A Chinese re-imagining of the 1985 directorial debut of Joel and Ethan Coen, Blood Simple. Transposing the Coen’s mix of...
A Chinese re-imagining of the 1985 directorial debut of Joel and Ethan Coen, Blood Simple. Transposing the Coen’s mix of dark humor and suspense to China, the film is helmed by Zhang Yimou (Hero, House of Flying Daggers) - "a black comedy thriller, an exposé of how intense desires can consume humanity, and the irony that life never submits to our calculations".
Wang (Honglei Sun) is a miserable yet cunning noodle shop owner in a desert town. Wang’s wife is having an affair with Li (Xiao Shen-Yang), one of his employees. Not a single move they make escapes the boss’s notice, and he decides to bribe patrol officer Zhang to murder the illicit couple. It looks like a perfect plan: the affair will come to a cruel but satisfying end - or so he thinks. But the equally wicked Zhang has an agenda of his own that will lead to more violence…
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34 %59 reviewsRotten Tomatoes® rating
39 %5,399 reviewsAudience score rating
"Western audiences familiar with "Blood Simple" will get a kick out of the reinventions."
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Variety
Variety"The director Zhang Yimou honors the unlikely affinity between himself and Joel and Ethan Coen with a remake of their movie "Blood Simple.""
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The New York Times
The New York Times"I will say that the attempt to reinterpret the memorable closing shot of "Blood Simple" is so gauche and graceless that I involuntarily moaned in disgust. I docked the film another half-star just for that."
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Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert"Zhang Yimou's remake of the Coen brothers' "Blood Simple" as a Chinese period thriller-farce in a desert setting. A high-rolling but garish production with untranslatable regional ribald humor, it is aimed squarely at the China market."
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Hollywood Reporter
Hollywood Reporter"An interesting interpretation but stick with the original."
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Empire Magazine
Empire Magazine"Zhang Yimou is a fabulous manipulator of colour and movement, and his film looks gorgeous from first frame to last."
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Dominion Post
Dominion PostA Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop | Details
- Runtime
- 95
- Genre
- Drama
- Country of origin
- China
