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Stars: Louis Koo, Michelle Ye, Stanley Fung, Lam Suet | Written by Szeto Kam-Yuen, Nicholl Tang Nik-Kei | Directed by Soi Cheang

Accident opens on a seemingly innocuous occurrence, as a short-tempered man worries that he will be late while stuck behind a car with a flat tyre. As the man takes drastic action to drive around the car, the unfolding scene results in a chain reaction that ends with his death. What may seem like an accident for the man – revealed to be a Triad elder – is actually a carefully orchestrated assassination courtesy of the Brain (Louis Koo).

With a team made up of the voice of reason known as The Woman (Michelle Ye), the increasingly forgetful Uncle (Stanley Fung), and the unfortunately nicknamed Fatty (Lam Suet), the Brain has built a career from making his hits look like unfortunate accidents. Director Soi Cheang showcases the planning process in fascinatingly methodical ways,...

Special ID

Written by Kam-Yuen Szeto

Directed by Clarence Fok

China, 2013

In many ways, Donnie Yen is the star Bruce Lee might have become had he lived longer. Yen was the first star in Hong Kong to use mixed-martial-arts grappling and jiu-jitsu in his fight scenes; Lee, the master of “whatever works,” would have approved. Yen has always been the best actor among his action-movie compatriots; Lee strove for the same, as his surviving writings contain as many meditations on performing and stardom as martial arts. Thus, it’s a little sad to think that Lee would have inevitably made a film like Yen’s 2013 effort Special ID, now playing a limited run in American theaters: while its action scenes are sharp and professionally made, there’s little else about the movie which can say the same.

Yen plays an undercover cop in the Hong Kong underworld, who heads to...

Stars: Anthony Wong Chau-Sang, Shawn Yue, Xiaodong Guo, Barbie Hsu, Josie Ho | Written by Joey O’Bryan, Kam-Yuen Szeto | Directed by Pou-Soi Cheang

I don’t know what it is about cars in movies but they can be very entertaining. Be it The Fast and The Furious in its various forms, Driver or even The Italian Job the non-stop action of high-speed racing and chases has always been popular. Motorway (aka Che Sau) is a film that taps into this popularity and comfortably sites between Fast and Furious and Driver as a understatedly cool “cops and robbers” film that brings some brains to the car chase sub-genre.

When an overconfident rookie is confronted by a getaway driver who appears to be able to do impossible turns through the use of a unique drifting technique he seems to have found his match. Taking him under his wing his veteran partner teaches...

News.

Above: Harris Savides. Photo by Brigette Lancombe for Interview magazine.

We were saddened and shocked to hear of the passing of one of film's great cinematographers, Harris Savides. Our brief note includes an indelible clip from Gerry, one of his collaborations with Gus Van Sant. David Hudson has rounded up commentary at Fandor.

One of Savides' chief collaborators, director David Fincher, is also in the news with an animated film project that's appealing to Kickstarter to get funded.

Two big trailer debuts have sprung on us over the last week. One's the second trailer for Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained:

...and the other is the first full trailer for Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty:

Filmmaker Jon Jost has started a petition calling for Ray Carney to return underground director Mark Rappaport's film materials. As the petition explains:

"In 2005, when Mark Rappaport moved to France, Ray Carney,...

Szeto Kam Yuen, one of Hong Kong's top screenwriters, has passed away. While his name may not be immediately recognizable to some of you, chances are that if you are a fan of Hk cinema, you have seen and enjoyed many of his films. He started his screenwriting career at a Hong Kong television station, and after writing the scripts for a number of very popular TV series, he entered the film industry. He collaborated regularly with Johnnie To and provided the screenplays for many Milkyway Image productions, including Too Many Ways To Be No. 1, The Longest Nite, Expect The Unexpected, A Hero Never Dies, Exiled, Accident and Motorway. Besides Accident and Motorway, he worked with director Cheang Po Soi on Dog Bite Dog and...

Directed by: Soi Cheang

Written by: Kam-Yuen Szeto, Lik-Kei Tang

Starring: Louis Koo, Richi Ren, Shui-Fan Fung, Michelle Ye, Suet Lam

Ho, a.k.a. the Brain (a haunting Louis Koo), is part of a professional hit organization with a diabolical modus operandi. Ho and his team create intricately crafted Rube Goldberg-like occurrences that end up killing their targeted victims. It’s the perfect crime as their hits appear on the surface to be unfortunate accidents. His motley crew consists of a beautiful unnamed woman (Michelle Ye), the lackadaisical Fatty (Suet Lam) and the aged Uncle (Shui-Fan Fung).

Though their personal connections are vague, it appears that the older and heavily medicated Uncle may be related to Brain. Even though his poor memory and cigarette addiction nearly compromise one of their “accidents,” Uncle remains an integral part of the group. They form a somewhat dysfunctional family, but one that...

Accident Directed by: Pou-Soi Cheang Written by: Kam-Yuen Szeto and Lik-Kei Tang Starring: Louis Koo, Richie Ren, Shui-Fan Fung If you wanted to get away with murder, then wouldn't it make sense to make the person's death seem like a bizarre accident? And if you could get away with murder, then wouldn't being a high paid assassin seem like a reasonable lifestyle? This is the intriguing premise for the movie Accident. This movie goes further though by depicting what could happen if you were almost killed in an accident, and began suspecting someone was out to get you! In 2009, "Accident" was selected to be shown at both the Venice and Toronto International Film Festivals. I understand that the director, Soi Cheang, is acquiring a solid reputation for his directorial style with ample backing from this film's producer, Johnnie To, who has a directing reputation of his own. Despite these credentials,...

Danny Pan, one half of directing duo The Pang Brothers ('The Eye', 'Bangkok Dangerous'), will hopefully return to horror form with his new thriller 'Fairy Tale Killer'. Currently in post-production the Hong Kong helmer's new story, penned by Kam-Yuen Szeto, is based around a serial murderer who appears to using a collection of old fairy tale books as his influence. Ching Wan Lau, Ken Lo, Elanne Kwong, Baoqiang Wang, Yee-Man Man and Kelly Fu all star and you can check out a new poster and trailer from the production below!...

Lau Ching Wan, one of the best actors working in Hong Kong today, is back with the new film Fairy Tale Killer. The film is directed by Danny Pang, who is most famous for the films in which he collaborated with his older twin Oxide Pang, in particular the classic 2002 horror film The Eye. While many of the films from the Pang brothers over the years were disappointing, Fairy Tale Killer may fare better thanks to a strong cast including Lau and award-winning co-star Wang Bao Qiang (Blind Shaft, Assembly, A World Without Thieves), as well as a screenplay from Szeto Kam Yuen who wrote the scripts for some of the best Milkyway Image productions (Exiled, A Hero Never Dies, Expect The Unexpected, The Longest...

This is the seventh film review in the coverage of Montreal's Fantasia International Film Festival. Although I've seen other great films, this is, by far, the best film I've seen this year at Fantasia. In fact, like other films from this century, Pou-Soi Cheang's Accident adds itself to the world's great list of audacious crime thrillers.

The "Brain" (Louis Koo) - a cold man obsessed with details - leads a group of professional assassins who are specialized in staging murders that, in actuality, look like accidents. His team is made up of these assassins: an old man nicknamed Uncle (Shui-Fan Fung), a pretty woman (Michelle Ye) and Fatty (Suet Lam). The group's assassination method is so groundbreaking that even their clients nor the victims haven't seen any of the assassins. Besides, to top it all, Hong Kong's police has never catched the four assassins, because their "accidents", in the first place,...