Accident

This Hong Kong crime drama is centred on a group of assassins who specialise in murders that look like accidents. They are Ho Kwok-fai, aka 'The Brain'; 'Fatty'; 'The Woman' and 'Uncle'. So far these murders have never been suspected as anything other than accidents but they know that one mistake could lead to them all being investigated. Their latest job is carefully planned but something goes wrong... a bus careers out of control, just misses The Brain and kills Fatty. Was it just an accident or is somebody trying to eliminate The Brain using his own methods. He quickly become convinced that it is the latter. Is he paranoid or is somebody really out to kill him?

One might expect a Hong Kong crime drama to be full of martial arts, shooting and exciting chases; this is different though. It eschews such things, instead opting for a '70s style paranoid thriller where the protagonist isn't sure what is happening but still struggles to stop what might be happening. This approach keeps the tension high as we don't know who can be trusted. Mostly it is gripping but one does occasionally have to suspend ones disbelief... solar eclipses are not surprise events they can be predicts centuries in advance! The cast is solid; I especially liked Louis Koo's performance as The Brain. Overall I'd certainly recommend this to fans of Hong Kong films looking for something a bit different.

These comments are based on watching the film in Cantonese with English subtitles.

This film is underrated. Oh well, not every movie can be made by Marvel.

This film is about a professional hit-man and his team of self-styled "accident choreographers", who kill their victims by trapping them in well crafted "accidents" that look like unfortunate mishaps but are in fact perfectly staged acts of murder. He is consistently plagued by guilt, and the memories of his recently lost wife don't make things any easier. Even worse, one of his team members dies in an apparent "accident", which forces him to stay one step ahead of their competition.

One important thing that you need to understand about "Accident" is that it's a non-stop exhibition of paranoia because the scriptwriting is first-class as it straddles the line between chance and intent through a number of events that may signify an orchestrated murder by another party. The way this works is that some events are immediately shown to be acts of human intent – for example, the opening scene is clearly shown to be a murder that is made to look like an accident – but other events are left ambiguous, and you're not sure if it's an act of human intent or a moment of coincidence (or chance). So you're placed in the same situation as the protagonist because he's also not sure. And that's really the foundation of the entire movie, and it's a solid foundation to stand on.

It may be a surprise to you that the story moves slowly, but this could be considered a positive because it allows the paranoia to take center stage and it focuses a lot on developing the main character. The entire film revolves around this guy, making this just as much of a character piece as it is a series of suspense sequences. With that said, the "accidents" themselves are very cool and the direction is top notch. This was actually directed by Pou-Soi Cheang, and "Accident" was his best film in his filmography up to this point – representing an improvement over his previous titles. And I still think this is his best work, despite the fact that he has given us some very entertaining stuff between 2009 and the present day (such as "SPL 2: A Time for Consequences", "The Monkey King 2", and "Motorway").

The lead actor is Louis Koo, who earlier in his career appeared in a bunch of the "Troublesome Night" movies. Most fortunately, his roles subsequent to that franchise were far more reliable and entertaining. He's definitely an actor whose filmography is worth exploring because he's been in a lot of good movies. "Accident" is one of them, and I really liked his performance in this. It's a bit on the eccentric and gloomy side, but that's important for his character.

I definitely recommend "Accident", which is one of the better slow-burn suspense thrillers in recent memory. It is widely available on DVD, so be sure to check this one out.

Accident's trailer gives a promising setup of a thriller focused on a team of assassins who make their killings look like accidents, but there's no follow through. Thrilling this is not, especially when you start to get into the grind of just how many niggling details have to be accounted for to make a death believable as an accident and how many things have to come together in the right way and at the right time or the whole thing has to be called off and back to the drawing board.

The movie might at least be intellectually interesting, but nothing is particularly believable or smart (the film is only capable of telling us Louis Koo's character is a genius rather than showing us) and there's minimal plot, dialog, or character interaction. Questions that should be asked aren't. Questions that no one really cares about are lingered on too long. Louis Koo plays the main character, Brain, dominating the screen time, and the disappearance of each of the other capable actors, none of whom are around for long, is keenly felt. I've seen Koo give some fine performances, but here he must spend most of the movie alone and silent, with no one to play off of, which is a tall order for any actor, even if they have a stellar script, which Accident most certainly does not. The silence also conveniently leaves out the need for the film to flesh out Brain's theories and what he's thinking and we're just left to guess--perhaps the director thought this would be a clever style because it would put the audience in the same mindset as the main character, but it just put me in the mindset of wanting to go to sleep.

With the main character being a stony hired killer, there's no one to root for, and it doesn't take too many lingering shots of Brain furrowing his brow to convey the wheels of his genius brain are turning while conducting surveillance of mundane events until you stop caring. Slogging through to the ending adds little, so you might as well just move on when the boredom gets intense. There's really not any "twist" at the end that redeems things, as some reviewers try to make out; I don't know if the film's creators really even intended there to be. If you're "blown away" by the ending, either you haven't seen many movies of this sort, or you should probably consider yourself a pretty thick.

Accident is just another triumph of atmosphere over substance that relies on cheap tricks to bypass viewers' ability to think critically about the weaknesses of the script by implying things that never materialize and various other manipulations that leave you feeling used at the end when it becomes apparent that the things you had to forgive in the hope that this was leading somewhere have led nowhere worth going. Overheard (2009), also with Koo (and Ching Wan Lau and Daniel Wu), comes to mind as an example of a better surveillance-themed movie.

I'm not sure what to make of this movie. It's not a long film, and so repeat viewings may make people appreciate its intricacies more. The film revolves around a small tight-knit group of assassins who work by killing their victims in ways that would appear to have been purely an accident, the "accident" being decidedly gruesome once executed.

Led diligently by a straight-forward highly intelligent man they call "Brains", they work to ensure no trace can lead the deaths to themselves. When the tables are turned and a member is killed, the focus closes on "Brain" who struggles to find out what has happened and gone wrong, and who is out to get them.

It's a moody film and uses the claustrophobic HK atmosphere well. One problem is that it's hard to decipher all that is happening from one viewing. It can get ponderous and confusing. The acting is generally very good and the action of the deaths very well done, but it doesn't compensate for the lack of clarity. Then again maybe it wasn't meant to be a tidy film and that is the point.

Overall, I thought it was okay and interesting enough. Maybe with some more work and time on the script then it could have become far better. Not bad, but just not great.

With an intense score from Xavier Jamaux (who has done a few films for Milkyway Productions), and stunning cinematography from Edmond Fung - who incidentally shot the fantastic Dog Bite Dog, and Shamo, for director Cheang - you can't help but get drawn into the film, even with its slow-burning pace.

Accident is like watching a regular Johnnie To flick, but with an added darkness as director Soi Cheang harks back to his earlier films (mentioned above) to bring us an often intense, violent and dark thriller that - in my opinion - is quite underrated!

Louis Koo plays the Brain (literally) of a small but covert team of assassins who get paid to take out people, all while making it look like an accident. It may sound simple, but the team go to some lengths in their planning to pull of some convincing accidents that makes Death from Final Destination seem like a 60's Bond villain...

Of course, as a viewer, this means stretching the imagination a little as some of the plans rely on coincidences and chance to work. But not to a ridiculous degree, and of course at the end of the day - its just a film.

With some incredible, atmospheric night scenes in floods of rain, the film starts to take a turn for the worse as plans start to go wrong, and Brain's paranoia kicks in believing that he is now under threat - a victim to someone else's planning...

I don't want to give too much more away really, but Accident is most definitely worth the watch. Louis Koo gives a great performance as Brain, as does everyone else in their roles to be honest. It was great to see Stanley Fung (the Lucky Stars series) back in such a serious role. While he has been appearing in many films over the years, I definitely think this is one of his finest roles that saw him nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the 29th Hong Kong Film Awards.

While it may have its flaws and is not supposed to be the kind of film that leaves you feeling happy, Accident is well worth the watch and should definitely have gained more international attention with Hong Kong film fans!

Overall: A tense, atmospheric thriller, beautifully shot with an amazing score and performances from all involved!