Purple Butterfly

"Purple Butterfly" puts us in media res in a moment in history--the years leading up to the Second Sino-Japanese War--that may be unfamiliar to some viewers. It links the lives of several people tragically brought together with a time-scrambling plot, a device familiar from "Amores Perros." This combination may account for some of the impatience and confusion some viewers have expressed; but I found the film brilliant. I particularly liked the courageously (for Westerners)slow pace of many scenes--the scene at the railway station, where the protagonist (played by Zhang Ziyi) gradually moves from background to foreground, is especially good. Those looking for Hong Kong-style action will be disappointed. Those open to a humane, thoughtful twist on the intrigue genre will probably like it. Fans of Ms. Zhang from her martial arts films will have the opportunity to see her in a less stylized role.

While the story might give one an eye sore and a headache having to keep up with the multiple characters in the storyline, there is an air of independent film-making that transcends the film's confusion. One should also note how excellent the camera-work is for those who enjoy the Italian Neo-realist films of the 1940's and 50's.

This film is perhaps one of the most interesting of films on Chinese history told from the perspective of the Chinese themselves. The background, actors, crowded train stations and gunfights, would seem difficult to recreate in an independent film. However, the director succeeds in creating 1930's Japanese occupied Shanghai and how war affects those who are involved, both politically & non-politically. For anyone who hasn't seen a film from China other than the heavily laden Kung Fu movies made here in the U.S., Purple Butterfly is both a refresher and an excellent look at Neo-Realism in Chinese Cinema today.

Many have commented on how confusing the film's plot is, and I agreed on first viewing. A second viewing, however, shows everything quite intricately and deftly and =coherently= composed. People are used to films telling them things with words, which a visual medium doesn't necessarily have to do. The images give you everything here, provided you're paying attention, which shouldn't be too much for a director to ask. The first 20 minutes play out almost like a silent movie, as Lou uses the most delicately suggestive fragments to introduce us to the star-crossed lovers Itami (Toru Nakamura) and Cynthia (Zhang Ziyi). Zhang, in my opinion, deserves every close-up she gets.

Purple Butterfly has a chaotic editing style and claustrophobic cinematography. The story line cuts back in forth from the past to the present and is hard to follow. The scenes are rainy and blurred and the cinematographer's choice of lens made some of the action blurred. This all makes Purple Butterfly seem like a bad movie, but it is suitable to the mood and story being told. Purple Butterfly is dramatic and experimental in its ways and was one of the best films at Cannes Film Festival.

"Purple Butterfly (Zi hudie)" is a Chinese take on "Charlotte Gray."

There are also references to "The Third Man" in how the characters' loyalties and knowledge of each other's motives switch, to "Shanghai Express" for the trains, locales and extensive close-ups of beautiful faces, and to "Casablanca" as if these characters had more dialogue they would probably say something about their personal lives not amounting to a hill of beans amidst war breaking out in the late 1930's.

Elaborate period production design and lush cinematography with very slow camera movement substitute for dialogue.

I know very little of Sino-Japanese relations at this period so I probably missed important portents as the film first follows what I thought were two sets of star-crossed lovers in Manchuria and then Shanghai, whose lives only gradually obviously intersect.

I consequently found some plot points confusing, particularly as I wasn't sure if the characters were spectacularly bad shots at point blank range or if we were seeing flashbacks to the point that I wondered if the projectionist had mixed up reels.

I also wasn't sure if I was supposed to have a positive reaction to Tôru Nakamura's character, as the movie is so virulently anti-Japanese, but I found him a very charismatic actor who had terrific chemistry with the very expressive Ziyi Zhang despite the formalized set pieces of their interactions and even though I wasn't really sure about her personal feelings within her Mata Hari activities.

It was completely gratuitous to close the movie with newsreel footage of Japanese atrocities in various Chinese cities during the war. Yes, we know this war was hell on civilians but hey I'm watching for the romances.