Film Critic Circle of Australia)
I rated it 7/10
Rating: ★ ★ ★ 1/2
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There is something endearingly chaotic about Hong Kong horror-comedy, a genre that refuses to choose between giggles and goosebumps. Troublesome Night 3 (1998), the third installment in the long-running Yin Yang Road series, dives headfirst into that delightful mess and emerges with more hits than misses. A solid thumbs up for fans of the form, though it won’t convert the uninitiated.
The film unfolds like a series of ghost stories told late at night in a mortuary by people who’ve had one too many drinks. Set largely around a funeral parlor and its eccentric staff, it weaves three loosely connected tales involving restless spirits, bad karma, family regrets, and the thin line between the living and the dead. One segment features a mortician (Allen Ting) dangerously obsessed with restoring the beauty of a deceased pop singer. Another explores a daughter’s complicated grief turning supernatural. Throughout, we return to the mortuary crew—led by the likable Louis Koo and the reliably funny Simon Lui—who treat death with the casual irreverence of men who’ve seen it all.
What works best is the film’s fearless blend of tones. Herman Yau, a veteran of both horror and wild comedies, stages slapstick sequences that recall the Three Stooges crashing a séance. There are drunken rituals, physical gags involving coffins, and sudden bursts of genuine eeriness that actually land. The ghosts aren’t just jump-scare props; some carry real melancholy about unfinished business and respect for the departed. In its best moments, Troublesome Night 3 reminds you that Hong Kong cinema of this era could juggle lowbrow laughs and surprisingly poignant observations about mortality without breaking a sweat.
The cast helps sell the madness. Louis Koo brings easy charm to his salesman role, while supporting players like Fennie Yuen and Emotion Cheung add color. Law Lan, a staple of these films, delivers the kind of no-nonsense ghostly authority that makes you believe the dead really do have complaints. The production is unmistakably low-budget—some effects look like they were achieved with dry ice and prayer—but the energy and speed of the storytelling carry you past the rough edges.
My main reservation is one common to anthology films: the segments vary in strength. A couple of stories feel rushed or rely too heavily on familiar tropes, and the comedy occasionally tips into juvenile territory. Yet even at its silliest, the movie maintains an underlying affection for its characters and their strange world. It never pretends to be profound, but it earns its emotional beats when they arrive.
Troublesome Night 3 is not a great film, but it is a thoroughly enjoyable one—rowdy, funny, occasionally touching, and unafraid to mix the sacred with the profane. If you have a taste for Asian horror-comedy that doesn’t take itself too seriously yet still respects the power of a good ghost story, this one delivers the goods. Just don’t watch it alone in a dark room if you’re the nervous type. The dead, it turns out, have excellent comedic timing. (Neo, 2026)