Film Review: Troublesome Night 5 陰陽路五之一見發財 (1999) - Hong Kong
Reviewed by Andrew Chan (Film Critic Circle of Australia)
I rated it 6.5/10
Rating: ★ ★ ★
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There is something endearingly scrappy about the Troublesome Night series, those low-budget Hong Kong ghost stories that blend Cantonese slapstick, moral fables, and practical-effects scares the way a late-night street vendor mixes sweet and savory. “Troublesome Night 5”, the fifth entry in a franchise that would eventually stretch to 20 films, is neither the best nor the worst of them. It is, however, a perfectly serviceable midnight movie that knows exactly what its audience wants: cheap thrills, broad comedy, and a little karmic justice before the credits roll.
The film unfolds as three loosely linked anthology segments centered on ordinary people whose bad decisions draw them into the supernatural. One involves a night-shift taxi driver whose fares include both living gangsters and very dead policemen. Another follows a desperate gambler who strikes a dangerous bargain with a ghost for winning streaks at the mahjong table. The third ties the stories together years later with a younger generation confronting the consequences. The structure feels episodic by necessity—more a collection of spooky sketches than a tightly woven feature—but director Herman Yau keeps things moving at a brisk, almost frantic pace.
What works best here is the unpretentious charm. Louis Koo, returns again in an early leading role as the luckless gambler Fat, brings a likable everyman quality to the part; you believe his panic and his greed in equal measure. Simon Lui is reliably funny as the harried taxi driver, and the great Law Lan once again lends gravitas (and some genuine creepiness) as an elderly figure who seems to know more about the spirit world than she lets on. The practical ghost effects—pale faces, sudden appearances, floating hair—are pure Category III Hong Kong cinema: cheesy by Hollywood standards, yet oddly effective at 2 a.m.
The humor is broad, sometimes too broad. There are fart jokes, mistaken identities, and characters running around screaming in ways that feel borrowed from older Mr. Vampire comedies. When the film tries to balance this with genuine melancholy about family regret and the weight of past sins, the shift can feel abrupt. One moment you’re laughing at a ghost in the backseat; the next you’re supposed to feel something deeper about father-son estrangement. The movie never quite masters that tonal tightrope, but it keeps trying, and that effort counts for something.
Visually, it’s shot on the cheap with that distinctive late-90s digital sheen, all harsh lighting and cramped apartments that make the ghosts feel uncomfortably close. The scares rely more on sudden loud noises and contorted faces than sophisticated dread, yet several set pieces deliver genuine jolts. This isn’t atmospheric horror like “The Eye” or elegant dread like some of J-horror from the same era—it’s rowdy, street-level supernatural entertainment.
“Troublesome Night 5” is not a great film, but it is an honest one. It doesn’t reach for prestige or international crossover appeal. It simply wants to entertain a local audience with familiar faces, familiar fears, and familiar lessons about greed, family, and not stiffing taxi drivers (living or dead). For fans of Asian horror-comedy, that formula still holds a certain nostalgic power. (Neo, 2026)