Accident

[Milkyway]

Director of 'Dog Bite Dog' and 'Shamo' gathers together his 'Assassins'

As our old wooden lad once said Hong Kong director Soi Cheang would appear to be saying bleak is the new black. His pics Dog Bite Dog and Shamo are by all accounts violent, relentless and uncompromising. And honestly we here love that this director has given the laboring HK film industry a much needed set of razor sharp teeth. How news of his next film flew under our radar I'll never know but you can trust the lads at 24FPS. They picked up this bit of news earlier this month.

Synopsis: When the facilitator and mastermind behind the intricate plots and designs of their operations is locked up by the special police force, a group of assassins who normally work independently and anonymously must get acquainted with each other for the first time, in order to coordinate their efforts for rescuing their one and only friend.

http://twitchfilm.net/site/view/director-of-dog-bite-dog-and-shamo-gathers-together-his-assassins

Louis Koo, Richie Ren, and Michelle Ye Films New Movie

Frederic Ambroisine begins filming new production of Milkyway Image, 'An Sha' 《暗殺》

Just as Frederic Ambroisine's 'Jun Ji' officially airs next week, he will collaborate with Johnny To in a new production 'An Sha' (direct translation: Assassination) which has started shooting since the end of last month.

Recently, Frederic has a diverse manner of collaboration: He has worked with Joe Ma Wai Ho for 'Love Battlefield' (愛‧作戰) and《追擊8月15》, he has also worked with Leong Tak Sam for movies such as 'Dog bite dog' and 'Jun Ji'. He has also joined Milkyway Image (HK) Ltd. Last year, and has since participated in a variety of the company's events.

The shooting of 'An Sha' has yet been covered by any of Hong Kong's media, while the rough picture is as the photo above where male lead is Louis Koo, with director Frederic, Richie Ren who has dyed his hair blond, producer Johnny To, while the female lead is Michelle Ye. 'An Sha' was initially scheduled to begin filming last year, where Richie even went dieting for this current character, but as the script was still incomplete, it was postponed a year. Richie expressed that he is an assassin in this film. To date, there is no official news on 'An Sha', but knowing the tradition of To (Johnny), there may be some visit to the filming sites.

From the title of the movie, there seem to be some similarities with past productions of Milkyway Image (HK) Ltd. such as 'Running Out of Time' (暗殺) and 'The Longest Night' (暗花), so will the approach (theme) bear any similarities to both the films? No doubt this production will be much anticipated by all.

http://www.wuxiasociety.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=29239#29239

[Alex]

I liked Dog Bite Dog a lot, I would definitely check this one out

[Milkyway]

Soi Cheang’s Latest Gets A Name Change And Poster Art

Hong Kong director Soi Cheang won a lot of fans in these parts with 2006’s Dog Bite Dog, a bleak and brutal film that would have marked a major career turning point for star Edison Chen had he not subsequently destroyed said career with the now infamous leaked sex-photo incident. The director followed that up with the less successful Shamo - equally bleak but not nearly as emotionally involving - and we’ve been anxious to see what would come next for Cheang.

Well, what came next was initially announced as Assassin, a film that would mark a return to the fold of sorts for the director, who started his career working as Johnnie To’s AD and would shoot this one under To’s Milkyway banner with To himself on board as a producer. Well, the film has since been retitled Accident and the first artwork from the picture was unveiled by distributors Media Asia at the American Film Market.

The film tells the story of “The Brain”, a professional hit man who kills his victims by trapping them in elaborately staged ‘accidents’. He’s good at his job but it plays on his natural tendencies towards guilt and paranoia, paranoia that leaps to the forefront when a botched kill takes the life of one of his own team members and The Brain becomes convinced that someone is using his own methods to eliminate him and his entire team. Richie Jen, Louis Koo and Lam Suet star.

http://twitchfilm.net/site/view/soi-cheangs-latest-gets-a-name-change-and-poster-art/

[Milkyway]

Soi Cheang's latest heads to TIFF this September. Finally!

Description

Gripping and smartly constructed, this unconventional crime thriller/psychological drama, revolves around assassins who commit murder by making perfectly staged crimes look like unfortunate accidents. Produced by Johnnie To.

Credits

Production Company: Media Asia Films Ltd.

Producer: John Chong

Screenplay: Szeto Kam Yuen, Nicholl Tang, Milkyway Creative Team

Production Designer: Silver Cheung, Stanlety Cheung

Cinematographer: Fung Yuen Man

Editor: David Richardson

Sound: Martin Chappell

Music: Xavier Jamaux

Principal Cast: Louis Koo, Richie Jen, Lam Suet, Michelle Ye, Feng Tsui Fan

International Sales Agent: Media Asia Group

http://www.tiff.net/filmsandschedules/films/accident

http://www.quietearth.us/articles/2009/07/23/TIFF-titles-for-Vanguard-Discovery-and-Special-Presentations

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118006395.html?categoryid=13&cs=1

[Milkyway]

http://www.tiff.net/filmsandschedules/films/accident

[mark187]

HKMDB now has this listed as a 2010 release, I hope they are wrong. it was just announced that it will premiere at Venice, and since it's playing at Toronto as well, I would like to think the HK release would be around October or November. hopefully early-to-mid October, so the dvds can come out in time for the holidays!

[Milkyway]

HKMDB can get it twisted sometimes as they are often reminded alot when users add/change information on movies.

Your explanation is logical but anything can go so I hope it hits the local theatres/DVD stores as soon as possible.

[Milkyway]

http://ent.sina.com.cn/m/c/2009-08-02/10582634818.shtml

[Milkyway]

Talks about this movie, Vengeance and more (contains spoilers!!!).

http://twitchfilm.net/site/view/exclusive-interview-michelle-ye-talks-vengeance-dream-house-unleashed-and-l/

[mark187]

opening day has been announced as September 24th for Accident!

[Fightingfist]

Ok cooolll

[DiP]

opening day has been announced as September 24th for Accident!

At TIFF or in Hong Kong?

[mark187]

it's listed at Moviexclusive.com, which is a Singapore site. however, Singapore gets most HK releases the same day as HK, so the HK release is basically guranteed the same day!

http://moviexclusive.com/review/accident/accident.html

[DiP]

HK director offers mix of violence, creativity

Soi's thriller 'Accident' nominated for Golden Lion at Venice

HONG KONG -- Soi Cheang has distinguished himself as one of Hong Kong's top young directors by portraying apparent lowlives -- and then complicating those portraits by highlighting his characters' redeeming qualities. Now his work is gaining international attention, with his new urban thriller "Accident" nominated for the top Golden Lion Prize at the Venice Film Festival competition in September.

The 37-year-old director told The Associated Press in an interview Friday he has made a career of exploring dark, cruel characters because he wants to highlight the suffering of the less fortunate.

"I felt that people were too comfortable. They weren't aware of society's problems...There is a positive side and a dark side to the world. But when people focus on one side, they lose sight of the other," Cheang said.

"I want to tell the audience that there is a different world out there. The people in that world might be a little extreme, but it doesn't mean they don't have any feelings," he said.

Cheang has a penchant for monster-like characters. In the 2005 film "Home Sweet Home," a disfigured woman who lives in ventilation shafts and kidnaps a young boy. The 2007 release "Shamo," based on a Japanese comic book series, follows a teenager accused of slaughtering his parents who becomes a vicious fighter.

In "Dog Bite Dog," Chinese-Canadian heartthrob Edison Chen plays a Cambodian orphan who kills on command like an attack dog. Beautifully shot in Hong Kong's deserted yellow-lit streets, the gritty 2006 film was picked up by American producers Bob and Harvey Weinstein's Dragon Dynasty label for U.S. DVD release.

But Cheang infuses all the characters with deeply human qualities. The woman ultimately releases the boy. The orphan rescues a girl who has been repeatedly raped by her father. The alleged parent killer turns out to have been wrongly accused after covering for his mentally ill sister.

Cheang's films are also marked by nihilistic violence -- many of his films end in mutual destruction -- but he also likes to end on a message of hope, often symbolized by the birth of a baby.

"At the end, I still hope the audience can find a glimmer of hope," Cheang said.

"Accident," which was produced by Hong Kong filmmaker Johnnie To, is less violent than Cheang's previous films. To is known for his crafty, stylish action thrillers like "PTU," "Election" and "Exiled." But Cheang says the story of a team of criminals who design intricate murders that look like accidents is "psychologically violent." The leader of the gang, played by Louis Koo, becomes deeply paranoid after a job goes wrong and believing he was set up by his fellow schemers and others, seeks revenge.

"It's still about the dark side of human nature," he said.

Cheang said he will next make a racing-themed film, also with To's production company Milkway Image.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/asia/hong-kong/e3i12c12e20214456f3d566ad8ae028360f

[DiP]

Trailer:

[DiP]

Accident

Yi ngoi (Hong Kong)

After a decade as one of Hong Kong’s least-known maverick helmers, Soi Cheang takes a confident step onto the international stage with hitman puzzle-caper "Accident." Clearly benefiting from the creative discipline of working with Johnnie To’s Milkyway team, Cheang has ironed out his usual rough edges and scripting weaknesses without losing his natural smarts as a genre director. Result, tagged to To’s name as producer, looks set for robust fest play, warm theatrical in friendly territories, long life on ancillary and remake possibilities.

With its high concept of a bunch of assassins who disguise their kills as accidents, the pic is the ultimate demonstration of To’s favorite mantra for his own films: "Expect the unexpected." "Accident" takes that idea one step further by making the killers themselves victims of accidental (or maybe not) forces.

With its twisting plot and multiple betrayals (perceived or otherwise), plus regular To actors and technicians, the movie has the strong imprint of a Milkyway production, even though it’s a totally gun-free zone. There are few traces of Cheang’s wild early works ("Diamond Hill," "Horror Hotline...Big Head Monster") or his recent over-the-top actioners ("Dog Bite Dog," "Shamo"), but the pic does have its own signature in its noirish, jazzy interludes and the main character’s growing paranoia.

Dubbing himself an "accident choreographer," the coolly methodical Ho Kwok-fai, aka "Brain" (Louis Koo), leads a small team (Feng Tsui-fan, Lam Suet, Michelle Ye) who specialize in planned "accidents" for money. Post-titles setpiece in a crowded Hong Kong street cleverly introduces the assassins and their methods with a mixture of suspense and black comedy, as one thing triggers another apparently by chance.

Post-op, however, it’s clear there are tensions within the group (Brain even bugs his own HQ) that feed into the subsequent story. Their next client, Wong (Chan Mong-wah), who wants his father killed, challenges them to come up with an elaborate scenario that, after several aborted attempts, almost goes wrong.

One of the team is killed, and Brain just escapes death himself. Convinced it was an "accident" planned by another party, Brain follows Wong to a meeting with a businessman, Fong (Taiwan’s Richie Jen), and becomes increasingly suspicious that not only Fong but even his own teammates are plotting against him.

There’s more than a touch of classic Brian De Palma in the corkscrew plot and setpieces, even though Cheang & Co. don’t try to emulate De Palma’s single-take trademark. And as Brain’s brain becomes progressively screwier, doubts emerge about whether what one is seeing is the truth or an interpretation of it.

Unlike many Milkyway productions, the pic doesn’t temporarily run out of steam at the 70-minute mark. Apart from an off-kilter coda following the clever finale, the script runs smoothly from start to finish, in a single arc.

As the whiz kid whose own tables are turned against him, Hong Kong star Koo gives a cold, expressionless perf that Cheang supplements emotionally via production design and supporting characters. Among the other cast, Feng gets the meatiest part as the sickly, forgetful "Uncle"; co-star Jen, smooth as silk, has little more than an extended cameo.

Tech package is strong, with a moody, nocturnal-bluesy score by Frenchman Xavier Jamaux that’s a neat fit with Fung Yuen-man’s voyeur-like widescreen lensing.

http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117940956.html?categoryid=31&cs=1

[DiP]

The first 6 min of the movie (watch or avoid!!!): http://blog.affenheimtheater.de/en/2009/08/31/accident-five-minutes-clip-johnnie-to/

[DiP]

'Accident' defies Hong Kong thriller genre

VENICE, Italy — Hong Kong director Soi Cheang's urban thriller "Accident" was two years in the making. The director spent much of that time plotting murders that go undetected as accidents.

The movie, produced by Johnnie To, breaks the conventional Hong Kong thriller genre. There are no chase scenes, and not a bullet is fired.

The main character Brain, played by Louis Koo, leads a band of unusually analytical hitmen whose modus operandi is taking out targets in apparent accidents. But Brain's paranoia grows after his wife and one of the band are killed in spectacular accidents.

"In the scene where Brain and his friends are sitting in a room discussing how to kill, that was actually me, trying to figure out how to kill in a plausible way," Cheang said in an interview Saturday before the premiere of "Accident" at the Venice Film Festival.

To devise feasible accidents, Cheang said he consulted not the Hong Kong underworld, but college professors. He said they advised him against his original plan to use sonar waves to make glass shatter in an opening scene, which they said would have to be very, very, very loud to work.

Cheang said he wanted to change his approach to directing after his last film "Shamo," which he was unhappy with. The producer, To, also requested a non-Cheang movie.

Cheang said he used the psychological drama to make the transition, experiencing a process similar to what Brain goes through in the film.

"Louis' character in the film knew what he wanted as his objective, and just had to figure out how to get there. We saw him questioning himself. That is what I went through," Cheang said.

"When I used to make a film, I felt this burning fire in my chest. I wanted to be different and rebel. I didn't want to be bound by rules," the 37-year-old director said. "This time I took a different approach, in a more calm and rational way. Like Louis in the film."

The movie also stars Richie Jen as Fong, the object of Brain's paranoia, and Michelle Ye as one of the gang of hitmen.

"I found Soi was one of the most patient directors," Ye said, emphasizing Cheang's refusal to follow the Hong Kong convention of shooting a film in a matter of weeks. "Soi is not moved by actions from the outside. He is very determined from the heart."

"Accident" is competing for the Golden Lion, which will be awarded Sept. 12.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iQ5Nyswu33UI5rRpoaYQ4qo0dwTQD9AH9F3G3

[KUNG FU BOB]

I'm looking forward to this. Interesting plot.

Thanks for all the informative posts everybody.

[DiP]

Accident (Yi Ngoi)

Accident is a tricksy, fantastical Hong Kong hit-man film from Soi Cheang and the Milkyway Creative Team, produced by Johnnie To and bearing all the hallmarks of that label. Kicking off with an impressively well-edited sequence which will ensure audiences never view an accident in quite the same way again, its three main set pieces are enough to see this film break out in Asian markets and be a strong ancillary performer for Media Asia – even if they ultimately become mired in something of a narrative fog.

Running to a snappy 86 minutes, Accident is anchored by its three pieces and easily the most impressive is the opener, set in the busy streets of Hong Kong where a driver is stuck in traffic. A thoroughly enjoyable, high-impact sequence of events follows in which a chain of seemingly accidental occurrences lead to his death with shards of glass impaled in his neck.

This was no ordinary man, however, but a Triad boss, however, and his death was no accident. The Brain (Louis Koo) and his team – consisting of Uncle (Feng Tsiu-fan), Fatty (Lam Suet) and a nameless character played by Michelle Ye – are hitmen with unblemished records who specialise in making their assassinations look like complete accidents. It’s established early on that The Brain is unhealthily paranoid, however, even bugging his own team HQ.

As they go about setting up their next hit – another great sequence involving tramtracks and a wheelchair-bound old man - things start to go spectacularly wrong. Brains is convinced that somebody has taken a hit out on him, firstly suspecting his team members, and then an accountant Fong (Richie Jen) whom he ultimately believes to be behind it all.

Accident is – unsurprisingly, given its pedigree - far more successful and sure-handed when it comes to the action elements, but much footage of Brains’ paranoia and Koo’s stiff-jawed depiction of the hitman can allow the tension to leak. Notably, this is a Hong Kong actioner with no guns and gore is kept to a minimum.

Stylistically, Cheang is a less-flashy operator than his mentor To, using a lot of available light and evidently shooting on the hoof in crowded cityscapes. He turns in some very attractive work, especially in the night sequences, and action involving an eclipse. The soundtrack lends a jazzy mood to the proceedings.

http://www.screendaily.com/festivals/venice/accident-yi-ngoi/5005298.article

[DiP]

The Accident -- Film Review

Bottom Line: Original and moody thriller from action master Soi Cheange.

VENICE -- A moody, minimalist thriller, "The Accident" is not what one would expect from this Soi Cheange-Johnnie To collaboration. It features little action but is a brilliantly conceived paranoid spiral of a professional hitman. Both Cheange and To have a loyal following worldwide, and this film in particular should broaden international theatrical horizons. "The Accident" is also tailor-made for a remake.

Working with a crack team, Ho Kwok-fai (Louis Koo), who goes by "Brain," commits perfect murders that are actually elaborately staged accidents. The film's opening scenes are pure ballet: A Triad boss is killed after a series of choreographed, seemingly casual events that to the police could only be accidental.

Their next client hires the team to off his elderly father. On the night they do, one of Brain's crew is himself killed in an accident and someone breaks into Brain's apartment. Suspicious by nature and by profession, he begins following the client, who leads him to a mysterious insurance agent (Asian heartthrob Richie Jen).

Brain wiretaps the agent's apartment, moves in underneath him and spends his days following or listening to the man's every move. Brain even begins doubting the rest of his crew, which he has already been bugging for some time.

In the beginning, we also assume Brain's partner was murdered, but could it have been just a freak accident? Are the events Brain strings together related or just everyday movements interpreted by the paranoid mind of a man in mourning?

The scenes take place either in broad daylight or in nighttime shadows, where faces are half-exposed in yellow lamplight. The suspense mounts as Brain tries to unravel what has happened, but not everything in life is controllable or controlled -- like the car accident that killed Brain's wife that may or may not have been an attempt on his own life.

Too much time is spent watching Brain listening to the agent, however, and towards the end "The Accident" seems to be imitating Francis Ford Coppola's masterpiece "The Conversation." But the finale neatly, and tragically, connects the pieces of the puzzle.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/film-reviews/the-accident-film-review-1004009699.story

[DiP]

ACCIDENT review

ACCIDENT is a carefully assembled, effectively executed and quietly successful little film that manages to mostly silence the concerns over its lengthy gestation period and emerge as one of the more interesting Hong Kong films of this year.

The Brain (Louis Koo) is a professional assassin who stages elaborate accidents to conceal his crimes. He has a small, loyal team of accomplices and his obsessive, meticulous planning has earned him a tidy stash. However, when a job goes awry and a teammate is killed, The Brain begins to suspect that his identity has been compromised and that he too is falling foul of an elaborate and potentially deadly ruse.

Unlike most Hong Kong thrillers, ACCIDENT contains no gunplay or martial arts and precious little bloody violence. There is some broken glass that needs to be avoided and an occasional out-of-control vehicle, but for the most part, ACCIDENT is an exercise in slow-burning tension and teasing paranoia.

Louis Koo, who is in almost every scene of the film, is understated yet quietly captivating as he engineers a series of intricate Heath Robinson-esque executions. His accidents always occur in public places, always in plain sight of numerous eyewitnesses. He is cold and calculating, but when it appears someone is targeting him in a similar fashion, he takes it as a personal affront while further underpinning what he knows only too well - that "any accident can be staged" and nobody can be trusted.

There is no camaraderie here as we might normally expect in Johnnie To's criminal underworld. The Brain's associates, played by Lam Suet, Michelle Ye and Feng Shui Fan, don't even have names and their attempts to build any kind of personal relationship with him are completely stonewalled. There are hints that Ye's character in particular is vying for his affections, but that would require a degree of trust we soon learn is way beyond his means. In the second half of the film, The Brain locks on to Richie Ren, the man he believes to be his nemesis. He observes, obsesses and eavesdrops, but always through windows, lenses or walls - building a relationship on terms he is able to handle.

While it must be acknowledged that director Cheang Pou-Soi and producer Johnnie To have been tinkering with ACCIDENT for a very long time, what results is genuinely intriguing. As a viewer you are never entirely sure where the film is going to take you and events play out far less predictably than other recent films that have explored similar territory, such as OVERHEARD or EYE IN THE SKY.

The first half is a tense thriller featuring a couple of excellently constructed set pieces, while the second half evolves into something else entirely. Although the story plays out very much in the heart of the city, central Hong Kong here feels like a mouldy, decaying and totally impersonal environment. With the exception of one or two buildings, the locations are unrecognizable and the audience never has a clear idea where they are or what lies ahead.

There are a couple of slight narrative missteps along the way - one of The Brain's accidents relies on direct sunlight, but coincides exactly with a solar eclipse that he was seemingly unaware of. It also strains plausibility to accept that a man mindful enough to remove cigarette butts from a busy street would happily scrawl plans and diagrams across the walls of his newly rented apartment. But for the most part, the story is engaging and engrossing.

The extra time spent in the editing room appears to have paid off and what emerges, while not a masterpiece, is far from the disaster that some had feared. ACCIDENT is both intelligent and entertaining, without descending into the kind of panicked, reworked finale that afflicts so many Hong Kong films of late. Cheang has delivered a mainstream thriller with art-house sensibilities that offers a far more satisfying and thoughtful experience than the likes of VENGEANCE, MURDERER or OVERHEARD. And that, rest assured, was no accident.

http://twitchfilm.net/reviews/2009/09/accident-review.php

[DiP]

Official site: http://www.mediaasia.com/accident/eng/index.html

[DiP]

TIFF 09: ACCIDENT Review

He has shown flashes of great promise throughout his career and now, with Johnnie To produced thriller Accident, that promise has been fully realized. Soi Cheang has just moved to the absolute upper level of Hong Kong directors, putting his own unique and icily precise spin on the crime thriller.

Louis Koo stars as Brain, the leader of a four-person crew of paid assassins with a novel approach to evading capture. They are not captured because they are not chased. They are not chased because nobody ever realizes any crime has been committed. The use no guns. They use no knives. Their victims - not to mention their clients - never even see them. No, rather than using conventional means this group stages their executions as elaborate, tightly controlled 'accidents'.

Though all the members of the group have their unique skills and roles to fill it is clear that Brain is the lynch pin that holds it all together, the core of all their plans. He is meticulously detailed, an obsessive chronicler of details, a man who shows no emotion whatsoever on his surface - not ever - and so his three underlings should be forgiven for failing to notice that Brain is perpetually wracked with grief and guilt over his wife's death in a traffic accident years before.

Though they are at the top of their game, Brain will brook no failure, no slipped detail. As he says, they're not the only ones in their trade and - even if the police may not be able to catch them - there are plenty of others who would happily kill Brain and his group, if only to take their place. And so when a job goes wrong and Brain narrowly avoids death himself while one of his team members is killed he cannot help but wonder: was this an accident or is someone using their own methods against them?

Though, on the surface, it is hard to believe that Accident is the product of the same director responsible for Dog Bite Dog and Shamo it is now becoming clear that Cheang's career will be marked by a style willfully shifting and twisting to match the psychological condition of his prime character. And so where Dog is raw and dirty and brutal and Shamo full of stark contrast, Accident is shot in an icy, clinically precise, emotionally distant style that mirrors Louis Koo's performance as Brain perfectly. Every shot is precise, every composition crisp, everything painfully detailed and closely observed. It is as though Cheang takes as much pleasure in deconstructing his action sequences as Brain does in constructing them and that synergy results in a string of stunning images, images that strike the audience right from the very first shot and refuse to let up until the end.

But Cheang is not satisfied to simply create a tight crime thriller here. His aim is higher. Anchored by one of the finest performances of Louis Koo's career, Accident becomes as much a psychological profile of its lead character - a chronicle of his spiraling descent into obsession and paranoia - as it is a straightforward action picture. It's a unique blend and one that Cheang pulls off effortlessly.

Though not a perfect film - there is a memory loss subplot involving one of the characters essentially developing Alzheimer's that comes on far too quickly to be believable and some of the accidents seem far too complex to be plausible - even the weak parts are executed with such confidence that they are easy to forgive. Accident is clearly the high point of Cheang's career and - even moreso - proof that Hong Kong film in general has not lost its ability to reinvent the crime thriller.

http://twitchfilm.net/reviews/2009/09/tiff-09-accident-review.php#_login

[DiP]

ACCIDENT (Yi Ngoi) (HK)

In Mandarin with English subtitles

Genre: Thriller

Director: Soi Cheang

Cast: Louis Koo, Richie Jen, Michelle Ye, Lam Suet, Fung Shui-Fan

RunTime: 1 hr 27 mins

Released By: Shaw

Rating: TBA

Official Website:

Opening Day: 24 September 2009

Synopsis:

A self-styled “accident choreographer,” the Brain is a professional hitman who kills his victims by trapping them in well crafted “accidents” that look like unfortunate mishaps but are in fact perfectly staged acts of crime. Perennially plagued with guilt, he is also suspicious and morbid by nature. The recent avalanche of memories of his lost wife does not make things any easier.

After one mission accidentally goes wrong, causing the life of one of his men, the Brain is convinced that this accident has been choreographed: someone is out there plotting to terminate him and his team. He becomes increasingly paranoid, walking on the thin line between reality and delusion.

When he discovers that a mysterious insurance agent Fong is somewhat related one of the “accidents” he has staged, the Brain becomes obsessed that this man must be the mastermind behind a conspiracy to take him out. To regain his sanity and to save his life, he must strive to kill Fong before he makes his next move.

Movie Review:

Soi Cheang’s latest thriller is really no "Accident"- here is a tautly crafted and meticulously executed film that emerges as one of the best Hong Kong movies of the year. Indeed, thanks to the creative inspiration of producer Johnnie To’s Milkyway team, "Accident" is a crowning accomplishment for the director better known for some rather bizarre early works ("Horror Hotline…Big Head Monster", "Diamond Hill") and more recent over-the-top action flicks ("Dog Eat Dog", "Shamo").

Like many of To’s Milkway efforts, "Accident" boasts a high-concept premise- a group of professional assassins led by The Brain (Louis Koo) who stage elaborate accidents to disguise their crimes. In a brilliant opening sequence, the team take out a triad boss through a string of seemingly random, carefully choreographed events that to the police can only be described as accidental death.

Their next job is the wheelchair-bound father of a bespectacled man, their employer the old man’s very son, for reasons unknown to the team. Each step of their planning process is deliberately explained- from surveillance to brainstorming to practice to execution, director Soi Cheang fastidiously lays out each detail to emphasize the diligence they employ with each job. This first half of the film is a tense, gripping affair, as the Brain and his team (and the audience) are kept waiting for that opportune moment to put into action their plans.

But when it does happen, things go awry, and the Brain is convinced someone is out to get him and his team. His suspicion falls on one insurance agent (Ritchie Ren) whom he becomes preoccupied with, following, observing and noting down his perceived nemesis’ every move. Ever so effectively, director Soi Cheang shifts the tension built up in the first half of his film to a well-calibrated tone of obsession and paranoia in the latter half.

Is Ritchie Jen’s insurance agent a brilliant mastermind the likes of 'The Brain'? Or is it all a figment of The Brain’s own imagination? The question "Accident" poses is this- how can a person who has built his life on staging accidents be convinced that not all the world is a stage? Yes, like the "Final Destination" films, "Accident" flirts with the intriguing conundrum of whether the seemingly accidental, unfortunate events in our lives can in fact be deliberate and choreographed.

But "Accident" brings its own take on that subject in a very uniquely Johnnie To-ish way, right up to its love-it-or-hate-it climax (which this reviewer must admit he loved) that is most akin to that of previous Milkyway films "Running on Karma" or "Eye in the Sky". Fans of To will probably already spot similarities in their themes, but "Accident’s" finale is surprisingly intimate, moving and ultimately thought-provoking.

The real star of the show here is really Louis Koo. Not only does he appear in almost every scene of the film, his character is also both the lynchpin of what happens and also the movie’s emotional core. In "Accident", Louis Koo gives a solidly restrained performance that is always engaging and captivating to watch- first as the cool, calculated leader of the pack and then as the disturbed individual all alone with his doubts and fears.

There is really no "Accident" here how impressive this well-assembled film has come together. A confident turn by director Soi Cheang, a mesmerizing performance by lead Louis Koo and of course, the assured guidance of producer Johnnie To make this a pure-breed Milkyway classic. This is the kind of film that made To’s Milkyway the brand name it is today, and the kind of film that will give the flagging Hong Kong film industry a much-needed shot in the arm.

Movie Rating: 4/5 (Vintage Milkyway par excellence, this meticulously crafted and tautly executed film is also one of the best Hong Kong films of the year)

Review by Gabriel Chong

http://www.moviexclusive.com/review/accident/accident.html