288. Sheep Without A Shepherd (Wu Sha); movie review

 

SHEEP WITHOUT A SHEPHERD (WU SHA)

Cert 15

112 mins

BBFC advice: Contains sexual violence, strong threat

Five years ago, Mrs W and I were treated to a private screening of the best Indian movie we have ever seen.

Papanasum, which ran at nearly three hours had so many twists and turns, we were drained and yet elated as we exited the Piccadilly Cinema in Birmingham.

The Tamil film was a remake of the Malayalam movie Drishyam and has now been brilliantly adapted to the Chinese market by Malaysian director Sam Quah.

In all but one very important aspect - its ending. Unfortunately, that is where Sheep Without A Shepherd is downgraded.

Its focus is on the Chinese family of Li Weijie (Xiao Yang) who have been living in northern Thailand for many years.

Theirs is a typical life - Li Weijie and his wife (Tan Zhuo) strive to make ends meet to provide for a rebellious but smart teenager (Audrey Hui) and younger sister (Zhang Xiran).

However, they are dragged from anonymity by a tragedy which occurs after Hui's character is sexually abused on a summer camp.

Her blackmailer (Bian Tian Yang) is accidentally killed, sparking intense cat-and-mouse games between the family and the police.

Sheep Without A Shepherd is a brilliant psychological thriller - with Li Weijie relying on his encyclopaedic knowledge of movies to try to outwit the investigators.

Meanwhile, the cops are led by the blackmailer's mother (Joan Chen) while a senior election-fighting politician (Philip Keung Ho-Man) plays his father.

An added dimension is that a corrupt beat officer (Shih Ming-Shuai) has a grudge against the family so is accused of falsifying evidence.

Not only is Quah's film supremely suspenseful but it also throws up some great moral conundrums and even chucks in some pathos around parenting of teenagers.

So, why after all that effort, does he allow its conclusion to be so meek? This grates all the more because I can still remember gasping at the finale of Papanasum. 

Nevertheless, Sheep Without A Shepherd is still very good.

Reasons to watch: Well-crafted thriller

Reasons to avoid: Takes a little while to adjust to its speed

Laughs: None

Jumps: None

Vomit: Yes

Nudity: None

Overall rating: 8.5/10

Did you know? The Malayalam film Drishyam was remade into four other Indian languages: Drishya (2014) in Kannada, Drushyam (2014) in Telugu, Papanasam (2015) in Tamil and Drishyam (2015) in Hindi. It was also remade in the Sinhalese language as Dharmayuddhaya (2017) and now in Chinese as Sheep Without a Shepherd.

The final word. Sam Quah: “This is a special year for all filmmakers. I hope all films in China and the rest of the world will get better."  The Star

Share this post