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Purple Butterfly
Directed by
Lou Ye
R
2003
2h 7m
Drama
,
War
,
and more
6.1
43%
45%
6.7
Add to Watchlist
Ding Hui is a member of Purple Butterfly, a powerful resistance group in Japanese occupied Shanghai. An unexpected encounter reunites her with Itami, an ex-lover and officer with a secret police unit tasked with dismantling Purple Butterfly.
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Where to Watch Purple Butterfly
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Cast of Purple Butterfly
Zhang Ziyi
Cynthia / Ding Hui
Liu Ye
Szeto
Feng Yuanzheng
Xie Ming
Toru Nakamura
Hidehiko Itami
Li Bingbing
Tang Yiling
Kin Ei
Yamamoto
Leni Lan
Ah Zi
Yao Anlian
Wang Kai
Brother
Lou Ye
Director / Screenplay / Editor
Zhu Yongde
Producer
Wang Wei
Producer
Jean-Louis Piel
Executive Producer
Vincent Maraval
Executive Producer
Alain de la Mata
Executive Producer
James David Goldmark
Art Direction
Wang Yu
Director Of Photography
Liu Weixin
Costume Design
Xiaohong Cheng
Editor
Jörg Lemberg
Original Music Composer
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Purple Butterfly Ratings & Reviews
New Times
Luke Y. Thompson
The plot may be a little hard to follow, but the film-making is skillful and any effort on the viewer's part is well worth it
San Francisco Chronicle
G. Allen Johnson
At the center of it all is, of course, Zhang. Charismatic and intense, she excels in her most grown-up role to date.
Arizona Daily Star
Phil Villarreal
Just like nuclear energy, long cinematic pauses can be used properly for the benefit of all, while in the wrong hands they can cause mass misery.
Boston Globe
Ty Burr
There are two movies battling for supremacy in Butterfly, and both lose. As does the audience.
Now Playing Magazine
Brent Simon
An at times pretty but nonetheless forgettable film.
Los Angeles Daily News
Bob Strauss
A gorgeous period melodrama, packed with romantic tragedy and violent intrigue, it is both gritty and dreamy, political and personal.
Los Angeles Times
Kevin Thomas
As atmospheric and moody as a film noir, the stylish, sometimes perplexing Purple Butterfly is a remarkable period piece, evoking the bustling, dense and increasingly dangerous Shanghai of the '30s.
L.A. Weekly
Ella Taylor
Hectic, lyrical, swooningly romantic and almost unwatchably brutal.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Sean Axmaker
... rich with emotional turmoil and searing beauty, but it could have used a little more time in the editing room to make sense of it all.
Cinema Signals
Jules Brenner
The art of it is entirely in the atmospherics; the rest is melodrama. Its 127 minute exercise in puzzle solving is draining.
Seattle Times
John Hartl
The characters are less compelling than this particular slice of history, which has rarely been dramatized in movies.
E! Online
Give in to the mood piece and bathe in its glamorous nostalgic glow. It's a beauty.
New York Times
A.O. Scott
Mr. Lou synthesizes a wide range of styles and influences -- from Casablanca to Wong Kar-wai -- resulting in a movie that, for all its haunting strangeness, seems curiously familiar.
New York Post
V.A. Musetto
Throughout, Zhang emotes like Bette Davis.
Entertainment Weekly
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Too often, Purple Butterfly is as impenetrable as Zhang's placid, obdurate beauty.
Variety
Derek Elley
An often remarkable, often infuriating lateral spin on genre material that desperately needs another sesh at the editing table.
Slant Magazine
Ed Gonzalez
History is scant or purposefully blurred in Lou Ye's abstruse Purple Butterfly, a war drama with Wong-like delusions of love
eye WEEKLY
Jason Anderson
An extravagant, intriguing but ultimately very frustrating period piece.
The Hollywood Reporter
Kirk Honeycutt
Lou Ye ... has chosen a murky and disjointed means to narrate this story.
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Purple Butterfly (2003) - Plex
