A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop

A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop is acclaimed director Yimou Zhank's satire of the Coen Brothers' satire of film noir, Blood Simple. Although I am not a fan of Chinese humor because of its reliance on slapstick and hyperbole, it is filmed with a visual richness that Yimou has made his signature.

Older husband abuses younger wife, who is being adulterous with a handsome, cowardly servant. Her purchasing a gun sets in motion a series of revenge activities that flesh out the Coen's title.

The magnified close-ups and slow motion sequences accompanied by dazzling colors make a satisfying visual experience if the humor is just not that humorous.

Zhang's latest is a remake of the Coen Brothers' debut film, Blood Simple. It's a slightly more comic adaptation, set in the distant past in the beautiful Gobi (?) desert. It opens wonderfully with the beautiful colors and impeccable cinematography that have always been a trademark of Zhang Yimou. Unfortunately, when it gets into the Blood Simple plot, it becomes very mechanical. I'd say that it lacks suspense because I know the story, but I've seen Blood Simple half a dozen times and it holds up every time. Every time, the tautness of the plot works. There's just something a little bland about this adaptation. I'd still moderately recommend it for the visuals, and the vibrant opening sequence, where the titular woman (Ni Yan, who is pretty good though she can be annoying at times, too) buys the titular gun from a wacky Persian salesman.

Yimou Zhang (Hero, House of Flying Daggers, Curse of the Golden Flower, and the Beijing 2008 Olympics Games Opening Ceremony) does things in a big way. I was interesting to see how he adapts a simple story of love and revenge, the Coen Brothers first film, Blood Simple.

It may be a simple story, but when you add Chinese costumes and brilliant cinematography in the Gobi desert, the simplest film becomes spectacular.

But, that won't save it as a story. Zhang just quite get the hang of the Coen Brothers. Characters come off looking like the Three Stooges.

It is recommended simply to get the great master in action. Watch the original if you want to see an interesting movie.

I watched this in Berlin at the Festival there and unfortunately I was sitting near an older couple who were commenting on the movie. You read this right, they were old and commenting on what happened on screen in a despicable way. Their view of the film is also the view some others have (see the rating for that), still it was a bit annoying hearing them while watching.

One of the most common point that gets criticized, is that this is not worthy for a man like Yimou. I don't think it is fair to write something like that, but it's always how a viewer will watch this movie. With what expectation one goes into a movie. If you let yourself see through the comedic set pieces and the absurdity of most of them (you could call it slapstick, a movie that would be considered a master piece in another era of movie making), you can see a very human drama.

Not only that, but many human flaws that are on display here, that are hiding behind the comedy. What is not hiding though, is the phenomenal cinematography. The colors, the set pieces (designs) and the choreographed action is all in place here. There's even symbolism here, that I didn't catch (read some of the other reviews for that, the ones with a spoiler tag). A movie that you can enjoy as a silly comedy, or as a high concept drama ... or of course dismiss entirely as "silly".

'A WOMAN, A GUN AND A NOODLE SHOP': Three and a Half Stars (Out of Five)

Chinese remake of the Coen brothers first film 'BLOOD SIMPLE', this one is set in 19th century China as opposed to 1980's Texas. The film is directed by Yimou Zhang (who directed such popular and critical acclaimed films as 'HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS', 'HERO' and 'CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER') and it's quite a departure from his older work. Zhang says 'BLOOD SIMPLE' is one of his favorite films and claims the Coens wrote to him after seeing his version and expressed how much they loved it. It's written by Jianquan Shi and Jing Shang and stars Ni Yan, Honglei Sun, Xiao Shen-Yang and Dahong Ni.

The original Chinese title of the film is 'A SIMPLE NOODLE STORY', it was changed to 'A WOMAN, A GUN AND A NOODLE SHOP' for it's international release. It's set in a small desert town where a man named Wang (Ni) runs a successful noodle shop. He purchased his young beautiful wife (Yan) several years earlier and beats her every night. His wife is having an affair with a servant at the noodle shop named Li (Shen-Yang) and when Wang finds out about the affair things get ugly. Wang enlists the help of a local police detective (Sun) to help him carry out a plan of revenge. Things of course become complicated and bloody.

The film is an odd mix of dark action thriller and screwball comedy. The slapstick jokes aren't exactly my taste in humor but the action scenes are cool and the suspense is intense. It does drag on a little here and there but for the most part the action / crime drama aspect of the film is effective. It's also often visually stunning with plenty of beautiful scenery and elaborate effects. It's not nearly as epic and breathtaking as Zhang's other films but I think it's a nice surprise change for him. By no means is it great or as classic as the original, of course, but it's still a remake worth checking out.

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