Sheep Without a Shepherd

Sheep Without a Shepherd (Chinese: 误杀; pinyin: Wù Shā; lit.: 'Manslaughter') is a 2019 Chinese thriller film directed by Malaysian Chinese director Sam Quah (柯汶利). It is a remake of the 2013 Indian Malayalam-language film Drishyam starring Mohanlal. The film stars Xiao Yang, Tan Zhuo, and Joan Chen in the lead roles.[2] Sheep Without a Shepherd was released in China on 13 December 2019 in conventional and IMAX formats. It reached the top 10 high-grossing Chinese films in 2019.

Sheep Without a Shepherd
Theatrical release poster
Directed bySam Quah
Produced byChen Sicheng
Written byWeiwei Yang
Pei Zhai
Peng Li
Kaihua Fan
Yuqian Qin
Sheng Lei
Based onDrishyam
by Jeethu Joseph
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 office$176 million[1]

Plot

Li Weijie, his wife Ayu and their two daughters Pingping and An-an, are a Chinese family living in northern Thailand since last 17 years. Weijie run an internet service providing shop and is a film enthusiast who likes to watch detective films and has deep knowledge on the subject. They come from a middle-class family. One day, Pingping was keen to attend a summer camp and at the camp she met suchat, the son of a political candidate and police chief. At the summer camp, Pingping was violated by suchat and he then recorded the videos of him performing obscene acts in order to manipulate Pingping. Suchat had arranged for pingping to meet him at the family warehouse around 10pm, but upon reaching the warehouse he noticed that Ayu was there to intervene for pingping. Ayu and suchat had a scuffle and pingping accidentally killed suchat by hitting him with a spade. After being lost and confused in the pouring rain, Ayu and ping ping decided to bury the body and informed Weijie about the incident. Weijie was planning to shield his family from police conviction and in turn, he had to create an alibi for his whole family and train them to intensely to fabricate a perfect story coupled with convincing alibi. The story involved them going to watch a boxing match at hua lamphong in thailand on the 2nd and the 3rd of which weijie carefully orchestrated the time frame as well as training his family members to remember some key details.

Cast
  • Xiao Yang as Lee Weijie
  • Tan Zhuo as Ayu
  • Joan Chen as Laoorn
  • Philip Keung Ho-Man as Dutpon
  • Shih Ming-Shuai as Sangkun
  • Audrey Hui as Pingping
  • Zhang Xiran as An-an
  • Bian Tian Yang as Suchat

Production

In September 2017, it was announced that an undisclosed Chinese production company bought the remake rights of the Indian Malayalam-language film Drishyam (2013).[3] Chen Sicheng was the executive producer of and the film was his debut production.

Release

Sheep Without a Shepherd was released in China on 13 December 2019. It was also released in IMAX format.[4]

Box office

Sheep Without a Shepherd took the top spot at Mainland China box office, becoming the highest-grossing film in its opening weekend.[5][6] In that weekend, 13 – 15 December, it grossed $32,152,680 in China, besting Skyfire. The film continued the lead in Chinese box office into its second week, till 20 December.[7] 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 till 22 December.[8][9] 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.[10] In three weeks, the film grossed $111,225,633[11] and $135,589,251 in four weeks.[12][13] By 13 January 2020, the film earned $154.24 million from box office sales in China alone.[1][14] As of 12 February, it has grossed 176 million from China.[1] It is currently the 10th highest-grossing film in China in 2019.

Awards

It was nominated at The 6th Douban Film Annual Awards in the category Top Rated Chinese Movie.[15]

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References
  1. "Daily Box Office - China (1/13/2020)". English.entgroup.cn. 11 January 2020. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  2. Li, Jane. "A Bollywood film about getting away with murder got a "harmonious" remake in China". Quartz.
  3. "Mohanlal's 'Drishyam' to be remade in Chinese". The News Minute. 14 September 2017. Retrieved 26 December 2019.
  4. "SHEEP WITHOUT A SHEPHERD TO BE RELEASED IN IMAX® THEATRES ACROSS CHINA STARTING DECEMBER 13". Imax.cn. Retrieved 26 December 2019.
  5. Frater, Patrick (16 December 2019). "China Box Office: 'Sheep Without a Shepherd,' 'Skyfire' Lead Local Film Dominance". Variety. Retrieved 25 December 2019.
  6. Hui, Lu (14 December 2019). ""Sheep Without A Shepherd" leads Chinese mainland box office". Xinhua News Agency. Retrieved 25 December 2019.
  7. ZD (20 December 2019). ""Sheep Without a Shepherd" still leads Chinese mainland box office". Xinhua News Agency. Retrieved 25 December 2019.
  8. "Chinese 2019 Weekend 51". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 26 December 2019.
  9. Frater, Patrick (22 December 2019). "China Box Office: 'Rise of Skywalker' Beaten by Martial Arts Finale 'Ip Man 4'". Variety. Retrieved 26 December 2019.
  10. "Worldwide Box Office (Estimates) Weekend Ending December 22". Comscore. Archived from the original on 28 December 2019. Retrieved 28 December 2019.
  11. "Worldwide Box Office (Estimates) Weekend Ending December 29". Comscore. Archived from the original on 30 December 2019. Retrieved 31 December 2019.
  12. https://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/2020W01/?area=CN&ref_=bo_rl_table_4
  13. Davis, Rebecca (6 January 2020). "China Box Office: Pet Drama 'Adoring' Runs Away With Weekend Prize". Variety. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  14. Xuequan, Mu (10 January 2020). ""Sheep Without a Shepherd" China box office sales hit 1 bln yuan". Xinhua News Agency. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  15. "误杀 (豆瓣)". Douban. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
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