Gutsycurene Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

Siflutter It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Hattie I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Paul Childs *Spoilers* I've seen a few reviews carrying the opinion that Cynthia wasn't in love with Itami but Xie Ming based on the final love seen, but it doesn't quite seem to fit. They talk about it being a year since they had a fling and it is expressed as being a physical thing. He sure doesn't cut it as a lover and for her sex is more a celebration of being alive in the midst of tragedy. There is however a moment of emotional intimacy but not such that I can conclusively tell if it expresses feelings of the moment or if there's anything more. The film hints at more emotional interaction existing with Szeto. Cynthia seems to be torn between her feelings for Itami, the ideology of the group, and her distaste for violence used by it (shooting of Szeto early on). Her desire to use him seems a thin veil for her compassionate side. I think she is trying to hold her cards and has feelings all round (Itami re: memories of an age of innocence in childhood, Xie Ming re: her ideological side, maybe even Szeto for having both shared the loss of a loved one) In the end any love she has for Itami seems to be made void as after he discloses that Japan has successfully invaded, her going with him to Tokyo could no longer be made as an act of love but as an act of self preservation. She also sees the same coldness in Itami that has distanced her from Xie Ming. Enter Szeto and we have the traditional Chinese love tragedy wrapped up. I feel the film didn't say much but left a lot open to interpretation and speculation. It can leave a viewer with any number of impressions based on how they see and identify with the feelings portrayed. Some may see it as complex, others straightforward, but all can take away something from it. My preference would be to have a more complete picture by filling in the back story rather than just centring around Cynthia and Itami, but it did tell a good story in a natural way.

Aan While the story might give one an eye sore and a headache having to keep up with the multiple characters in the storyline, there is an air of independent film-making that transcends the film's confusion. One should also note how excellent the camera-work is for those who enjoy the Italian Neo-realist films of the 1940's and 50's.This film is perhaps one of the most interesting of films on Chinese history told from the perspective of the Chinese themselves. The background, actors, crowded train stations and gunfights, would seem difficult to recreate in an independent film. However, the director succeeds in creating 1930's Japanese occupied Shanghai and how war affects those who are involved, both politically & non-politically. For anyone who hasn't seen a film from China other than the heavily laden Kung Fu movies made here in the U.S., Purple Butterfly is both a refresher and an excellent look at Neo-Realism in Chinese Cinema today.

resvon I read comments about this being the best Chinese movie ever. Perhaps if the only Chinese movies you've seen contained no dialogue, long drawn-out far-away stares and silences, and hack editing, then you're spot on.Complicated story-line? Hardly. Try juvenile and amateurish. Exquisite moods and haunting memories? Hardly. Try flat-out boring and trite.This was awful. I could not wait for it to be over. Particularly when the best lines in the movie consist of "How are you? I'm fine. Are you sure? Yes." Wow! What depth of character. I guess the incessant cigarette smoking was supposed to speak for them.As a huge fan of many Chinese, Japanese and Korean films, I was totally disappointed in this. Even Zhang's sentimentally sappy "The Road Home" was better than this.

Harry T. Yung Following the well trodden path of the traditional spy romance, Purple Butterfly is shot in a languid melancholic mood and hue that is characteristic of director Lou Ye, but without the enigmatic air of Suzhou River.The plot is quite simple, but with a good deal of attention paid to details, and some normal use of flashbacks. The pace is slow, a refreshing change from the formulaic Hollywood slam-bang storytelling that has managed to kill the taste buds of a vast portion of moviegoers for finer things in movie-making. Zhang Ziyi, who has been such a disappointment looking like a wooden puppet in House of Flying Dagger in the hands of degenerated Zhang Yimou, looks much better here under the direction of Lau Ye. This all goes to show what a huge difference it can make to an actor between having a good director and a bad director. Set against the backdrop of the prelude to the Japanese invasion, in Manchuria in 1929, Zhang plays a girl Cynthia that falls in love with a Japanese classmate Itami who has to return home. A few years later in Shanghai, Cynthia has become a member of an underground organization, in a collision course with Itami who is coming back to China in the opposite camp. This familiar dramatic situation, plus Cynthia's affair with the organization's leader, provides Zhang with ample opportunities for acting a range of varied emotions, which she handles quite well.Situ (Liu Ye) and Tang Yiling (Li Bingbing) are innocent sweethearts drawn into this deadly game through a case of mistaken identity, ending in Tang getting killed in a shootout at the train station where she is going to meet Situ. Liu, one of the finest actors today in China (Mountain Postman, Lan Yu, Little Chinese Seamstress, Floating Landscape), handles this role of a totally devastated lover with ease, but also depth. Li Bingbing, seen most recently in A World Without Thieves, manages to leave a most lovely impression with her barely fifteen minutes' appearance in the movie. Toru Nakamura playing Itami, cool and confident, is perfect for the role.The movie is thoroughly enjoyable in its entirety of a little over two hours. The ending is particularly clever, a somewhat abrupt but very effective flashback which dilutes the impact of the emotional "real" ending and, by one simple image of Tang on the streetcar to the train station, identifies the exact time frame as well as brings the whole thing full circle to the start of the series of events that lead to the ultimate tragedy. The scene that I remember most, however, is not with the principal actors, but with the pair of innocent young lovers, before their short parting. Not a single word is exchanges. Tang puts a record of a period song in the archaic gramophone (the kind that needs winding up) and the two start dancing, not cheek-to-cheek, but sort of a slow, teasing rock. A little bitter-sweet, unabashedly romantic, this is the best scene in the movie.Those who complain in their comments that this movie is difficult to follow or understand will do well to try to read a couple of Dr. Seuss books in stead of going to a movie. I am talking from personal experience here as both my sons, before they entered grade school, derived a great deal of pleasure from, and fully understood, The Cat in the Hat. Surely, these individuals I referred to should not encounter significant difficulties in similar pursuits.