Ultimately a loopy, stylized celebration of the kinds of byzantine, trap-laden suspensers that have delighted audiences from "The Purloined Letter" through Hitchcock's wronged-man oeuvre and the career of M. Night Shyamalan.

The emotional stakes are so high and the plot so pacy and intricately woven that most viewers will gladly suspend disbelief and enjoy a ride packed with hair-raising close calls and narrow escapes.

Chen is delightfully wicked as the morally compromised chief of a corrupt and abusive police department, however, and the plot is engrossing enough to forgive the movie's excesses.

Sheep Without A Shepherd is good fun being both an action flick and a heartfelt crime thriller at the same time.