The Coen Brothers' first feature film, Blood Simple, was a gritty piece of neo-noir filled with murder, betrayal and a whole lot of bad people. The film went on to win the Grand Jury Prize for drama at the Sundance Film Festival and pushed Joel and Ethan on a path that has been on an upward trend ever since. When it was announced that a Chinese remake was in the works no one batted an eye, as one of the nation's most talented directors (Zhang Yimou) is at the helm and Lord knows we have remade enough films from the region that we have no right to complain. After all, it's not like they would change the film by completely flipping the tone and replacing the chiaroscuro lighting with bright neons...right?
The new international trailer for the remake, now titled The First Gun, has been released and, to put it mildly, it's very weird. The first 40 seconds are packed with such utter chaos - involving insane laughter, men in women's clothing, girls breaking through walls and spinning knives - that you almost get the sense that Zhang Yimou never popped the original into the DVD player. After that, things seem to get more on pace, but seeing reflections of the original remains a challenge. Take a look for yourself in the trailer embedded below.
