April 7 - May 6

Next upload coming soon. Post still open for any further discussion.





Purple Butterfly

Directed by Lou Ye
Starring Ziyi Zhang, Toru Nakamura
2003
Run time: 2 hours, 8 minutes
Chinese, English subtitles
Rated R for sexuality and violence


Synopsis:

Cynthia is a young Chinese woman in love with a Japanese man, Hidehiko Itami, a laborer about to be sent home for military service. Devastated, she moves back home to Shanghai and to her brother, a writer and publisher of an underground resistance newspaper. After he is murdered in an attack by the Japanese extreme right, Cynthia becomes Ding Hui and joins a secret resistance group; the same group that, years later, will plot to murder her former lover, now an officer with a secret police group, tasked with dismantling her group.


Director's statement:

This is a story that took place in the early 1930s. In the last century. More than 70 years have passed. But when you try to return to those days - to make a movie or tell a story - you quickly discover that nothing much has changed. The people of that period faced more or less the problems we face today. Our lives are still chaotic, still hard to grasp or control. Just like a movie, a story or a character. Sometimes we may feel uneasy, troubled, even desperate when we lose control, but sometimes it doesn't feel bad at all. Because it allows us to think about the past, the present and the future in peace; to think about what has happened and what will happen; about those who lived and those who will live. You feel that maybe that's the way things are. Everything is possible. The story can take place at any time and end at any time. All we can do is try to prepare ourselves for it.

Lou Ye


Cast:

Ziyi Zhang - Cytnhia/Ding Hui

Hidehiko Itami - Toru Nakamura

Yuanzheng Feng - Xie Ming

Ye Liu - Szeto

Li Bingbing - Tang Yiling

Kin Ei - Yamamoto


Some notes:
I must point out that the film is far more intricate than the synopsis indicates (which I put together from the back of the DVD case and from imdb). The film is non-linear at points and sparse on dialogue, and it is the kind of film you have to allow yourself to be absorbed in (or at least watch it without other distractions). It's one of the most beautiful films I've seen in quite some time, as it is very dream-like and poetic.

I will warn you now that the closing of the film features actual footage of war atrocities committed by the Japanese upon the Chinese. It's not horrifically violent, but the imagery is striking.

Screencaps:









Trailer:



Downloading films from box.net is the same as downloading anything else I've uploaded to it. Depending on your internet connection, it can take up to a few hours to fully download. The file is a Divx .avi format, so it is viewable in a variety of media players. I downloaded the film after uploading it and there are no issues with the file, however, if you have trouble viewing it, you will probably need to download the Divx codec.

DOWNLOAD

If you have any further comments or questions, then reply to my comment below.

After watching the film, we can discuss it in this post. To get the ball rolling, you can reply to my query posted further below.

Since this is my first attempt at something like this, if the comments erupt into mass chaos, that's fine too.