Yam yeung lo 9: Min juen kin kwan

Number nine in the Troublesome Night series continues the trilogy's decline. The movie all but steers clear of anything hair-raising, chilling or ghostly. There are only a couple of instances where we see any ghost elements in the movie, but much of the plot involves Bud Pitt (Simon Lui) getting a job as an employee on a gambling ship and him helping bad luck-plagued Liu Ah Yee (Maggie Cheung Ho Yee) score gambling wins.

The movie, I thought, tried hard to follow in the footsteps of the God of Gamblers movies, and there are too many instances of screwball comedy and forced humor. While Simon Lui, Maggie Cheung and Lan Law make good screen presence, the filmmakers could have utilized them in a much better way.

It's not an entirely horrible movie - it's merely like you're watching a retread of the excessive God of Gamblers movie or a copycat. The acting and music score were good, but script was very average and plot was a little slow-paced.

Grade C-

Picking up right where Troublesome Night 8 left off, Bud Pit (Simon Loui) has finally found a job, working nights on a casino boat. Maggie Cheung Ho-Yi is a gambling addict who is trying to get rich for love (not quite sure how this works). The Bud family decide to help her out, but not without first enduring a completely lame subplot of Loui getting possessed by a ghost child. Finally Bud Lung (Law Lan) channels the God of Gamblers into her other son, Bud Gay, to help Cheung win big. The point of the exercise is for the most part missing. Ivan Lai is completely inept at direct gambling scenes. Maggie Cheung -- NOT the famous one -- is a good actress, she finds better material in this year's HEADLINES. Simon Loui, the last member of the original Troublesome Night ensemble cast, ends his sequential run in the series.