The second feature from Hong Kong independent director Yan Yan Mak has been one of the most talked about films of 2004. A small-scale film that sits on the border of independent and commercial film-making, Butterfly premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2004 as the Opening Film for the International Critics' Week. It has since been invited to many film festivals around the world, including Stockholm, Pusan, Tokyo, Bangkok, India, Brazil and Australia. It also received two nominations at Taiwan's Golden Horse Awards in 2004: Best Screenplay Adaptation for Mak and Best New Performer for Tian Yuan.
Butterfly is adapted from Taiwanese author Chen Hsueh's short story "The Mark of the Butterfly". Starring Josie Ho, Eric Kot, Tian Yuan, Isabel Chan and Joman Chaing, it is about a woman's struggle to come to terms with her true self, the importance to break out from her cocoon and set herself free.
Like a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis, Flavia finds her lesbian passion reawakened after a chance encounter with a carefree and spirited singer / songwriter. A shattering new film form award-winning director Yan Yan Mak (Gege, 2001), Butterfly alternates between the past and the present, juxtaposing a romance to a rebellious human rights activist in 1989 with her current struggles as a wife and mother. Fronted by a brave and sympathetic...
