Review | Shadows movie review: Stephy Tang shines as a psychiatrist with a supernatural gift in stylish but narratively suspect crime mystery
- Stephy Tang plays a psychiatrist who can read her patients’ subconscious, and who suspects a rival doctor is making his patients commit murder
- She tracks down his patients with the help of Philip Keung’s police inspector in this odd crime mystery that is lifted by the performances of its cast
3.5/5 stars
In the psychological thriller Shadows, a supernaturally gifted psychiatrist who can look into her patients’ subconscious encounters a senior rival who may be turning his patients into murderers.
The first feature film directed by Singaporean filmmaker Glenn Chan Chi-man, this is a stylistically accomplished, if narratively suspect, film. It would probably work better as an open-ended psychodrama than the crime mystery it purports to be.
The film opens with the case of Chu (Justin Cheung Kin-seng), a social worker who kills all three members of his family before making a suicide attempt.
Invited by the police forensics unit to assess Chu’s mental state, psychiatrist Dr Tsui (Stephy Tang Lai-yan) soon finds a connection to Dr Yan (Tse Kwan-ho), a veteran psychiatrist who has recently returned to Hong Kong to set up a clinic.
With the help of police inspector Ho (Philip Keung Ho-man), a single father with an often neglected young daughter (Keira Wang Sze-nga), Tsui begins to track down Yan’s patients one by one – confidentiality issues be damned – in case any of them is turning into the next murderer under Yan’s manipulation.