Starring: Ziyi Zhang, Liu Ye, Feng Yuanzheng, Toru Nakamura Script: Lou Ye Original Title: Zi hudie Running Time: 2:07 Country: China Year: 2003

Love in the storm of history. 1930's Manchuria: Japan occupies the country. A group of Chinese resistance fighters battle against the Japanese oppressor. Soon, this organization, known under the name Purple Butterfly, foments the assassination of a Japanese dignitary.

Lou Ye, for whom this is the first official production in China after the very notable Suzhou River (2000), delivers a stylized work with a shattering temporal structure, far from a sepia-toned historical reconstitution. With a classic motif, which would call for an orthodox production, Lou Ye explores formal experimentation: the abrupt changes of tone, the brutality of camera movements, the juxtaposition of large disjointed panoramic shots; all of these elements contribute to the cunning sophistication of the film.

Shaken by the abrupt overflowing of violence, the film fully asserts its membership to contemporary cinema. The main sequence of the station, where the Chinese and Japanese confront each other, surprises with its jerky découpage and its tight shots of great visual force.

Moreover, this pivotal scene structures the story from beginning to end. The destiny of each of the protagonists is played at this key time. Lou Ye returns to this primitive scene after the disappearance of each member of the organization. This temporal loop aims to make the feeling of fate both palpable and vibrant. Indeed, the characters are unaware that they will seal their destiny in this station. Lou Ye puts the audience one length ahead of the tragedy that is inexorably under way.

Lou Ye opts for an excessive aestheticism. Purple Butterfly disintegrates slowly before our eyes, while the organization and the tragic love of these young people gradually break up. The film closes on horrific footages from the era. This return to the use of archive, in a film that asserted its formal singularity from beginning to end, invalidates the director's stylistic approach.

A story of resistance, Purple Butterfly is essentially good for the faultless performances of its actors, with the sumptuous Zhang Ziyi as the lead.

  Sandrine Marques
  Translated into English by Anji Milanovic