Detective Kien: The Headless Horror

When the young “Nga” (Doan Minh Anh) goes missing, her aunt “Miss Moon” (Ngoc Diêp) can’t get the local authorities to investigate, so she writes a pleading letter to renowned judge’s detective “Kiên” (Tín Nguyen) to see if he will come and look into things. When he arrives, complete with his official badge of office, he sets the cat amongst the pigeons in the small community that’s not without it’s suspects. To add to his problems, it seems that this village has an history of troubles, with a legendary water ghost reputedly emerging from the river and terrorising the population then leaving decapitated bodies to wash up all over the place. Now “Kiên” is a man of science, and now (reluctantly) allied with his enthusiastic new sidekick they discover that nobody in this village is quite whom they seem and with the chief, his wife, his daughter, the potter, the shaman, the lover and just about every one else in the mix, he has his work cut out trying to discover the truth. Though I found the production a little bit sterile, there is still quite an amiable chemistry between our detecting duo and with plenty of lies, deceit and red herrings the story carries along nicely until a denouement that’s acrobatic, messy and leaves us wanting - whether we want it or not - needing more. It hits the ground running and doesn’t hang about for a couple of hours that I though had shades of “Vienna Blood” (2019) to it. Worth a watch.