Purple Butterfly . February 26th 2005 05:02am | Posted by: Editor-in-Chief Purple Butterfly Review by Vince D’Amato Starring: Zhang Ziyi, Lou Ye, Feng Yuan Zheng, Toru Nakmura. Directed by: Lou Ye. Released by: Seville Pictures. The Movie: Actually shot and released in Asia in 2003, co-star Zhang Ziyi gets top billing now thanks to her roles in the internationally released Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and House of Flying Daggers. Zhang Ziyi is good in this movie and is as appealing as always, but her role in this film is actually more as part of an ensemble cast in a movie that is promoted here as an Asian action-thriller, but is actually a Chinese political thriller. The style of Purple Butterfly, for the first 45 minutes, could be compared so some of the works of famed director Bernardo Bertolucci, specifically his 1998 film Besieged, where we are introduced to Zhang, her Japanese lover and her brother (Zhang and her brother are Chinese). Set in 1928, the Japanese army invades and occupies Shanghai. Within the first 15 minutes of the film, Zhang loses her lover when he goes back to Japan and her brother to a Japanese political extremist. Sadly, we’re not given enough time to know these characters before the unfortunate events take place, so sympathy for Zhang’s character is minimal. It’s obvious at this point that this film wants to place its emphasis on story and plot as opposed to the characters. Getting into the second act of the film (taking place in the story a couple of years later), Zhang’s Japanese lover –now a rebel assassin- arrives by train into Shanghai and is confused with a Chinese man. The Chinese man is whisked away, mistaken for the assassin. A beautifully shot, yet frustrating action scene occurs at the train station, where the director creates confusion and brings the viewers into the action almost in a first-person point of view, so the viewers can experience the feeling of the characters involved. Unfortunately, that feeling is nothing but misplaced mayhem and disorder. As a stylistic device, it works (maybe a little too well) but then this same device is used more than once, only building the feeling of frustration. Admittedly, this is a thinking person’s film. Perhaps too much so. The shots are gorgeous yet cold, like the characters themselves, and like the increasingly complex story of political double-crosses. As the film plays out, we lose some of the artistic style in favour of a deliberately slow pace that only reminded me of other political-thriller films like Gorky Park and Eminent Domain (neither of which I enjoyed very much). And ultimately, despite all its good points, Purple Butterfly simply offers nothing extraordinary. Purple Butterfly is certainly an interesting drama, but I can’t actually say it was a captivating one. The DVD: Thankfully, Seville has released Purple Butterfly in (or at least close to) its original form – a 1.78:1 picture ratio – and in its original language with English subtitles, mixed for 5.1 Dolby Surround. The Extras: The extras are as cold as the movie… There’s a trailer gallery of other films, nothing else. Source: HNR In: DVD Reviews |Visit the HNR Forums

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