‘Purple Butterfly’ too convoluted
Published 9:00 pm Thursday, January 6, 2005
The drawing card for “Purple Butterfly” is without question Zhang Ziyi, the gorgeous Chinese actress who wowed audiences in 2004 with her performances in “Hero” and “House of Flying Daggers.”
Banish all thoughts of those entertaining martial-arts sagas, however. “Purple Butterfly” is a serious drama of a maddeningly obscure kind.
Zhang Ziyi plays a woman, called variously Cynthia and Ding Hui, who lives in Shanghai in the early 1930s. Japanese aggression, which will lead to World War II, has already put its handprints on her country, and she is a member of an underground resistance group devoted to fighting the Japanese.
Complication: She has had a passionate affair with a Japanese man, Itami (Toru Nakamura), who returned to Japan. When he comes again to Shanghai, she and her conspirators know they must assassinate him.
This sounds like a promising story, but “Purple Butterfly” is not interested in telling a story. I’m not even sure in what part of the above chronology Ding Hui joined the Purple Butterfly organization.
Director Ye Lou, whose film “Suzhou River” made an impression on the festival circuit a few years ago, has opted for an elliptical style throughout. The film appears to be arranged around flashbacks, but I couldn’t swear to it.
He’s certainly a talent with lighting and camera movement, as “Purple Butterfly” looks very beautiful. There are shots of streets at dusk and interiors of dance halls that take your breath away.
Or they would, if you had any idea what the characters were doing. I found the movie so impenetrable that it soon became a series of handsome shots, one after the other, in what seemed suspiciously like random-play order.
It’s frustrating, too, because every now and then something galvanizing happens. There’s one great sequence that has an unfortunate fellow mistaken at a train station for a spy, whereupon he is caught in the crossfire between Purple Butterfly and Japanese agents. It’s superbly done, and the guy then becomes a continuing character in his own right … but I couldn’t keep his story straight, either.
And Zhang Ziyi? Very good, especially while dancing with Itami and realizing the moment of truth with him has come. But even fans of this heartthrob will find their enthusiasm severely taxed by the mystifying film around her.
“Purple Butterfly”HH
Confusing: Set in early 1930s Shanghai, the Japanese try to move in and an underground Chinese resistance group fights back. The actual story is mystifying, as director Ye Lou plays scenes in what seems to be random order. Zhang Ziyi stars. (In Mandarin, with English subtitles.)
Rated: R rating is for violence, subject matter.
Now showing: Grand Illusion, 1405 NE 50th St., Seattle; www.grandillusioncinema.org; 206-523-3935.
“Purple Butterfly”HH
Confusing: Set in early 1930s Shanghai, the Japanese try to move in and an underground Chinese resistance group fights back. The actual story is mystifying, as director Ye Lou plays scenes in what seems to be random order. Zhang Ziyi stars. (In Mandarin, with English subtitles.)
Rated: R rating is for violence, subject matter.
Now showing: Grand Illusion, 1405 NE 50th St., Seattle; www.grandillusioncinema.org; 206-523-3935.
