David O'ConnellA Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop
October 26th 2010 06:15
Zhang Yimou remaking the Coen brothers’ first masterpiece, Blood Simple? At first glance, this appears to be one of the more peculiar creative choices of a director known for landmark works of his own like Raise the Red Lantern (1991), Not One Less (1999) and more recently, House of Flying Daggers (2004). Transplanting a serpentine-like, modern noir tale of murder and greed from Texas to an ancient Chinese desert seems shot through with insurmountable creative obstacles.
Yimou earns marks for sheer audacity however, even if his aim is frequently off the mark. Though it does makes significant ground in the second half, cleverly replicating Blood Simple's masterful setpieces in an admittedly incongruous context, the opening stages of A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop are alienating. Instead of heavy drama with a twist of black humour, Yimou decides upon slapstick humour to kick things off via a gun sale as a disconsolate, cheating wife (Nan Yi), tired of her husband’s malicious treatment, makes a meaningful purchase from a visiting Persian salesman (Julien Gaudfroy).
A colourful crew of support players help set the story in motion, including a bumbling idiot (Cheng Ye) with buck teeth that were quite possibly nicked from an environmentally unsound, gag showbag, circa 1989. But as the main quartet, including the lover (Xiao Shen-Yang), the miserly husband, Wang (Ni Dahong), and the ruthless, inscrutable police detective (Sun Hunglei) Wang asks to kill the conniving pair begin their fateful interactions, things begin to look up.
Nan Yi
To open the film with a title card proclaiming a connection to a work of art like Blood Simple before immediately wading into madcap comedy feels somewhat sacrilegious. But ten minutes later acceptance sets in and you come to terms with the realisation that this is no literal conversion; instead Yimou has opted for his own offbeat interpretation - regrettably so in the case of the wife’s lover who instead of a tough-as-teakwood man’s man is more a prancing fairy dressed in pink and afraid of his own shadow. It’s Yimou’s riskiest departure from the Coen mold and also the remake’s greatest failing.
On an aesthetic level the film has its pleasures - precise, economically orchestrated bursts of action, photogenic night shots and wider views of colourfully designed mountain sides - despite their often transparent artificiality. There’s certainly genuine fun to be had from imagining how Yimou is going to pull off each sequence, as if a chess move, according to the Coen template he's working from. Some creative use of the immediate environment and the objects within it goes a long way to saving the film ultimately, though it does presume intimate knowledge of the original for full appreciation.
Not as stylistically dazzling as past Yimou films A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop isn't much better than mediocre; yet perhaps it has enough going for it to earn a pass mark, especially when it finally acknowledges the cold-blooded motivations of its main characters. Still, it's hard to shake off a lasting impression of there being a pointlessness to proceedings. The solution? Pull out Blood Simple again of course, just as I did, and marvel at one of the most startling debuts in cinema history.
This was a great scene in the original - but I'm not sure how well the pink would have gone down in Texas. 
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Comment by Matt Shea
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
This falls into the curio pile for me, one that i will dabble in at a later date.
Comment by ShaunK
Screen Adventure
Anyway, this sounds like too much bloody fun to miss out on - plus! - I probably liked House Of Flying Daggers alot more than I should have (this was probably due to the fact that I saw it as a result of stomping my way out of 'Be Cool' and demanding to be let into a film that wasn't such a stemaing pile of horse shit).
Anyway, if I ever see this most intriging curiosity go my way, I'll definitely pick it up for a night of fun.
Curious indeed David
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
I love Yimou's early movies, especially Ju Dou and Raise the Red Lantern.
But Blood Simple is one of my favourite movies of all time.
Comment by David O'Connell
20/20 Filmsight
Screen Fanatic
Definitely is a curiosity JD. Won't be remembered as one of Yimou's best films but he's a huge Coen brothers fan apparently so good on him for giving it a shot and paying homage to them in a sense.
Godard was right on the money there Shaun.
This opens in limited release around the country next Thursday, November 4 which I forgot to mention at the end of the review. It might be hard to find though, I'm pretty sure only one cinema in Melbourne will be screening it, might be the same story in Sydney and elsewhere too.
You have great taste Bryn, Raise the Red Lantern is my favourite Yimou film by a long way! A gorgeous masterpiece of a film. Are there any good DVD releases of it out there? I've heard that a couple of them are bogus with wrong ratios etc.
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
Comment by MelG
Comment by David O'Connell
20/20 Filmsight
Screen Fanatic
RTRL is a masterpiece but Yimou has come close to it a few times since. Not One Less is a heartbreaking story - very simple but very affecting too.
I've never seen Farewell My Concubine but heard good things about it.