Film Name: 误杀 / Sheep Without a Shepherd
“Domestic, remake, crime”, in recent years, films with these labels have become commonplace, and they all look good, but in the end, none of them can really get a good result.
Sheep Without a Shepherd is a film that breaks through this invisible “boundary”. It may not be as subtle, powerful and fast as the original Drishyam, but it does a lot of fruitful additions on top of the original story, such as the struggle of human nature and a microcosm of society.
What impressed me even more was the fact that Coventry, a first-time feature film director, was able to use so many techniques to realise so many ideas, not to mention the degree of completion, which was impressive enough – for example, the sheep, which the audience could not ignore.
All of this is made possible by a love of cinema, and that love of cinema is one of the things that makes Sheep Without a Shepherd so special…. …and the more creators with that kind of heart, the better for the audience.
[Friendly reminder: there will be spoilers below].
I won’t go into the plot and suspense part of the film, as anyone who has seen the film understands it, and it’s not that hard to understand, but I’ll focus on the characters and the setting below.
The story takes place in a somewhat “empty” Thai village, where the main character, Li Weijie, is not an immigrant, but an immigrant, whose parents died in a riot, and he grew up as an orphan, and after starting his own family, he lives in poverty with his wife, Yu, and their two daughters, and is happy with what he has.
Li Weijie and thousands of men, have the same similar “mid-life crisis”, especially in high school daughter Pingping and his own growing estrangement, he noticed the alienation, but there is always nothing he can do, can not change.
In addition, Li Weijie is also a wonderful person, as much as he can benefit others, he usually has no bad hobbies, except for his love of watching films, he has not graduated from primary school, through years of watching films to extend the breadth and depth of their souls – nearly a year to watch more than 800 films, Li Weijie is definitely a super senior film fan.
For film-loving viewers, it’s an intimate setting that brings them closer together, with the line, “When you’ve seen more than 1,000 films, there’s nothing outlandish in the world at all!” It’s become many people’s favourite line from Sheep Without a Shepherd, and Susanna’s line, “Check his yearly viewing history!” I couldn’t help but laugh for a long time ……
However, Li Wei Jie is another example of “having heard a lot of truths, but still can’t live a good life”, he thinks he is not capable of much, and in the end, all he can do is to rely on his own “experience” to stand in front of his wife and daughters.
Susanna La, the police chief with whom Levitte meets, shares many similarities with him to a certain extent, also believing in the experience of having solved thousands of cases, equally willing to do whatever it takes for the sake of his children, and equally lost in anger, hatred, and guilt.
Sheep Without a Shepherd plays with the word “McGuffin” (an object, character or goal in a film that pushes the plot forward) to its fullest extent. According to my count, there are 8 times in the film when there are scenes or clues related to the sheep, and by connecting them together, one understands the theme and the characters.
The English title of the film is “Sheep Without a Shepherd”, which directly translates to “sheep without a shepherd”, meaning “a group of dragons without a head, the rabble”, and it opens with a sheep’s cry in the darkness, which sets the tone for the whole film. This sets the tone for the whole film.
The second time a sheep appears is when Li Weijie goes to a temple to pray for blessings and give alms – Li Weijie believes in Buddhism, and is kind and charitable to the extent of his ability, and the sheep behind the monk is a metaphor for his good nature.
The third appearance of the sheep is when Li Weijie sinks his car and destroys it – the sheep and the shepherd imply witnesses, and Li Weijie’s fearful avoidance symbolises the withdrawal of his nature.
The fourth is more obvious, Li Weijie is planning to change the land to dump the body, bumped into the evil police Sang Kun came to take revenge on business partners, after a dispute, angry Sang Kun killed the sheep around, Li Weijie also borrowed the name of the protection of his wife and daughter, and completely stepped into the field of “evil”.
The fifth time is the teacher in the classroom to explain, “Sheep is a kind of herd animal, eyesight is very poor, when they act alone, it is easy to be predated by carnivores.” By this time, Levig had already been instructed to make sure his family didn’t become “lone sheep” during police interrogations.
The next episode, though not a sheep, was equally important – Soocha was not dead when he was buried (like the fallen boxer he had faked his own death by closing his mouth), and Levig realised this, but in order to put an end to the problem he tacitly agreed to allow Soocha to be smothered to death in a coffin, and later switched the bag with a sheep carcass – and the fearful, guilt-ridden Levig was not satisfied. -Fearful and guilty, Li Weijie again went to the temple to give alms and was refused by the monks.
Because the monks said that they would only accept “non-phase charity”: previously Li Weijie did not have the desire and demand for “goodness” to be called non-phase, but at this time he and many people seeking fame and fortune, the desire to unload the guilt of the layman like the phases of the same, naturally not be able to do so. This almsgiving is the exact counterpart of the previous one, and the sheep behind the monk is gone.
The sixth appearance of the sheep is a key scene in the rain to open the coffin to check the body, this time more like a complement to the previous times, the sheep body exposure, the public anger, riots, Li Weijie’s evil, the evil, like the sheep body to the public and can not be controlled.
The seventh time, Li Weijie once again returned to the temple, at this time he has decided to confess to Dupont and Susanna Lah, confessed his sins and repented of his sins, in the face of the monks, he had a clear conscience, and the sheep also once again appeared.
For the eighth time, it is the shepherd who says in an interview at the end, “The sheep don’t give a damn who is bedding the wool off their backs as long as they can graze well.” The streets may seem to be coming back to order after the riots, but some things have remained the same ……
Combined with the English title of the film, “The Ravens”, sheep have always been sheep, and will always be sheep.
In addition to playing with the McGuffin “sheep”, “Sheep Without a Shepherd” demonstrates its meticulous consideration and skill in many details and shots.
For example, the two scenes “Li Weijie watching a boxing match” and “Ah Yu Ping Ping fighting back against Sucha” are cut together, not only synchronised in time and rhythm, but also hinting at Sucha’s fake death;
For example, his youngest daughter An An scratched the dining table with a fork, which reminded Li Weijie of Sucha’s tragic death by grabbing the coffin board before he died, and he immediately called a halt to the scene while pretending to be calm;
Another example is Ann handing over a 100-point exam paper with altered scores, linking it to the family’s previous viewing of the film Bad Genius and the concealment of the murder, it is clear that Ann has the beginnings of lying and unscrupulousness, and this is one of the reasons why Levig is determined to turn himself in ……
The slow-mo in Sheep Without a Shepherd is unforgettable, especially the climactic scene of the open casket in the pouring rain, which uses slow-mo for almost the entirety of the scene, further amplifying the intense dramatic tension.
All the characters are gathered in this seemingly wide but small space, anxiety, urgency, domineering, anger, fear, panic, pathos and other myriad of emotions are mixed in the moist air, with high exposure grey screen and gradual music rendering, all the people appear in turn, emotional narrative in one fell swoop.
In addition, the acting skills of Xiao Yang and Chen Chong are worth bragging about:
Nearly 40 years old Xiao Yang in the show of middle-aged men “greasy feeling”, is a unique advantage, based on this, he knows the emotional “collection”, more show Li Weijie’s cautious and heartfelt; Chen Chong captured the mother’s Chen Chong captured the mother’s doting mentality of “having a son in her old age”, and used Susanna Lah’s professional and competent side to feed back the other side of her concern, impulsiveness and blindness, making this role an additional note in “Manslaughter”.
In contrast, Tan Zhuo’s Ah Yu doesn’t have much to do and looks like another typical Tan’s wife, while Xu Wenshan’s Ping Ping is even more unmemorable, and the little girl, An An, looks very soulful.
It’s also worth noting that Sheep Without a Shepherd has a lot of extra-crime elements and musings (the “sheep” in the previous article actually means something in this regard).
If father Dupont did not neglect Sucha, if mother Susanna did not overindulge Sucha, if Li Weijie did not help people and make a good impression, if Sang Kun did not oppress the common people and make the neighbours complain about it …… the story would not have come to the final stage.
The last shot before the end of the main film is an interview with Uncle Sung Kwan, played by Chin Pui, who is about to open his mouth with a smile on his face, but the audience doesn’t get to hear what he thinks of Levy Kit ……
This whitewash, as well as the achievements of all the aforementioned films, highlights the ambitions of Sheep Without a Shepherd’s executive producer, Chan Sze-shing, and director, Corman Lee.
For CHEN Sicheng, Sheep Without a Shepherd is another big gamble outside of the Tang Detective series, and for COWENLEY, Sheep Without a Shepherd is a brick in the door for him to go even further.
For Cavanagh, “Sheep Without a Shepherd” is a stepping stone for him to go further. Despite all the good points mentioned earlier, the film still falls short: Cavanagh is like a primary school bully who has done a lot of brushing up on his work, and is familiar with and grasps all the scoring points, but still lacks some of the smoothness and calmness of the “natural” in the final paper, and this is the difference between the “good” and the “excellent” students. This is the distance between a “good student” and a “superior student”, and also the distance between “Sheep Without a Shepherd” and a good film.
Of course, it’s great that Corman has done so well for his first feature film, and I hope that there will be more and more down-to-earth and thoughtful new directors like him in the future.
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