This week, group communication was covered in COM101 class. Hence I would like to use this movie to show an example of a group communication – success or failure, you decide. *warning! blog post contains spoilers*
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ACCIDENT (2009)
Sypnosis: (From http://www.mediaasia.com/accident/eng/index.html - Trailer can also be found there)
A self-styled “accident choreographer” the Brain (Louis KOO) is a professional hitman who kills his vitcims by trapping them in well crafted “accidents” that look like unfortunate mishaps but are in fact perfrectly stages acts of crime. Perennially plagued with guilt, he is also suspicious and morbid by nature. The recent avalanche of memories of his lost wife does not make things any easier.
After one mission accidentally goes wrong, causing the life of one of his men, the Brain is convinced that this accident has ben choreographed: someone is out there plotting to terminate him and his team. He becomes increasingly paranoid walking on the thin line between reality and delusion.
When he is accosted by a mysterious insurance agent Fong (Richie JEN) who happened to be on the scene of the accident as well, the Brain becomes obsessed that this man must be the mastermind behind a conspiracy to take him out. To regain his sanity and to safe his life, he must strive to kill Fong before he makes his next move.
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First let’s take a look at the characters:
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These four unlikely people are actually part of a group of assassins who sculpture deaths to appear as though as they are accidents. In this group, led by The Brain, the members all assume task roles – executing actions just in order to accomplish their mission. The Brain plays the role of the leader, carefully planning out the steps while the rest of the members follow his orders in order to get the job done. The maintenance roles - behaviors that enhance social climate of the group, has a small part in their group communication. As their main aim is to get the job done, the social aspect of their communication is kept minimal and simple.
They form this group in order to achieve group synergy, as their mission requires team effort to be carried out efficiently. They also establish support and commitment to the group, especially when they had to embark on a mission which was necessary to be carried out on a rainy day. Their commitment is shown when team stationed themselves every night, all ready to carry out their roles, whether or not the rain falls. Support is subtly shown as they keep in contact with each other every night during their mission.
All in all, I believe their main purpose in forming this group is just to get the mission done and part with their money. Hence, according to Poole’s Multiple Sequence Model, the group develop on the task and topic track, but their relationship track is rarely developed. However, there are still signs of the relationship track attempting to be developed. The nameless character which I will call Woman, attempts really hard to gain the trust and friendship of The Brain, but to no avail. Yet The Brain does show certain levels of concern for Uncle especially when Uncle was found out to suffer from dementia.
The ultimate downfall of the group started when a mission went wrong, causing the death of Fatty. The Brain then starts to be suspicious of his members and also the people around him. The one whom he suspects highly is Woman. I believe that he had never trusted due to his brushing aside of her attempts to gain his friendship. His lack of trust in his group member led to a series of unfortunate events, causing an “accident” to take place with Woman, and also another “accident” he inflicted on an innocent person. Ultimately, it also led to his own death.
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The movie shows interestingly the group communication in this eccentric group of “murderers” or otherwise known as “accident creators”. If you want to know more about their group communications, why not drop by a theatre near you and catch this movie.
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♥ junying
Hello! (:
I have not caught this movie yet but well, i can paint a picture of what the movie is from the synopsis provided. Groups exist for a reason and is structured in their own micro culture. Members of each group have to adhere to a set of norms and rules which all perceive as the best and most approriate. Each member is assigned a particular role and in this movie, the characters each have roles to perform. I feel that the downfall of the mission could be attributed to the failure and reluctance to form relationship track. Not only task and topic tracks are essential for communication in a group, it is essential that there is trust so as to form a positive group climate. Hence, we should all be aware of the various communication tools needed in a group to reduce and minimize potential conflicts.
Hey JY,
Nice movie! Your analysis on this movie has also shown the process of how a group can breakdown due to mistrust. Every role within a group is important and trust is the basic element that holds a group together. Maintanence and task roles are essential to keep a group from falling out of its existence. The leader, Brain, is especially needed to lead and hold the group together. But alas, he started to be suspicious of everyone. Utimately, this leads to his downfall.
Another reason for the breakdown of the group can be that members losing group synergy. The pattren of gunnysack starts to happen and eventually the group will fall apart because the task focus is not there. Simialrly, if there is tension within the group, it will eventually fall apart too once the task is over. Hence, both aspects are important in holding a group together.
Hey! Although I’ve never given much thoughts on this movie, I thought that the plot is quite interesting when I first read about it when it came out. This movie exhibited alot on teamwork and group communication. And according to many reviews that I’ve read, this movie teaches us that trust is extremely important in a group. Without trust, a team will not be able to fulfil its task no matter how capable the members are since a team is not about individuality. I guess that could be the main reason behind the downfall of the team. Thus, to be able to get a job done, members of a team should learn to put their differences aside and work together.
Hey there!
I think part of the reason why their group is really strong in their task roles and do not develop in their relationship track is because of the very nature of their group. They are assasins, and usually people involved in such shady businesses hardly allow themselves to get too close to one another, even if they are a team, for they cannot let themselves get too emotional as it may affect their jobs.
It is really unfortunate though, that the Brain highly suspects the Woman for plotting to eliminate him. Where is the group trust or support here? Does the Brain not even consider his ‘team’ of assasins a group in the first place? Perhaps his immediate suspicion of the Woman over other his other hired killers arise from a stereotypical perception that all women cannot be trusted.
Please comment on my blog too!
Interesting view regarding the stereotypical perception of women, it didn’t occur to me to have thought that way. Speaking of this, perhaps there was a stereotype of women in this movie. In the movie, Brain was shown only to be distant from Women. He shows care and concern for the Uncle and had a certain amount of contact with Fatty. Perhaps this was due to her attempt to lie to Brain at the start of the movie (which you wouldn’t have known unless you’ve watched the movie) that lead to greater distrust Brain has towards women.
Hey, I agree with Rachel that a stereotypical view of women in general was portrayed through the Brain refusing to trust Woman, and yes it probably resulted from the instance when Woman tried to lie to Brain. First impressions do count, and they can play a huge part in influencing our opinions towards certain things and people. In short, first impressions do persist in influencing our perception. If you translate this entire sequence to real life, however, it may not be so simple as first impression. According to Erik Erikson, a person like Brain may have such mindsets due to an event (or events) that occurred earlier in his life. Like for example, during different stages of his development, the person may not have been able to solve the difficulties encountered at certain stages (the difficulties are unique to each stage) and this unsatisfactory resolution of problems carry over into his adult life. For instance, in the preadolescent stage (6 to 12 years old), in which the main conflict is industry vs inferiority, he may have encountered certain women who made him feel worthless; perhaps he was ridiculed by his female teachers, or even abused verbally or in other manners by women. Because this person was not able to resolve this problem and get over this preconceived mindset towards women, this cause his subsequent mistrust and stereotypical view of women.
Actually, I believe it is not much of influence by other women, because in the movie, he did have a wife and loved her a lot. It was the death of his wife in an accident that cause him to become such an assassin in the first place because he believe that his wife’s death was a planned one that appeared to be like an accident. Through the movie it was also shown that he does miss his wife a lot. Perhaps Woman’s attempt to connect to Brain was too active and fast that Brain misinterpret as a form of interest to him. (Woman bought Brain’s favourite food for him, but Brain gave it to Fatty instead) Eventually I think it was his lack of trust for her that cause his own downfall.
i have yet to catch this movie so what a spoiler this is.
what i realise is that this groups reminds me of terrorists. they are a great example of a collectivist culture. however when they have someone dead in the group suddenly everyone begin to suspect each other and eventually led to the downfall of the group.
what i personally feel is that for a group to function, each and every one must show care and concern for one another. the group becomes dysfunctional when the members start to suspect one another actions and begin to plot on them. this would result in a disaster for the group. imagine what if the cabinet ministers start to plot against PM Lee. i think singapore would be in total chaos.
finally i think the lady in the movie is quite pretty
Hi! This was the movie I watched with you!
Indeed the group of assassins had to work together in order to plot the death of someone. In the movie we could see how each member was assigned a certain role in order for the plan to take place smoothly. Eventually, Uncle, due to his dementia, forgotten his role during the plan of action, and his one small action of dropping a ball out of his bag which hit the approaching bus under the overhead bridge cause an accident to occur and hence the death of Fatty. This shows how much the group had to work together in order for things to be fine.
Actually the show doesn’t show a lot of the group work, but more of Brain’s solo activity against who he thinks is plotting his death and the one who caused the team’s death. However, great analysis on their group work.
hey!
This movie caught my attention too! But i thought hongkong movies will be shown very soon on tv so better don’t waste money haha.
Anyway great analysis of the group communication in there!
Though i have never watch it, i kinda of get the idea what’s happening in the movie.
There’s bound to have conflicts in a group so group synergy is really important in maintaining the cohesiveness.
It is also important to attain task roles so that everybody can do their part and carry out their duty well.
I think a leader is very important in a group as he/she is the one who leads the crowd. This person must possess certain qualities in order to lead the group well.
Is there a leader in the movie?Louis Khoo?
Hi Junying!
I didn’t catch this movie, because I left the trailer made the movie seem too gruesome. If that was not the main point of the movie, then I felt that the TVC was badly done, as it turned away potential viewers like me.
I agree with you that in the group, it was very task oriented, up to a certain extend there would be a groupthink. We know Groupthink as “a mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive in-group, when members’ strivings for unanimity override their motivations to realistically appraise alternative courses of action.” I believe that in that group, The Brain formed, they would practice a certain level of loyalty by swearing to secrecy to not reveal their mission and true identities. And by believing in the group’s own morality, they would consciously or subconsciously practice self censorship. By performing self censorship, in fear of offending the ones in power, The Brain, who usually put pressure on dissenters. Anyone who dared to go against the rules would have to face punishments, possibly as serious as death penalty, as seen by the example of killing the Woman. They also tend to block out external influences and alternative views and committee wholeheartedly to the group.
Seems like an interesting movie. Group communications are important even in illegal operations. Without effective group communications, bank robbers will not achieve their goals, terrorists will not be able to destory whatever they hope to, and mafias will not be able to conquer and maintain their power over divisions of their lands.
Most of the time, groups exist for one reason or another. I agree with what you said about group maintainence roles and group synergy. Groups require a common identity most of the time in order for members to be able to identify with one another and a common goal that everyone can work towards together.
However, I feel that many a time, we fall prey to groupthink.
Members of the group then become oblivious to what is right and wrong, only believing in the beliefs and practices of the group.
=)Kai Ting
i didnt watch this movie but after reading your post, I might try to catch it if I ever have the chance to watch it. This movie seems different from the typical cop-and-robber or gangster movies that the Hong Kong movie industry usually churns out each year. Speaking of group communication, you might want to catch the movie “Stay Connected”, another Hong Kong movie released this year that also starred Louis Koo. It is a remake of the Hollywood movie “Cellular” but in my opinion, this HK remake is a much better version. The plot has a lot of twists to it and has many underlying meanings and moral issues present in today’s society. In that movie, group communication is also portrayed very significantly because of these three characters and because they were unable to communicate effectively at one point of the movie, it resulted in lots of deaths and all the three main characters’ lives were greatly affected after that. These two movies clearly illustrate how important group communication is and we must not ignore this message.
Firstly, I want to publicly declare my love for Louis Koo!! Go watch Poker King, he acted in it too hah!
Okay anyway, I feel that yes, group communication is very important in our every day lives and that to get a group task job done, it definitely needs the cooperation of every member. Group synergy is probably quite a scary thing I think, because the whole group believes they are right for the wrong reasons, and in this case, to murder people (am I right?).
Well, it does seem like a horror scary movie but I’ll definitely want to watch it because there’s Louis Koo in it hehehe