Two Great Sheep - Reception

Reception

The New York Times critic Stephen Holden aptly summed up the two ways of viewing Two Great Sheep: as either "an uplifting fable about teamwork and good citizenship or as a spoof of a frightened society's blind obedience to authority."

Steve Rhodes espoused the latter view in his review of the film, seeing Two Great Sheep as a "simple film, simply told."

Many critics, however, chose a middle view, and saw the film primarily as a metaphor for China's bureaucratic machine and its effect on the common peasant. Derek Elley of Variety noted how the film "homes in on the stratified nature of Chinese rural society," though he does not go as far as to suggest what Liu Hao intended with the film. Elley does argue, however, that the film is distinct from similar films, notably Zhang Yimou's 1992 The Story of Qiu Ju, mainly in that Two Great Sheep "lack of bitterness or despair." A similar review noted that the film was nothing if not a celebration of the "tenacious resiliency of the will to survive."

Other critics took a negative view and saw the film's lack of bitterness or other strong "message" as a flaw. Slant Magazine's Ed Gonzalez felt the film went on too long without a clear message, holding that he was "not exactly sure if Hao is for or against Bolshevism."