Kirpianuscus one of splendid films. for reminding of old flavor of comedy. for irony,for madness, for the circles of stories, for silk performances, for science to use tenderness and cruelty and the photography in the most inspired manner. so, a nice film. or, maybe, a happy meet with a great story and with its director. slices of western and Medieval stories and spectacular situations, beautiful fight scenes and remind of the force of...woman. so, perfect show.

jjritzpub I saw this film as a love song to the Coen brothers for their wry comedy _oeuvre_. Much like you can see _O Brother_ as a love song to country/bluegrass music; the Coens clearly are highly sophisticated musically, and can work their magic around this framework into a superb film.Note that it is _not_ a remake; _Blood Simple_ is hardly a comedy by any measure. It was just a starting point for Yang to hang his comedy on. And what a comedy it is! Elements of traditional Chinese film comedy: the slapstick, including the bumpkin assistant Zhao with the buck teeth; the hapless Li who finally finds his gumption; the remarkable acrobatics shots with the noodle preparation; the spunky little ingénue.The whole extended mime sequence near the end is pure Coen. The characters are gently satirized via their idiosyncratic behavior in the face of incongruous events (think Jeff Bridges in _Lebowski_.) Zhang shows us the universality of this kind of humor, born of Keaton in the silent era.Highly recommended!

Harry T. Yung 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.

mafkeez01 I saw this in the cinema yesterday without even knowing it was a Yimou Zhang movie, my friend told me afterwards that it was a Yimou film and i couldn't really believe him. It seems Yimou Zhang is looking for something new to do because is different that anything i've ever seen from him. To start with i haven't seen the original form the Coen brothers but this was pretty much a comedy with quite some slapstick and i don't know if the original is that way too. The film is OK but is missing what makes Zhang's previous movies good i cant put my finger on it but i didn't think Zhang did a great job on this, maybe because the fact he is new to comedy. The actors give a solid performance but can't lift the movie to higher heights its just an average movie for a boring Sunday to me.I must say i did get a few very good laughs out of it although sometimes in between the funny bits it seemed to turn into a drama which didn't really help it at all.Zhang perhaps could have focused on just the comedy or drama instead of trying to mix which didn't work out in the end. So in the end its an average movie but far below Zhang's capability as a gifted film maker.