“A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop” is a remake of the 1985 directorial debut of Joel and Ethan Coen, “Blood Simple.” Zhang Yimou (“Red Sorghum,” “To Live,” “Hero,” “House of Flying Daggers”), one of the most eminent directors of the “Fifth Generation,” transposes the Coen Brother’s celebrated mix of dark humor and riveting suspense to a noodle shop in western China. This black comedy thriller is an exposé of how intense desires can consume humanity, and the irony that life never submits to our calculation.

Wang is a gloomy and cunning noodle shop owner in a desert town in China. Feeling neglected, Wang’s wife secretly goes out with his employee, Li. A timid man, Li reluctantly keeps the gun the landlady bought for ‘killing her husband later’. However, not a single move they make escapes the boss’s notice, and he decides to bribe patrol officer Zhang to kill the illicit couple. It looks like a perfect plan: the affair will come to a cruel but satisfying end… or so he thinks, but the equally wicked Zhang has an agenda of his own that will lead to even more violence