Yam yeung lo 4: Yu gwai tung hang

The fourth entry in the neverending "Troublesome Night" series finds the usual cast in the same series of Twilight Zone-style episodes. This film follows a bunch of Hong Kong tourists visiting the Philippines. As always, the stories vary in tone and style, ranging from sentimental to silly to quite dark...The first story is a fantasy/romance and stars Timmy Hung (Sammo's son) as a shy courier whose job is to transport a Filipina girl's ashes to her native country. He is met at the airport by Rocky, a Filipino who speaks Chinese, who asks Alan to stay a little longer to help the girl's spirit meet her lover. The second story stars Pauline Suen and Louis Koo as a seemingly happy couple on vacation. Suen soon becomes suspicious that her husband has been to the Philippines before and cheated on her. He definitely has a wandering eye, but has he actually cheated? This is probably the best of the three stories, if only for the chilling ending with the fortune-teller. The third story is typical slapstick horror-comedy with three horny HK guys (named Leonardo, diCaprio and Driver) trying to "get some" with Filipina hookers. Of course, they end up in a brothel full of zombies that has something to do with a volcano and Simon Loui has a funny scene where he is chased naked around a hotel by a ghost....Although there is a little too much emphasis on showing off the physical assets of the Filipina cast members, and the moralizing at the end seems VERY out of place, all three stories are a fun diversion, and one of the better entries in the Troublesome Night series.

I have watched one through three of the "Yam Yeung Lo" (aka "Troublesome Night") franchise, and haven't been overly thrilled or entertained by them. But as I stumbled upon "Yam Yeung Lo 4: Yu Gwai Tung Hang" here in 2023, I still opted to watch it, on account of it being a Hong Kong movie that I hadn't already seen.

And I have to say that in comparison to the previous three movies in the franchise, then "Yam Yeung Lo 4: Yu Gwai Tung Hang" was definitely a major step up. Writers Kenneth Hau Wai Lau and Kwok Chi Tsang put together a more enjoyable, appealing and funny storyline for this fourth movie. The storyline in this fourth movie revolves around three different stories really, all interwoven and nicely connected to one another. Director Herman Yau made it seem like it was one continuous story told, just with three different aspects to it.

The acting performances in "Yam Yeung Lo 4: Yu Gwai Tung Hang" were good, and there are some familiar faces on the cast list, with the likes of Louis Koo, Simon Lui and Raymond Pak-Ming Wong.

Visually then "Yam Yeung Lo 4: Yu Gwai Tung Hang" was pretty low key. The special effects and make-up in the movie are sort of cringeworthy, but luckily the movie doesn't use effects in an abundance.

All in all, then I found the 1998 horror comedy "Yam Yeung Lo 4: Yu Gwai Tung Hang" from director Herman Yau to be an adequately enjoyable and funny movie. And as such, I am rating it a five out of ten stars.