Butterfly Sword (Special Edition)

Butterfly Sword (Special Edition)
by Michael Mak

Butterfly Sword (Special Edition)
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DVD Cover Information

Actor: Donnie Yen, Jimmy Lin, Joey Wang, Michelle Yeoh, Tony Leung Chiu Wai
Director: Michael Mak
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: Cantonese (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled)
Format: AC-3, Animated, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD-Video, Letterboxed, NTSC, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.77:1
Running Time: 88 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-06-22
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Tai Seng

Movie Reviews of Butterfly Sword (Special Edition)

Movie Review: Butterfly Sword fails to deliver
Summary: 2 Stars

I'm sword fight movie fan - Toshiro Mifune, Kurosawa, and the more recent Zaitoichi, the blind swordsman (never much liked the original). The Duelists, Scaramouche, The Mask of Zorro, The Three Musketeers (1973 & 1974), and of course Highlander and Rob Roy. The first Pirates of the Carribian, Kill Bill, Gladiator, Star Wars Episode V, etc. My experience with the Chinese movies is much more recent, starting with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon & Hero, etc.

I've enjoyed Michelle Yeoh in CTHD, and she is the all time best Bond Girl in Tomorrow Never Dies. She was interesting in the SciFi psychological thriller/head trip movie "Sunshine", and belivable as Mameha in "Memoirs of a Geisha". I've gone out of my way to watch her in "The Touch" and "Silver Hawk" - both mediocre, but watchable. I love chicks with swords, so I broke down and spent $12.00 on "The Butterfly Sword".

The production values are better than I expected, and the fight scenes are beautifully choreographed. But the WIRE-Fu is too over the top, to the point of becoming boring. I didn't care for any of the characters, therefore couldn't get involved in the movie's complicated plot line. It wasn't a waste of time to watch, but I wish I'd seen it on cable - not paid $ for it. I suspect you need to be a hard-core wire-fu fan to truly enjoy the movie.


Summary of Butterfly Sword (Special Edition)

Action stars Michelle Yeoh and Donnie Yen are featured in this swordfighting tale starring Joey Wang as "Butterfly." Along with Tony Leung, the foursome all parry and thrust their way through a deliriously-paced yarn.
This pinwheeling period-fantasy action film is all over the map--in its plotting, for starters, but also in its action sequences, staged by A Chinese Ghost Story's Ching Siu-tung, which are so frenetic that we can barely keep track of who's skewering whom. Based on a serialized swordplay novel by leading Chinese pulp writer Gu Long, the endless twists and turns in the conflict between two rival clans of quasi-magical warriors are all but impossible to follow. The result of this multilayered confusion is a less than completely involving cinematic experience, although the dashing Michelle Yeoh (Tomorrow Never Dies) and soulful Tony Leung Chiu-wai (Hard Boiled) are an unusually classy pair of comrades in arms. Newcomers interested in the distinctive Hong Kong subgenre known as wu hsia pian ("martial chivalry films") should consider beginning their researches elsewhere, with either Raymond Lee's Dragon Inn or Ronny Yu's The Bride with White Hair. --David Chute

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