Trailer - Zhang's 'A Woman, a Gun, and a Noodle Shop'

I know I'm in the minority on this, but I'm really looking forward to Zhang Yimou's A Woman, a Gun, and a Noodle Shop. Most people cast it off as soon as they heard it was a remake of sorts of the Coen Brothers' Blood Simple, but to me, it's so far removed culturally from that film and Zhang Yimou is such a master filmmaker, I'm not worried in the slightest. I'd stop beating the remakes-aren't-all-bad drum right there if Sony Classics hadn't driven home the idea that these two films are structurally related, but since that's the direction the studio wants to go, it's kind of hard to not bring it up. However, if there was no mention of Blood Simple here, I'd bet you $34 you'd have absolutely no idea it's related unless you really pay attention. See for yourself. And then watch it again because Noodle Shop appears to have a lot to offer for world cinema fans. So, again, I'm looking forward to this when Sony unveils it on September 10th. Thanks to Film Junk for the head's up on the trailer, by the way. One other note: It's bad enough that the studio is making such overt claims that this movie shouldn't be considered on its own merits but only in comparison to a 25-year-old American movie, but is awomanagunandanoodleshopmovie.com the best website name they could find? Simply awomanagunandanoodleshop.com was already taken? Why not just chinesebloodsimple.com instead?

Comments

[knives]

What I think really separates this from something like Dinner for Schmucks or the Platinum Dunes stuff is that Zhang has proven himself to be truly great and talented with this sort of material before. It reminds a bit of my favorite remake example, The Thing, the first movie stands strong to this day, but Carpenter had by that time proven the he was great with that sort of material and earned trust that he could at least match the original. Roach and company have yet to do that on any of these titles they've remade.