Film: Accident
Running time: 89 mins
Director: Pou-Soi Cheang
Starring: Louis Koo, Lam Suet, Richie Ren, Shui-Fan Fung, Michelle Ye
Genre: Thriller
Country: Hong Kong
This title has not been released in the UK as yet, but will be showing at the Terracotta Far East Film Festival in London (6th-9th May 2010).
Acclaimed director Johnny To (Sparrow, Exiled) has already shown he has an eye for talented directors when he produced Nai-Hoi Yau’s Eye In The Sky, starring Simon Yam. Recently, he’s produced two very effective thrillers – Overheard, and Accident.
A gang of assassins-for-hire provide their clients with meticulously-planned hits, which are made to look like unfortunate, fatal accidents. After their recent hit, however, the group are involved in an accident of their own involving a runaway bus which leaves one of them dead. Is there another assassin trying to take them out?
When is an accident not an accident? When it is a meticulously planned assassination made to look like one. At the beginning of the film, we witness such a hit through the eyes of the target. We follow the victim’s slow car journey as what seems like an unlucky string of events lead to him losing his temper and basically bringing about his own demise.
The team of four are comprised of: Fatty (Lam Suet, long-time favourite of Johnny To), Uncle (Ren), “Woman” (Michelle Ye) and The Brain (Louis Koo). These are not so much comrades-in-arms but cold professionals who are pretty wary of The Brain, who makes a point of being as detached from them as possible.
The gang is meticulous, not just in preparing for a hit, but also in screening and meeting potential clients. We watch as their next client is made to jump through numerous hoops before making contact. Then they have to think and plan a feasible way to kill their target – a wheelchair-bound old man whose son wants him out of the way – that will convincingly look like an accident. They take in the old man’s routine and his environment, then have to wait for the exact set of circumstances (in this case, a thunderstorm) to make it happen.
I’d have been quite happy to follow this group for the course of the film, as they set about their deadly machinations, but no sooner had the second hit occurred that the team is involved in a tragic “accident” of their own. The Brain, who is already incredibly paranoid, believes that there is no such thing as an accident – especially one happening immediately after the one they staged. Other circumstances point to this conclusion, too.
For the rest of the film, we exclusively follow The Brain as he tries to ascertain the who and why behind his intended assassination. We see everything from his perspective as he spies on key people, but never hearing the conversations that are taking place. The Brain is like a conspiracy theorist in his meticulous planning, and reviewing sheets and sheets of notes and conversations.
The denouement – a late twist which leaves the main character reeling in shock during the execution of a hit, will certainly divide audiences, but it has an element of Hitchockian class (it is also a testament to how far the audience has crawled into the protagonist’s head that you don’t consider it earlier).
For the most part, Accident is a well-crafted thriller which places you into the mind of the main character. The direction the film takes is unconventional and will wrong-foot many watching it, but getting to that place is a pleasure. MOW
No comments:
Post a Comment