Purple Butterfly (2003) Zi hudie (original title)

Director:

Ye Lou

Writer:

Ye Lou (writer)

Release Date:

17 September 2004 (Greece)

Genre:

Drama | History | War

Plot:

Ding Hui is a member of Purple Butterfly, a powerful resistance group in Japanese occupied Shanghai...

Plot Keywords:

Japanese | Shanghai | Sino Japanese War | Japan | Chinese

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Ziyi Zhang	...	Cynthia / Ding Hui (as Zhang Ziyi)
Ye Liu	...	Situ (Szeto)
Yuanzheng Feng	...	Xie Ming
Tôru Nakamura	...	Hidehiko Itami
Bingbing Li	...	Tang Yiling
Kin Ei	...	Yamamoto
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Seiichiro Hashimoto		(as Sciichiro Hashimoto)

Directed by
Ye Lou

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Ye Lou		writer

Produced by
Alain de la Mata	....	executive producer
Ye Lou	....	producer
Vincent Maraval	....	executive producer
An Nai	....	co-executive producer
Jean-Louis Piel	....	executive producer
Wang Wei	....	producer
Zheng Zhong	....	co-executive producer
Yongde Zhu	....	producer
Wu Zhuo	....	co-executive producer

Original Music by
Jörg Lemberg

Cinematography by
Yu Wang

Film Editing by
Xiaohong Che
Ye Lou

Production Design by
Weixin Liu

Art Direction by
James David Goldmark

Costume Design by
Weixin Liu

Production Management
Yongling Wu	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Bing Ren	....	assistant director
Lele Xu Le	....	second assistant director
Yanjia Zhang	....	assistant director

Sound Department
Jiajin Lu	....	sound

Other crew
Nairong Ge	....	action director
Shaoming Lu	....	action director
Min Zhou	....	action director

Production Companies

• Dream Factory
• Lou Yi Ltd.
• Shanghai Film Studios
• Shanghai SFS Digital Media Co.
• Wild Bunch

Distributors

• Palm Pictures (2004) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Rosebud (2004) (Greece) (theatrical)
• Cinemax (2005) (Hungary) (TV)

Also Known As:

"Zi hudie" - China (original title)

MPAA:

Rated R for strong violence and a scene of sexuality

Runtime:

France:127 min (Cannes Film Festival) | USA:127 min

Country:

China | France

Language:

Mandarin | Japanese | Vietnamese

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Singapore:M18 | USA:R | Australia:MA (TV rating) | Malaysia:18SG

Company:

Dream Factory

Soundtrack:

Could Not Get Your Love

Excellent film, Zhang Ziyi's best work

I'm not a big war film fan but I saw this film in spite of that fact primarily because of Zhang Ziyi's role in it. I'm split between this film and The Road Home as to which was her best role, but in both she made the character she played seem very real.

The pace of the film was a bit strange, there are painfully slow moments and then explosive terror and emotional intensity. The contrast made the intense moments stand out far more than films which are just continuous action and it allowed time to really get a sense of knowing the characters.

I wouldn't recommend this film to someone who is looking for an "action" type movie but for people who want serious drama set in a non-fictional historical setting which really focuses close-up on the human costs of war this film is excellent.