Ho
Kwok-fai is not living in a random universe.
Accidents happen for a reason: money.
He would know. He is the mastermind
behind a team of “accident choreographers.”
Unfortunately, they have apparently attracted the wrong sort of
attention from a competitor in Accident (trailer here), Soi Cheang’s
moody thriller produced by HK action legend Johnnie To, which releases today on DVD
and Blu-ray from Shout Factory.
Though
not quite as Rube Goldbergian, Ho’s team are like a Final Destination movie unto themselves. Just ask the Triad boss in the opening
sequence, while you can. “The Brain”
runs the show with tick-tock precision, but a dark cloud seems to hang over
their latest gig. “Uncle” starts to show
signs of dementia and the necessary rain will not come. Then the wheels come totally off.
Going
underground, Ho starts surveilling an insurance executive he suspects played a
part in the disastrous non-accident.
Already haunted by his wife’s fatal auto crash, his psyche will sink to
some pretty low places. Rather than a
standard hitman-on-the-run film, Accident
treads a more existential path, in the tradition of Coppola’s The Conversation (granted, it is not
exactly in the same league).
In
the years since To’s Election epic most
of what American audiences have seen of Louis Koo were romantic or comedic
features, like Mr. and Mrs. Incredible, Magicto Win, and All’s Well Ends Well 2012, 2011, 2010, and 2009. Nonetheless, he shows plenty of screen grit
in Accident, brooding like mad, yet
getting stone cold medieval when necessary.
As a bonus, Lam Suet, To’s regular comic relief specialist, brings his
usual energy, but plays Ho’s stout but not shticky henchman “Fatty” with considerable
restraint.
