If I told you that Zhang Yimou, famed Chinese director of arthouse epics made a slapstick version of the Coen Bros. Blood Simple, would you think I was crazy? Well, I'm not, but maybe he is: behold A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop (2010).
It's set in "olden days" in the Chinese western desert, in the titular noodle shop. Yan Ni, the titular woman, is buying the titular gun from a flamboyant Turkish trader. She's good looking but kind of bossy, the type who would like to have a gun handy. But also, she is having an affair with Xiao Shenyang, a grimacing, cowardly goofball who dresses in neon silks (like Yan). Since her husband, Ni Dahong, is the boss of the shop, and brutal, she may need that gun.
Into the shop comes a troop of soldiers, with a handful of prisoners - all adulterers, destined to be killed for their crime. One of the soldiers, Sun Honglei, suspects Yan and Xiao, and comes back by himself, looking for a chance to make a little money. And that's the setup.
If you remember Blood Simple, you'll get most of the beats of the plot, as well as some specific scenes (a shovel? A hand?). The characters are very different, however. The lovers are less film noir, more Chinese opera buffa. Sun's version of the detective played by M. Emmet Walsh in the original is less fat and clownish, but just as menacing. And the husband, Ni, is just as spiteful and evil as in Blood Simple, but weirder - he wants Yan to give him a son, or failing that, to pretend to be his son when she's having sex with him. He cuts the faces out of posters of babies and makes her stick her head through the hole. Twisted.
Also, since this is Zhang Yimou, the movie is full of beautiful shots of the Chinese desert, with bare hillocks striped with yellow, white and ochre. This doesn't seem strange at all. I guess it's China's version of Texas.
So, if you liked Hero, or Raise the Red Lantern, I have no idea if you'll like this. If you like the Coens and Chinese costume comedies, I can guarantee you will.
No comments:
Post a Comment