Sheep Without a Shepherd

Sheep Without a Shepherd (Chinese: 误杀; pinyin: Wù Shā; lit. 'Manslaughter') is a 2019 Chinese crime thriller film directed by Sam Quah (柯汶利) and produced by Chen Sicheng. It is an official remake of the 2013 Indian Malayalam-language film Drishyam. The film stars Xiao Yang, Tan Zhuo, and Joan Chen.[3] Sheep Without a Shepherd was released in China on 13 December 2019 in conventional and IMAX formats. It became the 9th highest-grossing Chinese film in 2019, grossing US$199 million.[4][5]

Sheep Without a Shepherd
Theatrical release poster
Traditional Chinese誤殺
Simplified Chinese误杀
Literal meaningManslaughter
Hanyu Pinyinwùshā
Directed bySam Quah
Written byWeiwei Yang
Pei Zhai
Peng Li
Kaihua Fan
Yuqian Qin
Sheng Lei
Based onDrishyam
by Jeethu Joseph
Produced byChen Sicheng
StarringXiao Yang
Tan Zhuo
Joan Chen
CinematographyYing Zhang
Edited byHongjia Tang
Xinyu Zu
Release date
  • 13 December 2019 (2019-12-13) (China)
Running time
112 minutes
CountryChina
LanguageMandarin
Box officeUS$199.2 million[1][2]

Plot

Internet technician Li Weijie, his wife Ayu, and their two daughters Ping Ping and An An are a middle-class family living in northern Thailand. Ping Ping is sexually assaulted at a summer camp by Su Cha, who is the son of mayor Du Peng and his wife, police chief La Wen. Using this information, Su Cha blackmails Ping Ping in order to extort further sexual favours from her.

Su Cha arranges to meet with Ping Ping on her family's property, but is confronted by Ayu, who seeks to defend her daughter. After Su Cha assaults Ayu, he is accidentally killed by Ping Ping. Ayu and Ping Ping hastily bury Su Cha's body in the grave of Weijie's uncle, which is located in a local cemetery, but not before they are spotted by An An.

Weijie is informed of the murder and seeks to defend his family from police action. He disposes of key evidence, including Su Cha's car and mobile phone. He establishes an alibi for his family through an impromptu weekend holiday to the nearby area of Hua Lamphong, seeking to improve the credibility of the alibi by talking to, and reminding witnesses of his and his family's presence in key areas, as well as through collecting physical evidence such as bus tickets and invoices. Weijie also trains his family on their conduct during police interrogations.

Weijie and his family eventually come under investigation after local police officer Sang Kun, who harbors animosity towards Weijie, spots him driving Su Cha's car when it was earlier being disposed of. Sang Kun's testimony is initially met with disbelief due to his reputation for misbehaviour, but he raises La Wen's suspicion towards Weijie, which is further reinforced after Weijie reacts negatively when news of the car's discovery ina a lake is mentioned. Despite intensive interrogations involving Weijie, his family, and relevant witnesses, La Wen is unable to successfully defeat Weijie's alibi.

A breakthrough in the investigation appears after Sang Kun reveals that Weijie is a crime film enthusiast. By directing police to search Wiejie's shop, La Wen is able to produce a list of films that Weijie has recently watched. Through this, she comes to the revelation that Weijie had been carefully constructing a falsified series of events through manipulating key witnesses, including restaurant owner Song En, and altering digital evidence, using his position as an internet technician to his advantage.

Convinced of Weije's guilt, but lacking the means to prove so, a frustrated La Wen resorts to extreme measures, torturing his family in order to extract a confession from An An, who, as the youngest child, is most vulnerable to coercion. In order to further establish Weijie's guilt, La Wen directs the police to publicly exhume Su Cha's body from the local cemetery. However, this action backfires when the grave is revealed to contain the corpse of a goat that had been killed by Sang Kun earlier in the film during a confrontation with Weijie. This provokes a massive riot among the local population, who are convinced of the innocence of Weijie and his family.

This event proves to be the downfall of La Wen, who is indefinitely suspended from her position over allegations of police corruption, and Du Peng, who resigns from his position as mayor in disgrace. Weijie and his family are publicly exonerated. However, Weijie, suffering guilt from his actions, confesses to his role in the killing to La Wen and Du Peng, and is sentenced to prison. It is heavily implied that Su Cha's body was earlier moved from the grave to a construction site that Weijie had been working on.

Cast

Production

In September 2017, it was announced that an undisclosed Chinese production company had acquired the rights to remake the Indian Malayalam-language film Drishyam (2013).[6] Malaysian Chinese filmmaker Sam Quah was the director and Chen Sicheng served as the producer of the film.

Release

Sheep Without a Shepherd was released in China on 13 December 2019. It was also released in IMAX format.[7]

Box office

Sheep Without a Shepherd took the top spot at Chinese box offices, becoming the highest-grossing film in its opening weekend.[8][9] In that weekend, 13 – 15 December, it grossed $32,152,680 in China, besting Skyfire.[10] The film continued to lead in Chinese box offices through to its second week, until 20 December.[11] In its second weekend in China, the film earned $23,204,410, beating Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker which debuted that weekend and ranked second behind Ip Man 4: The Finale. The film's cumulative gross in China stood at $76,813,388 until 22 December.[12][13] In the same weekend, in terms of worldwide box office ranking, it came fifth behind Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Jumanji: The Next Level, Ip Man 4: The Finale, and Frozen 2, with $77,439,509.[14] In three weeks, the film grossed $111,225,633[15] and $135,589,251 in four weeks.[16][17] By 13 January 2020, the film earned $154.24 million from box office sales in China alone.[18][19] As of 12 February, it has grossed $176 million from China.[18] It became the 9th highest-grossing film in China in 2019. The film grossed more than $192 million internationally.[20]

Critical response

The film holds an approval rating of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 15 reviews with an average rating of 7.3/10.[21] It received a 73 out of 100 score on Metacritic based on five reviews.[22]

Awards

It was nominated at the 6th Douban Film Annual Awards for the category of Top Rated Chinese Movie.[23]

Sequel

In June 2021, it was announced that Sheep Without a Shepherd would be getting a sequel. The film was shot on October and November 2021, and will be released on 24 December 2021. The movie sees the return of Xiao Yang as the lead character.[24] The movie, titled Fireflies in the Sun, was a spiritual sequel and a remake of the 2002 American film John Q.

References
  1. "Wu Sha (2019) - Financial Information". The Numbers.
  2. "Sheep Without a Shepherd". Box Office Mojo.
  3. Li, Jane. "A Bollywood film about getting away with murder got a "harmonious" remake in China". Quartz.
  4. "As a remake of Drishyam, Sheep Without a Shepherd is flawed but commendable". deconrecon.asia. 31 January 2020. Retrieved 20 August 2020.
  5. "Wu Sha: The Chinese remake of Mohanlal starrer Drishyam is minting moolah". The Indian Express. 22 January 2020. Retrieved 20 August 2020.
  6. "Mohanlal's 'Drishyam' to be remade in Chinese". The News Minute. 14 September 2017. Retrieved 26 December 2019.
  7. "SHEEP WITHOUT A SHEPHERD TO BE RELEASED IN IMAX® THEATRES ACROSS CHINA STARTING DECEMBER 13". Imax.cn. Retrieved 26 December 2019.
  8. Frater, Patrick (16 December 2019). "China Box Office: 'Sheep Without a Shepherd,' 'Skyfire' Lead Local Film Dominance". Variety. Retrieved 25 December 2019.
  9. Hui, Lu (14 December 2019). ""Sheep Without A Shepherd" leads Chinese mainland box office". Xinhua News Agency. Archived from the original on December 18, 2019. Retrieved 25 December 2019.
  10. "Chinese 2019 Weekend 50". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 26 December 2019.
  11. ZD (20 December 2019). ""Sheep Without a Shepherd" still leads Chinese mainland box office". Xinhua News Agency. Archived from the original on December 20, 2019. Retrieved 25 December 2019.
  12. "Chinese 2019 Weekend 51". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 26 December 2019.
  13. Frater, Patrick (22 December 2019). "China Box Office: 'Rise of Skywalker' Beaten by Martial Arts Finale 'Ip Man 4'". Variety. Retrieved 26 December 2019.
  14. "Worldwide Box Office (Estimates) Weekend Ending December 22". Comscore. Archived from the original on 7 May 2016. Retrieved 28 December 2019.
  15. "Worldwide Box Office (Estimates) Weekend Ending December 29". Comscore. Archived from the original on 7 May 2016. Retrieved 31 December 2019.
  16. "Chinese 2020 Weekend 1". Box Office Mojo.
  17. Davis, Rebecca (6 January 2020). "China Box Office: Pet Drama 'Adoring' Runs Away With Weekend Prize". Variety. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  18. "Daily Box Office - China (1/13/2020)". English.entgroup.cn. 11 January 2020. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  19. Xuequan, Mu (10 January 2020). ""Sheep Without a Shepherd" China box office sales hit 1 bln yuan". Xinhua News Agency. Archived from the original on January 10, 2020. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  20. "Sheep Without a Shepherd". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 27 December 2020.
  21. "Sheep Without a Shepherd". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved October 30, 2021.
  22. "Sheep Without a Shepherd".
  23. "误杀 (豆瓣)". Douban. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  24. "《误杀2》定档12.24 "绝望父亲"肖央为爱犯险". 1905.com. Retrieved 16 November 2021.
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