The following two films I did not see consecutively. I did not even see them on the same day. But like the year I chose to have my reviews of Control and Joy Division side by side (for obviously reasons), I feel strongly about discussing Accident and Vengeance together.
The main link between the two are that they are both Hong Kong productions that involve Johnnie To, one of my favourite Hong Kong filmmakers. To produced Accident and directed Vengeance, and while they gravitate towards some of the same cinematic goals, there is a vast difference between them.
Vengeance – Dir. Johnnie To
Some of my fellow TIFF-ers loathed Vengeance. I didn’t. I was expecting it to be horrible given the budget and unlimited artistic license that I knew Johnnie To would allow himself, I had predicted pretentious, over-the-top noir imagery so that helped in lowering my expectations. But I think even without that mindset the film was adequate, and none of the things I’d expected. Agreed the story progression slowed down in the 2nd half and I felt some aspects of Johnny Haliday’s character were brought in a little too late, making it feel tacked on to invoke our sympathy towards his somewhat extreme motivations.
And despite any shortcomings, I have no regrets attending this screening for the opportunity to hear the Q&A with Colin Geddess and Johnnie To, which included humorous tales about when Colin went to visit the Milky Way Films’ studio. Johnnie To also talked about his usual crew of actors, and gave us some background on how Lam Yeut got his start. Very interesting and fun. Then signing autographs and being an all around decent guy on his way out, well that was an even bigger bonus. It all became a highlight of my festival.
3/5
Accident – Dir. Pou Soi Cheang
For much of TIFF, Accident was the most thought-provoking film of the fest for me. Deliberate acts carefully crafted to look like accidents is attention grabbing unto itself, but Louis Koo does a good job of taking us further into his character, the obsessive leader of this group of “accident” stagers whose delusions overtake his abilities to reason. The brilliance is that we start to unravel with him, the world he’s shown to us begins to overtake our objectivity as well. Also intriguing is the ebb and flow of fate portrayed in this story – SPOILER: how he suspected the every day guy was stalking him, but the every day guy had no reason to kill him until he wound up giving him a reason in his delusions. Makes you think.
Philosophy aside… Contrary to my expectations, Accident wound up being more noir-ish than Vengeance, it summoned images of Seven and made me think of Melville’s work with the strong focus on a single lead that lives his life neither black and white but in a perpetual shade of grey. I believe both Vengeance and this film had a common goal, but Accident’s story is fresh and inspired. It draws from the genre rather than copy it.
4/5
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