Each Tuesday evening for the last little bit, I synchronously screen a 90-minute or shorter feature on the Criterion Channel for whichever of the students in my honors college enrichment group shows up. Often that means as few as two plus me, but it doesn't matter because it is making me choose new-to-me films in a way I otherwise don't, having long ago lost my sense of urgency after decades of no library late fees as an academic (and a video store employee before that). I narrow my choices down to a few titles and decide right when we start, sending the students a link to the film via Zoom. And then, off we go! Having folx with whom to talk about the film afterward feels like getting away with something.
All this is prelude to saying that this past Tuesday we watched Zhang Yimou's A Woman, and Gun, and A Noodle Shop, which transplants the Coen brothers' Texas-set debut feature Blood Simple to 19th century China. It spins like a top.
And, of course, the colors....
