Welcome back to another look at a featured Letterboxd List! This week we’re looking at A Semi-Complete Catalogue of Shout / Scream Factory! where nothing is as it seems in Accident.
Title: Accident
Director: Soi Cheang
Premiered: September 5, 2009 (Italy – Venice International Film Festival)
Runtime: 1 hour 29 minutes
An elder Triad member is killed in what appears to be an accident, though we quickly learn that wasn’t the case. What appeared to be an accident was actually an elaborate assassination carried out by an elite group led by the Brain (Louis Koo).
The Brain and his team take their time when given an assignment. They plan out elaborate assassinations that convincingly look like an accident has occurred. Who is going to question what clearly appears to be an accident?
On their next job, things have to be timed down to the second. It’s set to be an electrocution but they need to make sure the rain coincides with the event. After multiple failed attempts, they finally have the rain they need. The elder of the team, Uncle (Stanley Fung Shui-Fan), who was previously reprimanded for leaving a cigarette butt at the scene of an “accident”, shows his age as he misses his cue. Luckily, the rest of the team is able to complete the murder successfully.
It’s the aftermath of this incident that leads the Brain to question things. After the murder is successful, a bus loses control and nearly runs over the Brain. While he’s able to avoid it, the bus does wind up hitting and killing fellow team member Fatty (Lam Suet). Later, arriving back at his apartment, the Brain notices his flat has been broken into and the police are on the scene.
The bus careening towards him, his flat being broken into, the Brain is starting to believe someone set up an “accident” for him.
Every now and then you’ll blindly pick something to watch and walk away with a smile on your face. My time with Accident was one of those times.
If you’ve seen any movie about a hitman, you pretty much know what to expect going into any other hitman movie. So you can imagine my surprise when less than fifteen minutes in, we get an entirely different and refreshing take on the genre. Sure, anyone can be trained to hit a target with a sniper rifle. But it takes a special talent to design a Final Destination type of event so that the murder is chalked up as an accident.
From the jump we can tell that the Brain is always “on”. No matter where he is or what he’s doing, he’s careful about what he touches and is hyperaware of his surroundings. This makes him being the alleged target of an “accident” that much tougher of a pill to swallow for him. It’s when he starts investigating whether or not he was a target where we really get to see the Brain at work. Seeing how he goes about digging into who could be trying to set him up, retracing all of his steps, determined to find whether a mistake was made and where, setting up surveillance, all make it easy to draw comparisons to The Conversation. Though rest assured, Accident is very much its own thing.
The way that DP Edmond Fung Yuen-Man chose to shoot this helps amplify the paranoia. Reflections in mirrors, peering through dirty windows, and the use of heavy rain all blur reality and make the viewer question things just as much as the Brain is.
Despite a runtime of just under ninety minutes, Accident is not a breakneck thriller. It takes its time and is methodical. A slow-burn that still manages to feel like it flies by.
If you’re a fan of the hitman sub-genre, this is one to seek out immediately.