Several days after leaving Hangzhou, I went to see Butterfly Lovers, according to legendary record, which occurred in Hangzhou thousand years ago. The Butterfly Lovers or Liang Zhu is a Chinese legend about the tragic romance between two lovers, Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai,which is equivalent to Romeo and Juliet in western world. Though the content of the film is different, but the theme remains unchanged. A girl disguised as a boy to learn martial arts in Mount XiaoYao with a large group boys. Suddenly or gradually ( it looks contradictory), she felt in love with a boy honest and indignant, while the boy has the same feeling. I still not able to find out a word equivalent to "yuan fen" in English, but I find out an excuse to explain my incompetence that it seems "yuan fen "exclusively belongs to Chinese. And thanks to God, I am a Chinese and able to read Chinese. The ending is the same, two lovers stay together in the same tomb and a couple of butterflies arise as incarnation.But the elite, touching scene inspired or evoked by affection seemingly arising from friendship, was missed in this film. Three-year classmate fellowship, 18-miles send-off on Mount Phoenix are no longer being seen in "modern films" featured by pop stars. It seems soul of traditional Chinese culture greatly lies in ambiguity or subtlety (of course not misunderstanding) especially in expression of any affection, sensation, emotion, sensibility etc; certainly in history it used to lead to unbelievable disaster as many literary men were accused of defaming emperor or ruling class by literal allusion. But Complex is complex, it means a lot to a person who indulges himself or herself in ancient myth or poetry. Anyway, I still can't help weeping silently for two lovers' struggle against malicious power and the incarnation of butterflies, though the latter seems a little bit pompous but mediocre at the same time. But perhaps it's the romance hiding in the depth of mind, could be waken up at any time. After all, I heard a news that China has attempted to list this folklore story as intangible world heritage and already accepted by UNESCO. Certainly, the story is engaging and memorable, but it's not easy for all of the world especially those who do not have much knowledge in Chinese culture to appreciate this story ostensibly old-fashioned but permeated by delicate feeling and poetical melancholy.
Review of Butterfly Lovers
