Accident is the latest film from director Pou-Soi Cheang (Shamo, Dog Bit Dog, and Love Battlefield) and producer Johnnie To (Mad Detective, Election, PTU) via To’s Milkyway Images production.

It tells the story of a crack team of assassins led by Brains (Louis Koo) who instead of forcefully killing their foe, instead come up with elaborate plans to make the murders look like every day accidents.

Each ‘accident’ is painstakingly put together with every minor detail taken care of. It’s this attention to detail which quickly grabs the viewers’ attention from the very opening scene. Throughout the first scene it quickly becomes obvious that someone is going to die, but the question is how? The camera is cleverly used here to redirect and manipulate the viewer into thinking something is there or that something is going to happen when in fact we are just being misdirected (a theme which becomes the very centre of the story later on).

Not only is this scene incredibly put together but with very little dialogue used we are not only fully aware of what is going to happen but also quickly introduced to the group of ‘assassins’ and their roles within the team.

What we have here folks could very well be the best Hong Kong film in recent years.

Brains (played by Louis Koo) is the leader of this team, a man both amazingly intelligent yet incredible careful. Brains is the one who captains most of the hits as well as paying very close attention to the actions of his crew. Yet so paranoid of being caught out in an ‘accident’ himself is Brains; He carefully positions objects and mirrors within his own apartment so that no matter where he is within his home he can always see the points of entry and risks.

The other members of the team are made up of Johnnie To regular Suet Lam who plays ‘Fatty ‘(yep again!). Fatty is the only member of the team who talks with and collects money from the clients.

Michelle Ye and Lucky Star (Fung Shui Fan) who plays Uncle and who can also be seen in the new Johnnie To movie ‘Vengeance, make up the rest of the team.

As mentioned earlier, dialogue is sporadic with many scenes heavily dominated by the atmosphere created by both the camera and the excellent acting. At times more is said through silence than could be said through dialogue. The use of the camera is so splendid that at times you could be forgiven for thinking this was an art-house movie.

Accident is very much a movie of two halves. The first part of the story builds the characters of the team involved, going into great details regarding the setting up of two ‘accidents’ in particular and the relationships between all four. The setups themselves are very much like domino places, their job is to create the link that pieces everything together one false move and the entire chain of events is lost. We also get a little glimpse into past and the psyche of Brains, as we are briefly taking back to an accident involving his wife.

The second accident nicely sets up the second act, as events take an unfortunate twist as a well planned accident takes a turn for the worst.

Brains confused as to what went wrong after the operation, quickly goes into overdrive rushing from location to location trying to work out who could have set them up. Whilst the second half of the films pacing does slow down dramatically the quality does not. Throughout, the quality of not only the presentation but the acting is second to none. Louis Koo (in probably his best performance) is outstanding, to quickly follow the brilliant Overheard with this arguable superior film should finally put him on every director’s radar.

Another stand out performance is that of Richie Ren (playing Chan Fong-chow). Whilst his role is relatively small in terms of real screen time, he is arguable the most important character as in the second of the film he becomes Brains’ subject an put under close surveillance(Koo briefly reprising his role from Overheard , to lay out surveillance bugs throughout Chows home) .

The fact that Accident is at times thought provoking, unsettling, and even emotional is a testament to the quality of the team involved, short on dialogue but high on tension is a great way to describe it.

Accident must truly be regarded as one of the best movies of 2009, I would not be surprising to hear Hollywood knocking on the door for the rights to the remake – but before they do please do see this film. Even if you are not a fan of slow burning thrillers you will quickly be drawn into Accident.

Not only is this film (as Brains says about Chow) clever and flawless but it’s also thought provoking.

Hong Kong cinema as been on the up of late, the quality of output from Hong Kong really has been impressive and Accident is a shining example of a great Hong Kong thriller that can rely more on brains than brawn to entertain and thrill its audience.

Tagged in: Accident, Johnnie To, Louis Koo, Michelle Ye, Pou-Soi Cheang, Richie Ren, Shui-Fan Fung, Suet Lam