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James Marsh

2/5 stars
Hong Kong director Soi Cheang Pou-soi’s 2009 thriller Accident wields a premise so effective in its simplicity that it could unfold almost anywhere. The only real surprise is that it has taken 15 years for the first international remake to emerge, and it comes not from Hollywood but from South Korea.
In the original film, Louis Koo Tin-lok plays the leader of a gang that stages elaborate assassinations made to look like accidents. When a member of his own team is killed on the job, he becomes consumed by distrust and paranoia.
Gang Dong-won (Broker) assumes the role of troubled architect of death Young-il in Lee Yo-sup’s Korean reinterpretation, The Plot.


When first introduced, Young-il’s team – comprising Lee Mi-sook’s ageing femme fatale, Lee Hyun-wook’s transvestite, and Tang Jun-sang’s rookie – are still reeling from the death of a teammate (Lee Jong-suk).
The situation is made worse by the high-profile nature of their next target, a prominent political figure (played by Kim Hong-pa), whose daughter (played by Jung Eun-chae) wants him sidelined permanently.
As the media circus surrounding their target escalates, Young-il grows suspicious that a mysterious insurance broker, Lee Chi-hyun (Lee Moo-saeng), might be conspiring with the rest of his own team.

Key to Accident’s success was the stripped-down simplicity of its execution, which put to bed concerns surrounding the implausible, Heath Robinson-esque murders it depicts through sheer, stone-faced commitment to the task at hand.
Outside these highly charged set pieces, which might be better suited to a Final Destination horror film, Cheang’s direction smouldered with palpable paranoid intensity.
Korean cinematic sensibilities demand more bravura. The Plot complicates its premise significantly, staging more ostentatious accidents, inserting a dizzying number of confusing flashbacks, and introducing myriad peripheral characters; and everything is set to a pounding, headache-inducing score.
Where Cheang internalised his protagonist’s growing unease, reminiscent of how Gene Hackman’s surveillance expert slowly comes apart in 1970s classic The Conversation, director Lee has no such command of aesthetic subtleties.
Buried somewhere deep within The Plot is a strand of legitimate social commentary about the public’s festering distrust of traditional institutions like government, big business, and the media, and how we would rather indulge fringe voices who peddle baseless, sensationalist conspiracy theories instead.

If Lee succeeds in articulating anything substantive on this subject, however, it is accidental. Much like the murders carried out so meticulously on-screen, everything quickly becomes covered in gloss and mired in chaos.
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The simplicity that made the 2009 Hong Kong thriller work is lost in Lee Yo-sup’s glossy remake, which is overcomplicated and lacks substance


The story of a group of assassins who disguise their hits as accidents, and their increasingly paranoid leader, is needlessly complicated in this remake. If there is some social commentary, it is obscured by chaos.


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An assessment or critique of a service, product or creative endeavour.  Film reviews, restaurant reviews, reviews of art exhibitions. (Eg. Crazy Rich Asians: an important film, yes, but a good one?)


Review

Review | The Plot movie review: Korean remake of Soi Cheang’s Accident too showy for its own good

The simplicity that made the 2009 Hong Kong thriller work is lost in Lee Yo-sup’s glossy remake, which is overcomplicated and lacks substance