A Woman, a Gun, and a Noodle Shop
Reviewed by
Drew Tewksbury
September 02, 2010
An old, greedy noodle-shop proprietor named Wang (Ni Dahong) lords over his wife and three employees who live behind the red clay walls of his desert fortress. Mars would seem less remote. Disenchanted with Wang's cruelty, his wife (played ebulliently by Yan Ni) begins an affair with Li (Xiao Shenyang), a cowardly cook, who can spin and throw noodles in impressive, nearly acrobatic displays. Tired of Wang's offenses, the wife buys a gun from a Persian trader. With the primitive gun comes temptation of power: Wang's wife plans to murder her husband and run away with her endearingly nervous lover. But when Wang discovers the affair, he secretly hires a sinister patrol officer, Zhang (Sun Hunglei) to kill his cheating wife and her suitor. It's all the makings of a great country song, Chinese-style. The performances are excellent. Ni wades through a gamut of emotions; she's a particularly hilarious scorned wife, performing physical comedy feats alongside Shenyang—who makes his big-screen debut as the bungling and emotionally inept Li—and her blood-curdling scream is admirable. With his quivering lip and shaky legs, Li's trembling fear conveys the terror of being hunted by a machinelike murderer in a stark landscape where there is nowhere to hide. Hunglei does not breathe life into the malicious cop Zhang; instead he sucks the life out of him, creating an ice-cold, stony-faced killer whose heart beats only for money and death. He is a Chinese Anton Chigurh, patrolling the barren wasteland, his creaking leather armor breaking the desert quiet as he stalks. With a fine balance of beautiful scenery and costumes, dark humor and breath-holding moments of suspense, "A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop," serves up whimsical thrills at the ends of the earth. Genre: Foreign/Thriller. Written by: Jianquan Shi, Jing Shang. Directed by: Yimou Zhang. Starring: Ni Dahong, Xiao Shenyang, Yan Ni, Sun Hunglei, Cheng Ye. |
|
More Movie / TV Reviews
ADVERTISEMENT
Sponsors
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Events Calendar
Industry Grosses
| Rank | Title | Gross |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | WICKED | $1,534,111 |
| 2. | THE LION KING | $1,445,999 |
| 3. | SPIDER-MAN TURN OFF THE DARK | $1,433,241 |
| 4. | THE BOOK OF MORMON | $1,425,488 |
| 5. | HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING | $1,319,824 |
| 6. | WAR HORSE | $960,191 |
| 7. | JERSEY BOYS | $915,982 |
| 8. | PORGY AND BESS | $878,884 |
| 9. | FOLLIES | $878,880 |
| 10. | THE MOUNTAINTOP | $693,128 |
Week ending Feb 06, 2012.
Credit: The Broadway League
| Rank | Title | Gross |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | CHRONICLE | $22,004,098 |
| 2. | WOMAN IN BLACK, THE | $20,874,072 |
| 3. | GREY, THE | $9,300,999 |
| 4. | BIG MIRACLE | $7,760,205 |
| 5. | UNDERWORLD AWAKENING | $5,500,744 |
| 6. | ONE FOR THE MONEY | $5,206,279 |
| 7. | RED TAILS | $4,735,595 |
| 8. | DESCENDANTS, THE | $4,552,943 |
| 9. | MAN ON A LEDGE | $4,351,036 |
| 10. | EXTREMELY LOUD & INCREDIBLY CLOSE | $3,802,367 |
Week ending Feb 06, 2012.
