Absurd Accident is the debut feature of independent Chinese filmmaker, Li Yuhe, which – after an extensive festival run, is being made available in the U.S. through Vimeo on Demand and Amazon on July 19th. It’s a dark comedy about a night of absolute chaos, told from the perspective of multiple colorful characters as the plot builds like a domino effect of bad decisions, and even worse luck. It’s starts off early in the day when a motel owner, Yang Baiwan (Chen Xixu), is paranoid that his wife, Ma Lilian (Ye Gao), is cheating on him, which is fueled in large part by his own impotency issues. When he gets a rather shaky form of confirmation, he gets in touch with a local quack doctor, Bi Jianxiao (Cao Rui), to use his connections to hire a hitman to kill his wife.
This sets off a series of events that take place that very night. Simply put, things don’t quite go the way they were planned. Certain characters we’ve seen before play bigger roles than we would have anticipated, while others are simply caught in the crossfire like a young couple going on a date, both of whom are holding secrets of their own, two criminals who recently robbed a jewelry store, an exhausted cop who is literally one day from retirement, and the presence of a corpse that makes things even more complicated.
There are numerous influences, particularly of American cinema, at play here, and they aren’t particularly hard to pick up. The lengthy conversations, offbeat characters, and nonlinear storytelling feels ripped out of a Tarantino film. The noir style setup with humorous undertones feel like a direct riff on the work of the Coen Brothers. And throw in a little bit of early Guy Ritchie for the way certain plot threads divert and meet-up in unexpected ways.
The film takes place in a small, rural Chinese town. Despite the silliness that often occurs here, there is a layer of authenticity in the way it portrays small town anxieties and residents. The cultural specificity allows the film to feel like its own thing, despite the various obvious influences. It captures this quality that I could compare to something like hearing a drunk Uncle ramble about some wild adventure he had when he was young back in his home country. Kind of like how Fargo was “based on a true story,” even though it wasn’t. It feels like something that could conceivably happen, or be an amalgamation of several stories that Yuhe may have read about at some point.
The film does get a bit overtly humorous, which risks messing with the film’s tone, but Yuhe does a good enough balancing act. It helps that the film itself is very funny. It’s got some amusing stylistic touches, like how a couple scenes are played out like black-and-white silent comedies. Unlike some of the film that may have influenced this, Yuhe doesn’t indulge much in brutality. He’s clearly more interested in the characters and the humor that comes out of the consequences of their terrible choices.
The actors are all top notch, each relishing in both the equal parts goofy and sad details about their characters. You can tell they’re in on the joke, but they still commit to playing everything as straight as possible. It’s a genuinely impressive fine line that these folks are walking because it could easily fall into being either too serious and not working with the comedic tone, or it feels too over-the-top, completely clashing with the sinister and bleak undertones of the actual story being told.
Given that I’m not from China, and I don’t know much about Chinese culture, there is a chance I could be missing some nuances about what the film might be saying about the seemingly anarchic antics of rural China. However, the film totally works as a zany noir that can be enjoyed without needing much cultural context. I had a really good time with it, and I can’t imagine why anyone else wouldn’t (assuming they’re not one of those weirdos who hate subtitles). It’s a funny film with engaging characters, a story with plenty of twists and turns to keep things entertaining, and writer/director, Li Yuhe, emerges as a promising and distinctive voice behind the camera.