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Purple Butterfly (Zi hudie) (2003)

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All Critics
Top Critics

Average Rating: 5.5/10
Reviews Counted: 20
Fresh: 9 | Rotten: 11

Ye Lou's Purple Butterfly is atmospheric and moody, but the story is frustratingly muddled.

Average Rating: 5.8/10
Critic Reviews: 8
Fresh: 4 | Rotten: 4

Ye Lou's Purple Butterfly is atmospheric and moody, but the story is frustratingly muddled.

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Average Rating: 3/5
User Ratings: 1,318

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Movie Info

Directed by Lou Ye, Zi Hudie revolves around the underground faction of anti-Nipponese fighters in 1930s Shanghai, just prior to the onset of the Sino-Japanese war. It's only the beginning when Cynthia (Zhang Ziyi), a young Chinese woman, learns the news of her lover Itami's (Toru Nakamura) rapidly approaching return to the military. In a second and even more devastating blow, Cynthia's brother, a contributor to an anti-Japanese newspaper, is killed by a Japanese activist. Three years later,

R, 2 hr. 7 min.

Art House & International, Drama

Directed By: Ye Lou

Written By: Ye Lou

In Theaters: Nov 26, 2004 Wide

On DVD: Feb 15, 2005

Palm Pictures

Purple Butterfly (Zi hudie) Trailer & Photos

Cast

Ziyi Zhang
Cynthia, Ding Hui
Ye Liu
Situ (Szeto)
Yuanzheng Feng
Xie Ming
T�ru Nakamura
Hidehiko Itami
Bingbing Li
Tang Yiling
Kin Ei
Yamamoto

Critic Reviews for Purple Butterfly (Zi hudie)

All Critics (24) | Top Critics (8) | Fresh (9) | Rotten (12) | DVD (6)

At the center of it all is, of course, Zhang. Charismatic and intense, she excels in her most grown-up role to date.

February 25, 2005 Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle

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G. Allen Johnson

San Francisco Chronicle

Top Critic

There are two movies battling for supremacy in Butterfly, and both lose. As does the audience.

January 21, 2005 Full Review Source: Boston Globe

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Ty Burr

Boston Globe

Top Critic

As atmospheric and moody as a film noir, the stylish, sometimes perplexing Purple Butterfly is a remarkable period piece, evoking the bustling, dense and increasingly dangerous Shanghai of the '30s.

January 13, 2005 Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times

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Kevin Thomas

Los Angeles Times

Top Critic

Mr. Lou synthesizes a wide range of styles and influences -- from Casablanca to Wong Kar-wai -- resulting in a movie that, for all its haunting strangeness, seems curiously familiar.

November 29, 2004 Full Review Source: New York Times

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A.O. Scott

New York Times

Top Critic

Throughout, Zhang emotes like Bette Davis.

November 26, 2004 Comment

V.A. Musetto

New York Post

Top Critic

Too often, Purple Butterfly is as impenetrable as Zhang's placid, obdurate beauty.

November 24, 2004 Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly

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Lisa Schwarzbaum

Entertainment Weekly

Top Critic

The plot may be a little hard to follow, but the film-making is skillful and any effort on the viewer's part is well worth it

May 28, 2005 Full Review | Comment

Luke Y. Thompson

New Times

Strictly for card-carrying members of the Zhang Ziyi Fan Club.

February 10, 2005 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine

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Ed Gonzalez

Slant Magazine

Just like nuclear energy, long cinematic pauses can be used properly for the benefit of all, while in the wrong hands they can cause mass misery.

February 2, 2005 Full Review Source: Arizona Daily Star

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Phil Villarreal

Arizona Daily Star

An at times pretty but nonetheless forgettable film.

January 20, 2005 Full Review Source: Now Playing Magazine

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Brent Simon

Now Playing Magazine Source: Now Playing Magazine

A gorgeous period melodrama, packed with romantic tragedy and violent intrigue, it is both gritty and dreamy, political and personal.

January 14, 2005 Full Review Source: Los Angeles Daily News

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Bob Strauss

Los Angeles Daily News

Hectic, lyrical, swooningly romantic and almost unwatchably brutal.

January 12, 2005 Full Review Source: L.A. Weekly

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Ella Taylor

L.A. Weekly

... rich with emotional turmoil and searing beauty, but it could have used a little more time in the editing room to make sense of it all.

January 10, 2005 Full Review Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer

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Sean Axmaker

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

The art of it is entirely in the atmospherics; the rest is melodrama. Its 127 minute exercise in puzzle solving is draining.

January 9, 2005 Full Review Source: Cinema Signals

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Jules Brenner

Cinema Signals

The characters are less compelling than this particular slice of history, which has rarely been dramatized in movies.

January 7, 2005 Full Review Source: Seattle Times

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John Hartl

Seattle Times

Give in to the mood piece and bathe in its glamorous nostalgic glow. It's a beauty.

December 3, 2004 Full Review Source: E! Online

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E! Online

More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Purple Butterfly (Zi hudie)

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Purple Butterfly is quite an interesting watch. It isn't interesting in the way where the story just knocks your socks off or where the film just spans many genres. This is a straight up Chinese gangster drama with a different way of telling the story.This film is almost like a silent picture. The dialogue is down

September 25, 2008

Justin Y

Super Reviewer

[font=Century Gothic]Absolutely incoherent film about Chinese resistance to the Japanese invasion of Manchuria and Shanghai in 1927 and 1931. Now, that's the part that I understood. Anything involving specific characters, or more precisely who was shooting at whom while at the same time carrying on love affairs with

December 14, 2004