This faithful remake of Blood Simple doesn't quite make it. The plot is there but the pacing and characters really don't do the story justice. There is a lot of unimaginative slapstick humor that seems really forced and intentional. I found it mostly distracting. The original Blood Simple does have some humor but it is dark. I don't think you necessarily have to include the same tone when a movie is remade, in fact, it may be a mistake. Remakes should come off more as cover songs, imbuing the new film with a different sense of time or place or character is essential in producing a decent remake. Most are just rehashes. I applaud this film in that respect. Yimou Zhang normally does interesting things with color in his films. It starts out brilliantly but the palate sort of fades into the background of the drudgery that is the third act of the film. Perhaps it was intentional but I needed something to look at as the story dragged on and on. I guess the title translates more directly to A Simple Noodle Story which is a much better title than the one it got in America but I suppose that's neither here nor there. The only real glory of this film is in this noodle making scene.
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