Purple Butterfly Film Difficulty Ranking: 4
You might find Purple Butterfly confusing to watch at first. It’s not clear what’s going on because of the constant cutting and lack of dialogue. However, if you watch on, you’ll be rewarded with a film that is stylistically different from many you’ve seen and uniquely beautiful.
From: China, Asia
Watch: Trailer, Buy on Amazon,
Next: The Grandmaster, Summer Palace, Burning
Why Watch Purple Butterfly?
- For it’s unique style – it breaks all the rules set out in Hollywood’s Golden Age
- Experience the confusion of 1930s Japanese occupied Shanghai
- For it’s ambient soundtrack and limited dialogue
- If you like variations on the film noir genre
The Breakdown
Purple Butterfly starts in Manchuria in 1928 in a metal work factory. You’ll follow a young Japanese man (Itami) walk out of the factory as his shift ends and meet his lover (Cynthia) by the rail tracks. After a few minutes of silence between them, the man mentions he’s going back to Japan the next day. Whilst they don’t talk much, maybe because Itami’s Chinese isn’t great, they’re obviously distraught to be separated.
However, on the same day that Itami leaves, Cynthia’s brother get’s murdered in the streets for being an advocate of Chinese independence in Manchuria. It’s at this point that Cynthia (now without Itami) moves to Shanghai and becomes a member of the Purple Butterfly resistance group to fight the Japanese occupiers.
Shanghai is where the action starts to unfold. Itami returns to China to lead the crack-down on the purple butterfly group that Cynthia’s a member of. They end up meeting up again – but will everything still be the same?
How Purple Butterfly is Unique
Purple Butterfly is very different to the films we’re used to seeing. Hollywood films have a sort of stylistic ‘film language’ that makes them more digestible and easier to follow. They almost always adhere to the 180 degree rule and the 30 degree rule.
- 180 degree rule: maintains that when there are two characters, the camera should not move outside of an imaginary 180 degree field to prevent confusing viewers about which character is which.
- 30 degree rule: maintains that the camera should move at least 30 degrees from the subject between successive shots of the same subject. Anything less than 30 degrees makes the transition between shots look like a jump cut (made famous by Jean Luc Godard).
Most films use these two rules in their style as they help guide viewers and limit confusion. Hollywood films also typically use sound to emphasise on screen emotions, and contain a lot of dialogue to progress the narrative.
In contrast, Lou Ye’s Purple Butterfly stylistically breaks a lot of the cinematic rules we are used to, which makes it much harder to follow and feel much different to what we’re used to. Firstly, he throws away the 30 degree rule and instead chooses to cut between shots of the same person whilst only slightly moving the camera to add even more drama to their emotions. Secondly, he largely throws out the dialogue that we are used to and replaces it with an ambient soundtrack that makes the film feel less real. Finally he cuts at will – cutting between shots and scenes all the time without warning us when. As a result, characters start to meld into each other making their jobs/aims appear more confused and murky. It’s a clever way to emphasise the pointlessness of war and fighting, and how it starts to dissolve your identity.
What to Watch Next
Check out The Grandmaster to see another stylish film set in occupied China. It’s not breaking all the film rules like Lou Ye, but it has a distinct Martial Arts style that is beautiful to watch.
You could also check out more films in Lou Ye’s filmography, such as the great (and controversial) Summer Palace which pairs well with Lee Chang-dong’s Burning.
You should also check out a Hollywood classic like Casablanca to see a true example of Hollywood film style to compare this film to. Then you can watch Jean Luc-Godard’s Breathless and Yasujiro Ozu’s Tokyo Story for two classic films that break it and create their own style.
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