A Woman, A Gun, and a Noodle Shop (2010)

☆ ☆ ☆

A Woman, A Gun, and a Noodle Shop (2010) – Y. Zhang

This surprising Chinese remake of the Coen Brothers’ Blood Simple begins as a candy-coloured slapstick comedy and gradually turns darker (in tone).  Yimou Zhang uses his pictorial skill to set the film in an artificial landscape in the distant past where at least they still have noodle shops, even if the cops run everywhere in formation with an odd sort of siren voiced by the wind.  A greedy miser’s young wife is having an affair with one of his employees and when he finds out, he hires a crooked cop to kill them both.  However, greed wins over evil – or wait, love triumphs over evil and greed – or wait, no one stays dead – or wait, everyone dies in the end.  It has been too long since I saw Blood Simple but I assume its twisty plot has been replicated here as a sort of fable that ends as a cosmic joke.  I suspect the original is far better but this remake stands as a valiant effort to do something different with the material.