Yimou Zhang

A WOMAN, A GUN AND A NOODLE SHOP

BLOOD SIMPLE REMAKE

Screening room

Status: Completed

Director(s): Yimou Zhang

Main cast: Honglei Sun, Xiao Shen-Yang, Ni Yan

Short synopsis : Wang is a gloomy, cunning and avaricious noodle shop owner in a desert town in China. His neglected, sharp-tongued wife is involved in a secret affair with Li, one of Wang’s employees. A timid man, Li reluctantly keeps the gun his lover has bought to kill her husband. But Wang is watching their every move. He bribes patrol officer Zhang to murder the illicit couple. It seems like a perfect plan: the affair will come to a cruel, bloody but satisfying end… or so he thinks. The equally wicked Zhang has an agenda of his own. As the plot twists, more blood will flow, and ever greater violence will erupt…

Long synopsis : In a small desert town near Jiayu Pass in China (the first pass at the west end of the Great Wall), Wang owns a noodle shop that also houses his employees, his wife and himself. Not exactly the loving boss type, he spends every penny to his own advantage, owing his workers their wages for months. Suffering his black temper, Wang’s wife has an affair with Li, who can spin sheets of noodle dough nimbly but never shows the same confidence outside the kitchen. Every time Li drives her to buy rouge, the two have sex in the carriage. One day, to Li’s dismay, she purchases a gun from a Persian merchant, claiming that only Wang’s death can guarantee their happiness. Never a match for her biting tongue, Li agrees to hide the weapon. Meanwhile, waiter Zhao and patrol officer Zhang – both bribed by the cunning Wang – inform him of the gun and the affair respectively. After catching his wife red-handed and grappling with her during one of her rouge trips, Wang resorts to paying Zhang to kill the illicit lovers. The following day, Zhang returns, carrying a bloodstained piece of clothing and a woman’s underwear. In his client’s secret chamber, Zhang waits for his reward then, all of a sudden, shoots Wang with Li’s gun. As Wang lies completely motionless, Zhang struggles to open the safe but fails. Outside, Zhao and waitress Chen are arguing about whether they should sneak in and ‘steal’ their wages. As the door squeaks and a ray of light seeps through the crack, Zhang loses his nerve and escapes through the window, leaving the gun behind… Will someone discover Wang’s body? What will be done with his money? Who will lay hands on the gun? Nobody can say for sure because everyone is either silently plotting or plotted against…