Sha Chen Bao (2025)

"The dark side of human nature. Everyone has it."

As the quote above reveals, this is on the darker side or noir crime dramas. There's a closed room murder mystery with only 3 possible suspects. Police officer Chen who has kept himself busy guarding sheep from sandstorms and robbers is called in to reinvestigate, as not everything seems right with the previous investigation. This sets off a chain of events which ends with the same murder scenario repeating itself.

Chen Jiang He is delightfully temperamental but also a broken humbled man, due to an accident involving his senior police officer. He believes that patiently finding out about the lives and motives of the people surrounding the murder mystery will eventually lead to a breakthrough. We gradually get to know the families of the 3 suspects and their histories. One thing I particularly liked about the drama is how there were no boring psycho killers. The sad incidents resulted from partly accidents, partly deceptions and selfishness.

The plot tightens toward the end, and the last 3 episodes are particularly heartbreaking.

The mountaineous half-desert location is very beautiful and also very harsh. We see and almost feel the dust and sand in the air. Watching Sandstorm felt like being there. Highly recommended for friends of c-noir.

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this one has stayed with me for a while

so from the outset, full disclosure, I am a fan of Chinese crime dramas and consider MDL ratings to be an underappreciation. this is no exception.

in general, these dramas tend to have a similar darkness to the typical scandinoir which some may be more familiar with. they lean towards a grittier visual appearance, however, and frequently make full artistic use of their location, whether it is an impersonal or derelict urban setting or the open spaces of the central plains.

this review has taken a while to formulate, mostly because I was genuinely touched by this series and had to sort out my emotions about the drama itself and whether it is possible for people who commit certain types of crimes to be redeemable, or whether misplaced sympathy means that I too am morally flawed. this veteran consumer of noirs has in fact not watched a single episode of any other crime drama yet since completing this because of deep and painful feelings about this tragic tale.

we find ourselves in what is, essentially, a dying town. it's set up from the start that many of the characters we meet are looking for a way out, and the pool of people they can attach themselves to to achieve this aim is small. as can be predicted, almost every relationship is thus dysfunctional, including the ones that set the initial crime in motion and further propagated it.

in the acting department, this is a solid cast and they play to their strengths. special callout to Wang Qiang, who manages one of the most careful balancing acts here, and whose characterisation was the source of much of the angst described above.

visually, this oscillates between darkly beautiful, expansive shots of a broken town, cramped interiors, and a hell of a lot of sand, with the occasionally injudicious use of a too-heavy filter that I wish had been toned down a touch, especially early on, as it was a little distracting. however, it is a testament to how immersive it is that I can't actually comment on whether that issue persisted beyond the first few episodes. the OST is surprisingly apt.

don't come here for an easy weekend watch but do come for the stories of these flawed characters, some of whom manage to be both deeply sympathetic and unforgivably criminal. the sheer weight of the tragedy of this story will slowly unfold and quite possibly leave you somewhat breathless and flailing for your own personal moral compass.

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