A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop (4½ Stars)

Wang owns a small restaurant, a noodle shop, in an isolated area in the mountains in the Gansu province of China. The date isn't stated, but my guess is that it takes place in the 17th Century. Maybe one of my Chinese readers who has seen the film could help me. Wang's wife is unhappy with her husband and wants a divorce, so that she can marry Li, one of his employees. A travelling Persian salesman sells Wang's wife an amazing new invention, a gun, the mightiest weapon in the world, together with three bullets. This is her backup plan, in case Wang doesn't agree to the divorce. Guns must be new at this time, because the Chinese army doesn't yet have them. Wang's wife (who remains unnamed in the film) has suddenly become the most dangerous person in the district.

Wang suspects his wife of infidelity, so he hires a soldier to kill her. At the same time two of Wang's employees, disgruntled at their boss being late paying their wages, decide to rob him. The people interfere in one another's plans in increasingly comical ways.

I'm on a Zhang Yimou kick at the moment. I want to watch all of his films that I haven't seen so far. This is the first of his films that I've seen which is a comedy. The humour is effective, reminiscent of 1960's British slapstick. All the other elements of Zhang's films are present, in particular the otherworldly colour coordination of every shot in every scene. The film is a remake of "Blood Simple", a 1984 film directed by the Coen Brothers. I haven't seen it, but after reading a plot summary I can see that Zhang Yimou's film follows the plot very closely. In England the film has even been released with the name "Blood Simple", just to confuse matters. The original Chinese title of the film is "A simple noodle story".