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March 07, 2005
Purple Butterfly on DVD, 3/4/05
This was one very long movie. Zhang Zhi-Yi is part of some cell rebelling against the Japanese occupation of Shanghai. Turns out she was in love with some hot Japanese student who conveniently becomes the head of the spy network, so she conveniently becomes his girlfriend again. It's one of those movies where very little happens and there's so little talking, even when characters share the same screen. It's been a long time since I've seen so many characters walking around in the rain saying nothing. I kept thinking we could have edited this just to save us some time. It's Wong Kar-Wai influenced, with all the blue filters and leisurely takes, but without his sense of storytelling. We see every plot point in the this movie and each one seems to take hours.
There's a second storyline concerning a Chinese businessman gets who gets dragged into this mess when his girlfriend is shot during a raid at a train station. The two narratives collide and, of course, the movie ends with a shootout. The final coda takes place slightly before the end where Zhang Zhi-Yi and her revolutionary cohort/ex get it on. This would have been amazing if it were just a little shorter and less blue all the time.
Posted by deaconmf at March 7, 2005 10:21 AM
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