Purple Butterfly (Zi hudie) (2003)
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: 5.9/10
Critic Reviews: 9
Fresh: 5 | Rotten: 4
Ye Lou's Purple Butterfly is atmospheric and moody, but the story is frustratingly muddled.
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Average Rating: 3.1/5
User Ratings: 1,337
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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,
Cast
-
Ziyi Zhang
Cynthia, Ding Hui -
Ye Liu
Situ (Szeto) -
Yuanzheng Feng
Xie Ming -
Tôru Nakamura
Hidehiko Itami -
Bingbing Li
Tang Yiling -
Kin Ei
Yamamoto
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All Critics (24) | Top Critics (10) | 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.
Top CriticThere are two movies battling for supremacy in Butterfly, and both lose. As does the audience.
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.
The characters are less compelling than this particular slice of history, which has rarely been dramatized in movies.
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.
Throughout, Zhang emotes like Bette Davis.
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
Strictly for card-carrying members of the Zhang Ziyi Fan Club.
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.
An at times pretty but nonetheless forgettable film.
A gorgeous period melodrama, packed with romantic tragedy and violent intrigue, it is both gritty and dreamy, political and personal.
Hectic, lyrical, swooningly romantic and almost unwatchably brutal.
... 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.
The art of it is entirely in the atmospherics; the rest is melodrama. Its 127 minute exercise in puzzle solving is draining.
Give in to the mood piece and bathe in its glamorous nostalgic glow. It's a beauty.
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Foreign Titles
- Purple Butterfly (DE)
- Purple Butterfly (UK)
