Zhang Yimou’s Blood Simple
Zhang Yimou (Hero, House Of Flying Daggers, Raise The Red Lantern) remakes one of his favourite movies, the Coen brothers Blood Simple…
At the first mention of Hollywood (or Western) remakes or Asian films I can usually be found sighing deeply, looking grimly into the bottom of an empty glass (one I will just have emptied), wishing this visual torture and general lack of imagination would end.
In cinemas there’ll be a groan of recognition from the back row seeing another classic turned not so by an American filmmaker or producer. That’ll be me. In normally polite conversation there’ll be a snort of derision at the mere mention of it and the implication that it has any relevance to me. Again, that’ll be me.
(And I’m sorry about that, okay?! It just slipped out…)
That’s not to suggest there haven’t been a few successful takes on Asian classics. Kurosawa inspired two fine versions in The Magnificent Seven and A Fistful Of Dollars, of course. And there’s been others too, but how many hold a candle to the originals brilliance? You know what? I didn’t even think Scorsese’s The Departed was that great, not in comparison to Andrew Lau and Alan Mak’s Infernal Affairs. Sure the acting was fine, the script had a few good new lines, but would I watch it again? Really? I don’t think so… not if there’s a chance to watch the original instead.
(And in my house that happens quite a bit.)
But of late there’s been a trend going the other way, Asian filmmakers remaking US films, and oddly I’m quite for it. A chance to get their own back, and – unlike a lot of Western filmmakers – actually add something new to the original.
It’s not new, of course, Asian filmmakers have been using Hollywood successes as a point of reference for some time. Take the highly enjoyable Taxi Hunter, which riffed off Falling Down, casting Anthony Wong in the Michael Douglas role, jettisoning the whole ‘but he’s psychotic anyway?’ thing and replacing pedantic fast food chains with a villain everyone can rally against – Hong Kong taxi drivers. More recently Lee Jeong-beom took on Taken and came up with the superior The Man From Nowhere.
Official remakes have been, until now, a little rarer. Recently Benny Chan remade Cellular with all the excesses Hong Kong cinema can offer, and again improved immensely on the original with Connected. And now Zhang Yimou, director of Hero, House Of Flying Daggers, Raise The Red Lantern, Not One Less, Story Of Qiu Ju (and far too many other great movies to mention) comes an altogether personal take on the Coen brothers debut Blood Simple.
(Interestingly just called Blood Simple in the UK, presumably so British audiences wouldn’t get confused about the concept of it being a remake. Even though it’s been called A Woman, A Gun and A Noodle Shop and A Simple Noodle Story in other territories. Way to go not confusing us!)
Zhang Yimou moves the action from Texas to a remote noodle shop outside Zhangye, in China’s Gansu province. Much like the original, the rich restaurant owner Wang (Ni Dahong, Curse Of The Golden Flower, Lifetimes) plots to assassinate his wife (Yan Ni, Kung Fu Dunk, True Legend) – who he thinks is having an affair – enlisting corrupt local official Zhang (Sun Honglei, Triangle, The Road Home, Zhou Yu’s Train, Seven Swords) to do the deed.
Of course, where such unscrupulous, devious individuals are involved nothing goes quite to plan, with misunderstandings and presumptions building confusions to the films dramatic conclusion.
Unsurprisingly, like most of Zhang’s recent work this met with a mixed, initially lukewarm reception. Here Zhang plays far more heavily on the farcical nature of the premise. Within the claustrophobic surroundings of the restaurant and it’s buildings, this is played far more comically than the original, and takes on a far more theatrical quality.
There’s more than a little of King Hu’s Dragon Inn at play here, and even Wong Kar-wai’s Ashes Of Time. The later, in particular, feels like a very similar landscape, but it’s interesting that the desert he’s chosen, with it’s mineral patterned sands and rock layers, is a dead ringer for that around the Grand Staircase-Escalante in the US. I couldn’t help thinking this was more influenced from the Coen’s more recent No Country For Old Men. (The reverberations of this film I think are still being felt in the East.)
The wife’s abusive relationship with her husband also almost seems to pay tribute to Zhang’s own Red Lantern, though much more simplified in context. But unlike the original Blood Simple, Zhang distances himself from the adultery of the original, using this as an opportunity for yet another misunderstanding, and again bringing out the deliberate farce of the piece.
It’s a superbly shot by cinematographer Zhao Xiaoding, a collaborator with Yimou since House Of Flying Daggers, working on the greatly contrasting Curse Of The Golden Flower and Riding Alone For Thousands Of Miles. Drenched in bright, saturated colours, the casts gaudy, almost neon costumes feel as baroque as those in Golden Flower.
And yet as the film turns darker, and oddly closer to the source material, it also arguably becomes more successful. Moonlight against the dramatic landscape, Zhang and Zhao seem to find a style that both embodies the spirit of the Coens, and expands on it. A brilliantly straight and bone-chilling performance by the ever-relable Sun Honglei sets an altogether different tone.
There’s fun to be had unpicking the scenes that directly reference the original, and those that are added.
By the end the film is so close even the dialogue is almost word for word, and the final scene pays far too much tribute to that in the original, which seems rather unnecessary.
Though some critics may have bemoaned the approach, at worst this is a director letting his hair down (after that Olympics ceremony) And when you’ve covered as many serious issues as he has in is career surely you can’t blame him for that? And what do the Coen’s think? Well, according to one report, they loved it, and so they should.
(And let’s face it, they’re not exactly above the ‘remake’. No, I’ve still not forgiven them for The Ladykillers… Sorry, there I go again…!)
Saying that rating wise this was always going to be a tricky one. It’s actually a pretty successful take on a classic original, but could I give this four stars in line with Zhang’s other films. Sadly, no…
Zhang Yimou’s Blood Simple is released on UK DVD by Momentum Pictures on Monday 18 April.
DVD details
Distributor: Momentum Pictures (UK)
Another fairly lacklustre release from Momentum has a great transfer of the movie, but nothing other than a trailer.
In fact they put so much effort into the release it bears a warning along the lines of 'the views expressed in interviews and commentaries…' even though there aren't any!
UK fans may be disappointed that there's no Blu-ray release, unlike in the US.
