Directed by Soi Chang and produced by the legendary Johnnie To, the Hong Kong thriller Accident follows Ho Kwok-fai (Louis Koo), aka The Brain, a hit man who kills his victims through extremely well-choreographed accidents that could never be traced back to him and his team. When his team’s next mission goes awry and one of his men dies, Ho is convinced that someone is onto them and trying to kill his team off. As Ho’s paranoia grows to excessive and unhealthy levels, he eventually discovers that there is an insurance agent, Chan Fong-chow (Richie Jen), who is sort-of connected to the accident and he believes that this agent is the guy trying to take him out. In order to stay alive, relieve himself of guilt, and avoid going absolutely insane, Ho must spy on Chan and determine how he’s connected and, if necessary, to take him out.
Not only is Accident a cool and collected crime thriller, but it’s one of the better thrillers to come out of Hong Kong in the past few years (it came out there in 2009). What makes it work so well is that the idea is very original and could have gone in quite a few directions. Soi Chang and the team behind the script have put together a slow burning, psychological thriller of sorts that will keep you on the same page as Koo’s character. You’re paranoia may not grow to excessive levels like his does but you are constantly questioning everything, trying to figure out patterns to see how everything is related, if it even is.
Koo delivers a riveting performance that reminds me of Fassbender’s performance in Shame, though not quite at that level. The two don’t have much dialogue and the only way to truly understand them is through their body language and facial expressions. You visually see how paranoid Ho has become but, more importantly, you can read the guilt all over his face. He misses his wife, he’s upset about the loss of his teammate, and his world “seems” to be crashing down on him.
The downfall to a lot of these types of slow burning thrillers is that they are usually too long, and while this one comes in at only 87 minutes and avoids that issue, the pacing is off and it feels just a little longer than it actually is. Because the film is so detailed and everything is well thought out, you don’t feel as if you’re wasting your time, everything is directly to the point which is a rare thing these days, but the problem is that we focus so much on Brain’s slow moving pace that you begin to get antsy and even bored.
The one other issue that may be of some concern to others but that I didn’t mind too much was that this film could really be two different features. There is a stark contrast between the first half, which focuses on what Brain and his team actually do, versus the second half, which deals with Brain’s paranoia and how he goes about trying
to resolve it. It personally didn’t bother me much but I could see how some people would prefer a better transition between the two stories.
As for the disc, the movie only comes with a “making of” featurette which features 13 minutes of behind the scenes footage cut with some interviews. Other than that you’ve got the theatrical trailer and the actual movie itself presented in 2.35.1. The visuals weren’t anything special but at least the sound was good and the subtitles were clear.
Despite its pacing issues, Accident is a movie definitely worth seeing. I’m a sucker for crime thrillers but even more so when they are original and take a different spin on the genre. Accident is one of those films I could see being remade into a more intense crime thriller here in the states. The basic idea is fantastic and could easily be fleshed out in a variety of directions. With a excellent performance by Louis Koo under the guidance of Soi Chang, one thing is certainly clear, keep your eyes out for more films from this well paired duo
Movie Rating: A slow burning but creative thriller that has the potential for further exploration (7/10)
Disc rating: 3/10
Accident is now available on blu-ray and DVD from Shout! Factory.
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