It's almost like history now talking about ZHANG Yimou's degenerating from quality films to trash like "House of flying daggers" (2004) and super-trash like "Curse of the golden flower" (2006). But at least there is "Riding alone" (2005) in which he tries to bring the audience a human story, although the style has a faint trace of Hollywood. "Noodle Story" is yet another welcome attempt from Zhang, a mixed bag of outlandish farce, black humour, dark tragedy and tense thriller.
The opening credit clearly announces this movie as an adaptation from the Coen Brother's "Blood simple" (1984). In this adaptation, a solitary noodle shop in a forsaken wilderness on the Silk Road provides the theatre. The characters, though simple folks, are varied and not quite one-dimensional. The foxy, cheating wife of the owner turns out to be sympathy-worthy as one who has suffered for ten years under a sadistic Scrooge of a husband. Her sissy, sheepish young lover, one of the employees, later rises to the occasion when things get serious. The other two employees are more along the line of caricatures, but still caricatures with lives and characters of their own. There's also a villain with a menacing dark aura.
Those who have seen "Blood Simple" will know that the plot is not complicated, but sufficient to generate scenes of various moods. This movie brings these scenes together without making the whole works look awkward. The casting is excellent. An extra bonus is the grotesque yet beautiful landscape that doesn't seem to belong to this Earth. The song and dance number during the end credit, which should not be missed, is probably inspired by Kitano's Zatoichi, which is probably inspired in turn by Bollywood.
The opening credit clearly announces this movie as an adaptation from the Coen Brother's "Blood simple" (1984). In this adaptation, a solitary noodle shop in a forsaken wilderness on the Silk Road provides the theatre. The characters, though simple folks, are varied and not quite one-dimensional. The foxy, cheating wife of the owner turns out to be sympathy-worthy as one who has suffered for ten years under a sadistic Scrooge of a husband. Her sissy, sheepish young lover, one of the employees, later rises to the occasion when things get serious. The other two employees are more along the line of caricatures, but still caricatures with lives and characters of their own. There's also a villain with a menacing dark aura.
Those who have seen "Blood Simple" will know that the plot is not complicated, but sufficient to generate scenes of various moods. This movie brings these scenes together without making the whole works look awkward. The casting is excellent. An extra bonus is the grotesque yet beautiful landscape that doesn't seem to belong to this Earth. The song and dance number during the end credit, which should not be missed, is probably inspired by Kitano's Zatoichi, which is probably inspired in turn by Bollywood.