Product Details

• Actors: Sun Hunglei, Xiao Shenyang
• Directors: Zhang Yimou
• Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: Portuguese, Spanish, Cantonese
• Subtitles: English, French, Portuguese, Spanish
• Dubbed: Portuguese, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Sony Pictures Classics
• DVD Release Date: February 1, 2011
• Run Time: 95 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0041KKY9M
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #128,944 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

By all rights, Zhang Yimou's remake of Joel and Ethan Coen's first feature shouldn't work, but it does--marvelously so. It's not that Blood Simple is a masterpiece, though it's very good, but that the two filmmaking entities would seem to have little in common. Zhang even moves the action to feudal China, where noodle shop owner Wang (Dahong Ni) browbeats his unnamed wife (Ni Yan, beautiful and feisty) and coworkers Zhao (Ye Cheng), Chen (Mao Mao), and Li (Xiao Shen-Yang, sweet and jittery). When traveling merchants drop by while Wang is away, his wife buys a pistol--in a sequence so over the top it threatens to derail the entire picture. Wang, meanwhile, pays patrol officer Zhang (Honglei Sun, in a tightly coiled performance) to spy on her and Li. After the officer confirms his suspicions about their affair, he offers more money for Zhang to take the couple out of his misery, but Wang doesn't count on the double-crosses that will ensue. Zhang intends to rob the man blind, except he doesn't know the combination to the safe, unlike waiter Zhao, who isn't as dumb as he looks (prominent teeth and a tiny topknot only reinforce the impression). Despite a tone that veers between slapstick and suspense, A Woman offers the stunning visuals that characterize most Zhang works, like House of Flying Daggers. The desert--which doubles as a graveyard--is gorgeous in its desolation, while the shop setting is ingenious in its construction. And the ending is truly transcendent. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Product Description

It looks like a perfect plan: the affair will come to a cruel but satisfying end when a Chinese noodle shop owner plots to execute his unfaithful wife and her lover. But the lover has a lethal plan of his own in this violent tale of adultery and revenge based on the Coen Brother’s debut classic Blood Simple.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Bloody Noodles September 4, 2010

By C. Wallace VINE™ VOICE

Format:DVD

This is a Chinese film (English subtitles) based on the 1984 Coen brothers' production of Blood Simple. I think both films are excellent and would be hard pressed to rank one above the other.

The basic story: Cheaters are discovered. Cuckolded husband is most unhappy and makes plans. Plans veer off course. People get . . . injured.

The eighties version was set in present-day Texas. The 2010 production is set in a small noodle shop surrounded by a desolate lunar-like desert region. The shots involving this landscape are somewhat surreal and often spectacular. The time may be the 1700's or 1800's; it's when guns were still a novelty in remote parts of China, and people rode their mustangs instead of driving their Mustangs. Time and place are significant factors in the Chinese movie; they are virtually irrelevant in the Coen brothers' film.

Director Zhang Yimou's version definitely has more comedy than the original. There's scarcely a giggle in the dark eighties tale. Related to this, a fundamental difference between the films is the portrayal of the wife's boyfriend. Actor John Getz's Ray is far more believable than Xiao Shenyang's Li. Li emerges as a strangely innocent buffoon. He provides a big part of the comic relief that is lacking in the original. There are also two helpers in the noodle shop who generate grins.

Yan Ni, portraying the Chinese cheating wife, brings a lot more passion to the film than Frances McDormand brought to the original. Sun Honglei is great as the ruthless and greedy police officer, Zhang. M. Emmet Walsh was also great as the slimy, slovenly detective, Loren Visser, who, like Zhang, equates infidelity with opportunity.

You don't have to see the original film to enjoy the recent production. But I did find it most entertaining to compare the two.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars the only 6 star film I'll reconmend. June 4, 2012

By Richard Ranta

Format:Blu-ray|Amazon Verified Purchase

The number of films I've seen more than 9 times within 3 months is limited to one: " A women, A gun and a Noodle shop". This is a remake of the film, "Blood Simple". That fact will not get in the way of the greatness of this film. I've never seen silence used in such a craftful matter. there are times when the quiet takes on the lead story telling point. You owe it to yourself to give this film a watch. I believe this is a true "sleeper".

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars "Blood Simple" in China September 25, 2011

By Tsuyoshi TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:DVD

In the opening of Yimou Zhang's "A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop," a young wife of a tyrannical noodle shop owner buys a gun with three bullets from a traveling Persian merchant. Of course, she has a good reason. And perhaps she shouldn't have. A seemingly small decision she has made results in misunderstanding and strife among the characters. Some get greedy. Others make plans. All get involved in the chain of events that gets increasingly messy.

As you know, this is the acclaimed Chinese director's version of "Blood Simple." Not many directors would attempt to remake the Coen Brothers film, but Yimou Zhang thought differently. His effort "A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop," it is certain, is a quite unique film. Its visuals are unforgettable, and so are the characters (at least, how they look). But sadly they are stuck in the slow-moving story. After the promising start (noodle-making scene is amazing), the film descends into sheer dullness. Things get repetitious (the methodical habits of a police officer are at first amusing, but soon become tedious).

The most impressive thing about the film is its stunning landscapes of the blue sky and the red desert. They are almost surreal. Another notable thing is that "A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop" sometimes looks like a stage production with colorful costumes of the characters. Actions take place in and around the noodle shop located in the middle of nowhere. The film's time is not specified. Perhaps that is not very important.

But frankly I don't know what "A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop" is all about. I don't know either what really made the director re-imagine the original in the first place. Like most Coen Brothers movies, this is a sort of "one-and-only" kind film, but whether you will enjoy the curious world of "A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop" depends on you.