Reviewed by: JohnR Date: 11/18/2006 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

Reviewed by: deej Date: 10/30/2001 Summary: WHERE IN THE WORLD IS LOUIS KOO? I HATE TO SAY THIS, BUT I THINK I SHOULD... THIS MOVIE REALLY SUCKS! IF YOU'RE A HUGE FAN OF LOUIS KOO LIKE ME, WATCHING THIS FLICK WILL LEAVE YOU DISAPPOINTED AND UNSATISFIED. I MEAN, LIKE DUH! LOUIS, EVEN THOUGH GETTING THE HIGHEST BILLING, BECAME JUST A MERE CAMEO IN THIS FILM! A GHOST WHO APPEARS AFTER SOME 30 MINUTES HAD PASSED IN A HORROR FLICK IS DEFINITELY NOT A GOOD SIGN! (OK, THE START DOESN'T COUNT BECAUSE IT DOESN'T CLEARLY SUGGESTED, OR EVEN IMPLIED, THAT LOUIS' CHARACTER IS DEAD!) BUT, POOR ME, STAR MOVIES MANDARIN IN OUR CABLE NETWORK KEPT SHOWING ONLY THIS INSTALLMENT ON TV, SO I HAVE NO OTHER CHOICE, BUT TO WATCH THIS OVER AND OVER AGAIN FOR MY LOVE OF LOUIS KOO. <SOB> :(

Reviewed by: Paul Fonoroff Date: 11/23/2000 The millennium may be new, but some things never change. A mere four months after part six caused barely a ripple on the cinematic scene, along comes the seventh instalment in the Troublesome Night series. The weakest of the lot, it would be a surprise if cast and crew spent more than a week wrapping this one up. The Troublesome Night stories are chiefly related in their ghostly content. Nam Yin is a fixture as producer-writer, and regular stars are Louis Koo Tin-lok, Simon Loui Yu-yeung and the grande dame ghoul of Cantonese cinema, Law Lan. But Nam produces mediocre results; Koo, the lead throughout the series, is barely on view; and this Troublesome Night has another difference from the others in the series - there are no night scenes. This would certainly have helped contain costs. As in the other Troublesome Nights, the mixture of the ultra-modern and old-fashioned superstition provides an interesting dynamic. There is no contradiction between the female lead's dependence on her mobile phone and her utter belief that strange goings-on are caused by other-worldly spirits. Alas, the ghostly events in Part 7 are none too intriguing. This time the story revolves around two other Troublesome Night stalwarts, Peter Lai Yiu-cheung and singer-actress Amanda Lee Wai-mun. Alex (Lai) is an MTV director filming star Mandy (Lee) on a remote island, where residents include a police inspector (Loui), restaurant owner (Law Kwun-lan) and her paramour (Hui Siu-hung). In Troublesome Night tradition, odd incidents take place, including the sighting of a handsome young man (Koo) in search of his true love (Chan Chung-ling). A highly implausible plot twist - standard fare for the Troublesome Night series - bedevils their relationship when a "wild child" is discovered. Auntie Ping (Law Lan) recognises the child and the plot thickens, never mind that there are major discrepancies involving the appearance of the now-grown-up child. She resorts to the usual Law Lan-style mumbo jumbo and puts the spirits at peace. It may be even beyond her powers, though, to resuscitate the series in time for part eight. This review is copyright (c) 2000 by Paul Fonoroff. All rights reserved. No part of the review may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Reviewed by: trenty Date: 08/06/2000 Summary: The cast was a waste and the whole movie was expectable. The serie of Troublesome Night was the longest one and looks like it will keep on going. Well, I have to admit that I like watching this serie whether any of those was bad because the first one was well done. Anyways, let's see how this one, the seventh chapter, was doing. The movie as a whole was an expectable one. There ain't much you have to scratch your head to know what's the ghost story was mainly about. This time, you will receive a 1 ghost story rather than some previous chapters have 3 stories. By the way, it's a romantic-ghost horror flick so don't expect stunning scary moments. However, it was a very slow pace flick with an expectable plot. Speaking of scary moments in the movie, maybe there are some pop-up moments to scare you but those were old tricks. For example, Simon popped up suddenly between a conversation of two people. The first time did scared me but as the director did it over and over again, it just too obvious with no effect. As to the performances, the cast was back from previous chapters, like Louis, Simon, Amanda, Wayne, Law lan, etc. and this time added Chan Chun Ling in it. However, the performaces by Louis and Chan Chun Ling were a total waste. Throughout the movie, you will kept on hear both of them repeating the same dialogues over and over again while they were trying to reach each other at a different dimension. To say more, they should have a better role than that. All other actors in the cast went well as usual but nothing big. To conclude, this movie just plain simple to watch with it's expectable plot. The main cast was a total waste were other actor/actress could be replaced. Also, the repeated dialogues between Louis and Chan Chun Ling were so annoying. Though there were many holes in this movie but with a few laughs to compensate. Afterall, this movie isn't good enough to last audience in front of the screen.

Reviewed by: MilesC Date: 04/16/2000 Summary: Too unfocused. There are a number of interesting directions Troublesome Night VII could have taken; unfortunately, they instead chose to accord every plot about fifteen minutes of screen time and every sub-plot (padding, really) about five. The result is a film with underdeveloped characters, zero scares, and a final explanation that is less than terrifying. There's nothing too painful about it, but the only thing I particularly liked about it were the goofy performances of Lai Yiu-Cheung and Simon Lui. If you watch Hong Kong movies simply because they are Hong Kong movies this won't be the worst thing you ever see, but it's not something to go out of your way for.

Reviewed by: ryan Date: 01/21/2000 Summary: With Ideas But Not Pacing Prior to the Chinese New Year, there are many Hong Kong movies opening. At least five movies are being released. Out of those "Troublesome Night VII" seems to be the most appealing. The main reason is that "Troublesome Night VII" is obviously part of a long-lasting series that has done well at the box office. However, unlike the previous films that were directed by Herman YAU Lai-to, NAM Yin (the producer and the screenwriter of the series) assumes the task of directing. Like "Troublesome Night 6," there is only one story in the movie. A music video team, headed by Alex (LAI Yiu-cheung), comes to an outlet to produce a music video for a performer called Amanda (Amada LEE Wai-man). However, since the first day of production, weird things begin to happen. First, there are heard strange voices that seem to be asking the whereabouts of a girl named Ying. While filming, the crew sees the shadow of ghosts. Although the crew and Amanda are scared, Alex wants to continue. More eerie things continue to happen to increase the level of fear until finally Grammy Ping (Helena LAW Lan) appears and reveals the background behind the current haunting - the tragic love story between Lok (Louis KOO Tin-lok) and Ying (CHAN Chung-ling) . . . To be honest, "Troublesome Night VII" is not a good movie. One of the main problems is the story. In the advertisement, it is claimed that this is the first "Troublesome Night" movie where the events occur during daylight. Unfortunately, this adds nothing to the film which really doesn't contain anything that makes it special. The only scares come from the sudden appearance of some of the characters, such as Officer LOUI (Simon LOUI), NG Chi-hung, and Grammy Ping. However, the technique only works for the first few times. Once repeated too often, the style doesn't work as well on the audience for the remainder of the story. In addition, the main portion of the story is about the weird things that happen during the filming of a music (MTV) video. However, the filmmakers present us only pieces of the MTV clips that do not have a relationship to the ghost story. Watching the filming may pad the movie's running time, but it also makes it boring. NAM Yin had several subplots that could have been developed to make an interesting movie. The relationships between Alex and Amanda, SZE Yim-chi and LEE Wing-ho, and HUI Si-hung and LAW Koon-lan were all avenues the directors could have taken to enhance the film. The current relationships could have played off the tragic love story between Louis KOO Tin-lok and CHAN Chung-ling. Sadly, the movie is poorly constructed and putting the emphasis on the pointless MTV material was a bad choice and ruins the film. With the love story of Lok and Ying left undeveloped, the ending of the movie is much less impressive than one would expect. In short, "Troublesome Night VII" has got some decent ideas, but it falls to make good use of its characters, is poorly paced, and contains an underdeveloped plot. In addition, the sudden cameos fail to improve the quality of the movie. Written by Ryan Law from Hong Kong Movie DataBase on 20 January 2000.