ebossert 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.

SnakesOnAnAfricanPlain A fantastic surprise. This movie I absolutely loved. I'd encourage you to get this without reading anymore on the topic. Still, here's my review. The film begins with a well shot scene involving lots of close- ups on the most mundane of objects. It's shot with a taste of suspicion. Imagine the death scenes in Final Destination and that's what we have here. A little more toned down than that but you should certainly have an open-mind for jumps in logic. Accident has the kind of high-concept plot that you'll find scattered around movie land. A gang of assassins makes their hits look like accidents, but it all goes pear shaped when an accident befalls the group themselves. Only, was it an accident. The nature of these assassins work leaves them paranoid and restless. The film is successful because it takes the mature route of exploring its themes. There is some action, but it gradually winds down into a more procedural spy type film. The main character is a man that has dealt with loss, and then dealt it out himself. He sees nothing as an accident, but are the recent events hostile acts against him, or just coincidences? Each action scene is marvelously underplayed, with minimalist-no music. By the time the final credits role I was emotionally exhausted and thoroughly entertained. A high-concept film, that requires both brains and letting some logic slide.

LeoXIV I saw this movie at the Helsinki International Film Festival, more lovingly known as Love and Anarchy. The festival often caters to Johnnie To/Milkyway fans and this year we were "treated" to Accident.This review contains major spoilers, so if you are interested in the film, I would suggest skipping this review. In short, i think this movie contains a near perfect story, but one of the worst scripts ever.The story involves a group of contract killers that evade suspicion by staging elaborate murders that look like ACCIDENTS (Great premise). The group consists of four members: brain, fatty, uncle and an unnamed girl (Got to love these aliases, I mean who asks people to call them brain...a prick). The leader brain's wife (probably nicknamed heart, or perhaps the original fatty) died in a car crash which it would seem instigated brains contract killer lifestyle, and he seems to believe that the car crash was no mere ACCIDENT. The group get a contract to kill this innocent looking wheelchair-bound older dude (really uncool, btw). During the hit, something goes wrong and one of the group members gets killed, and brain is convinced this was no ACCIDENT either. Crazy times. This instigates the second part of the film, which focuses on brains operation to find out who set him up, killing his group member, listening to strangers have sex, murdering an innocent girl with the power of the sun, and getting killed himself. And for what? NOTHING! Yup, that's the big realization. Brain was a maniac, paranoid guy that saw figures in the shadows and great big schemes where there were none. Most likely this was his way to cope with the death of his wife, such a horrible act needed some rational reasoning, it could not be just an ACCIDENT. The idea that this guy was doomed by his own imagination and past experiences is just perfect. If this movie was remade by something like a Scorsese/DiCaprio collaboration they could really make something great. As it is....it's really bad. REALLY BAD.You see the problem is that nearly every scene is unrealistic and thus unbelievable, and furthermore no character acts even semi-rationally, which makes the movie unconvincing and the characters meaningless. They are simply devices to advance an incredibly stupid script. OK, so brain is this intellectual mastermind that can orchestrate these insane domino effects, right? Then how is it, that he can't notice that one of his four members is clearly suffering from severe dementia. I mean so severe that he is popping pills at the rate of Tic Tacs. And the director makes the point of showing that brain is so careful not to leave any traces, paying with coins from a cloth and changing modes of transportation to loose any potential tails. Yet, still the guy is always right next to the murders, doesn't use gloves and leaves prints everywhere, makes the money drops in a parking lot with cameras (why?), the point being that clearly the character and script have not been developed very far. The best example of this are the murders. They are just too much based on chance. The first murder is just silly, the idea being that in the end there is a fallen banner that covers one fifth of the marks windshield, and for some reason instead of just driving past, he gets out and pulls the banner down, which results in a window breaking and the glass killing him. The one that just made everyone in the theater laugh was a murder that used a wet cord from a kite to transmit an electronic shock to the wheelchair-bound dude. I mean the idea that someone could predict how a kite would fly in a storm and where it would land is seriously idiotic. Anyway.The other major issue is that this group is not sympathetic. They are contract killers with no redeeming features. From an ethical point, there is no reason for the audience to root for them, and the lack of a clear enemy through out most of the movie takes a lot of the potential tension away.So all in all, the potential is there and I must say that I personally enjoyed watching the movie, just because it was so silly and unapologetic in its stupidity (the eclipse at the end, and that road sign...), so in a way this movie would rate 1 star based on script and 10 based on premise, hence the rating of 5.

moerchi Accident might just be the most refined and intelligent piece of Hong Kong cinema since 2002's Infernal Affairs. The film probably won't prove as popular with mainstream audiences due to its almost meditative, slow-burn pacing - but for anyone with an interest in inventive genre cinema, Soi Cheang's newest outing is a must-see.Taking its cues from Jean-Pierre Melville, Accident revolves around a group of assassins who stage their murders like accidents. The group is led by Brain (Louis Koo in a career-defining performance), who grows increasingly paranoid when one of the group's accidents goes awry and kills another member.Thankfully, while the actual "accidents" are impressive and cleverly put together, Soi Cheang doesn't make the mistake of letting gimmicky set pieces dominate his film. Instead, Accident becomes a fascinating character study of a man who gradually destroys himself through paranoia and guilt. As such, the film largely depends on Louis Koo's performance - and what a performance it is; with this film, Koo finally deserves to be elevated from the hotpot of mediocre HK-popstars-cum-actors people used to include him in.Add to this an elegiac score by Xavier Jamaux, elegant cinematography and you end up with the most compelling film to come out of Asia in the past 2 years.If there is any problem to be found in this, it's that Accident is purely a Milkyway Image film, not a Soi Cheang film. Anyone hoping to find the director's trademark relentlessness here will be disappointed - although it could be argued some of the nihilism found in works like Dog Bite Dog was carried over into Accident's finale.