I have no idea why I picked the Chinese film Accident, a 2009 Hong Kong production, from among the thousands on Netflix Instant.

But I’m not complaining even if some parts of the film seemed ridiculous.

Although Accident is a crime thriller, things happen at a slow pace.

None of the frenetic momentum that’s de rigueur in a typical crime movie.

No screaming, no guns firing, no chasing after the victims, you won’t find any of that stuff here.

Pou-Soi Cheang is the director. Kam-Yuen Szeto and Lik-Kei Tang take credit for Accident’s screenplay.

Accident or Murder?

Chinese actor Louis Koo plays ‘The Brain,’ a murderer-for-hire who orchestrates his murders in such a way as to make them seem like accidents.

Cool, isn’t it?

No need to sweat about messy stuff like cops, investigations, arrests, courts or jail.

Meticulous attention is paid to the murders and nothing left to chance to prevent any suspicion that they were not accidents.

The murders are all presented as freak accidents.

High Gear

But life sometimes works in mysterious ways.

One night, “The Brain,” a highly suspicious and paranoid character who taps his assistants’ phones, narrowly escapes death from a runaway bus.

But the bus ends up killing Fatty, one of his assistants.

Ha ha, now ‘The Brain’ can’t help but wonder whether someone is plotting an ‘accident’ on him.

Has the hunter become the hunted?

After all, the previous ‘accident’ victim was a member of a triad (a Hong Kong crime gang).

It’s now that the movie moves into top gear.

The sedate crime thriller turns into a tense psychological thriller.

It’s not until we move toward the end of the movie that we figure out the ‘truth’ behind Fatty’s death.

But thanks to ‘The Brain’s’ paranoia things have taken a drastic turn by that time.

Good Cast

Louis Koo is a decent actor who handles his role with aplomb.

I had no complaints with the supporting cast either.

But what I found silly was some of the techniques used to make the ‘accidents’ happen.

Like the use of kites, for instances.

Its shortcomings aside, I found Accident an interesting film.

I am even tempted to watch it a second time.