Butterfly Lovers (2008)

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General		Extras
Category	Romance	Gallery-Photo
Rating
Year Of Production	2008
Running Time	102:24
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Jingle Ma
Studio Distributor	Big Pictures Ltd Gryphon Entertainment	Starring	Charlene Choi Wu Chun Hu Ge
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$24.95	Music	ChiuTsang-Hei

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Unknown	Cantonese Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English (Burned In)	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     Butterfly Lovers (Mo hup leung juk) is based on a timeless Chinese legend that has been frequently reinterpreted in print and film, including Tsui Hark’s Leung juk (The Lovers) in 1994. Butterfly Lovers starts with a narration giving the legend: a young virgin couple in heaven fall in love and are banished to the mortal world to suffer for 10 lifetimes. This film is the story of their tenth reincarnation: we know it is not going to end well.

     Zhu Yanzhi (Charlene Choi) is the daughter of a wealth family. In troubled political times her father sends her, disguised as a man, to the martial arts school of an old friend. There she meets and falls in love with Liang Zhongshan (Wu Chun). He is attracted to the youth but, of course, takes some time to realise that Yanzhi is really a woman. When he does their love becomes mutual. Meanwhile, back home her childhood friend Ma (Hu Ge) gains the political upper hand and imprisons Yanzhi’s parents; he will only release them if Yanzhi will marry him. To save her family and to protect Zhongshan Yanzhi agrees but with the help of a herbalist she takes a drug that causes her to fall into a deathlike state on her wedding day. Unfortunately, the secret of the drug is lost when the herbalist is killed, so Zhongshan arrives to take on Ma and his soldiers with predictable consequences.

     Butterfly Lovers was a labour of love for Jingle Ma who directed, co-wrote the screen play and was joint cinematographer. It is part romantic drama, part romantic comedy, part Romeo and Juliet and part martial arts epic, although it does none very well. The first half of the film is romantic comedy / drama full of soulful, meaningful glances (including a translated Chinese pop song) and sloppy comedy moments while Zhongshan tries to work out why he is attracted to Yanzhi, despite her being the least convincing man on screen since Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love. Once they pledge their love for each other, in a scene replete with enhanced colours and CGI butterflies, the drama, martial arts and Romeo and Juliet elements kick in.

     This legendary story of the doomed lovers should move us, but unfortunately it doesn’t. There are a number of reasons for this starting with the feel of the film; most plot points are clichéd and obvious, right down to the pouring rain and /or Yo-yo Ma type cello in “sad” sequences, and we always know at each stage where the film is going. The acting of the leads is also patchy and they fail to deliver on the intensity in key moments. They do look good, which may be fine for a pop video but does not work here. The martial arts sequences, from action co-ordinator Ching Siu-Tung, involve a degree of wire work and slow motion; there are some interesting moments, but not enough.

     Ultimately Butterfly Lovers fails because it tries to blend too many things and it will please neither fans of romance nor martial arts. The blurb states that “life is as fleeting as the butterfly, beautiful yet transient” and this legendary story of the doomed lovers should move us. Unfortunately it doesn’t.

Video

     Butterfly Lovers is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, the original theatrical ratio. The print often looks soft; many times the characters are placed in front of the light source but there are sufficient soft focus moments otherwise to suggest that this softness is intended.

     On the other hand, Butterfly Lovers has a vibrant colour palate, even discounting the deliberately enhanced colour sequences. Costumes, as could be expected in a period Chinese film, are bright with Yanzhi’s red wedding dress stunning, and many of the set designs (away from the muted colours of the martial arts school) are very colourful indeed. Skin tones are natural. In the few night sequences blacks were fine but shadow detail could have been better. I did not notice any obvious film grain or artefacts.

     The English subtitles are forced. They are in a clean white font but contain a number of grammatical errors, commencing from the very first line of the film: “a pair of virgin boy and girl fell in love”. There are also American spellings and frequent annoying abbreviations, such as “bro” used always for “brother” and “cos” for “because”.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     The box of Butterfly Lovers indicates the audio is Dolby Digital 5.1. This is not correct: the film is presented with Cantonese Dolby Digital 2.0 surround encoded at 224 Kbps. It is not a particularly enveloping track but is perfectly adequate for the film. Dialogue is clear, some music occurs in the surrounds but the sub woofer is not used. As noted in the Region comparison below, Dolby Digital 2.0 audio tracks are the norm in other releases of the film.

     Lip synchronisation varies from acceptable to very poor. In some sections, such as the “Twin Beauties” sequence in the inn starting at 22:50, the synchronisation is so far off as to suggest that those actors were speaking Mandarin on set, not Cantonese.

     The music cues were frequently obvious, such as the Yo-yo Ma type cello in “sad” sequences, but they do not detract too much from the film experience.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Photo Gallery

     19 stills from the film without music. The remote must be used to advance to the next still.

     I can not find a release in Region 1 of Butterfly Lovers. The region free Hong Kong Release is NTSC, not 16x9 enhanced, includes Cantonese and Mandarin Dolby Digital 2.0 audio options but no extras. The Region 2 French release is 16x9 enhanced, has Cantonese Dolby Digital 2.0 audio, trailers and a 60 page booklet. There are burnt in French subtitles, but no English subtitles are available. Accordingly, for English speakers Region 4 is the best option at present.

     Butterfly Lovers is the legendary story of a pair of doomed lovers that should move us, but doesn’t. It is part romantic drama, part romantic comedy, part Romeo and Juliet and part martial arts epic but does none particularly well. The DVD has acceptable audio and video and minimal extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall