Movie Review: 误杀

Apparently this is a Chinese remake of a 2013 Indian Malayam film called “Drisyam” [IMDB Trivia]. I’ve never seen the original so I can’t compare.


The film is set in a fictional locale (presumably around Malaysia or Thailand) where all the street signage is in Thai or Malay but all the characters in the film (that supposedly live there) speak Chinese.

Internet service repairman and film buff Li Weijie (Yang Xiao) and his family attempt to cover-up the murder of the son of a prominent politician. Unfortunately for them, the politician’s wife is distinguished police inspector La Wen (Joan Chen) and she will go to any lengths to uncover the truth.

That’s about as far as I can go without giving any in depth spoilers. The film is fairly bland and predictable. The first half of the film details their cover-up and if you’re just the slightest bit observant you can see how director Sam Quah is laying out the format for the second half of the film to later be unraveled by La Wen. He literally shows you step by step where every twist in the story will play out.

I really disliked almost all the main characters and the only characters I could empathize with were Li Weijie’s daughters PingPing (Wenshan Xu) and An An (Xiran Zhang) because of the torture that the police put them through.

So confusing setting, predictable story, unlikeable characters...are there any redeeming features?�Well, for Li Weijie, there are several scenes where he must confront the consequences of his immorality and how he can redeem what has happened. These scenes are perhaps the most noteworthy in the film and make you think about how you could live with yourself if you were in his shoes.

I can’t recommend this film. There are so many better options out there worth your time.