Purple Butterfly

Name: Purple Butterfly
Genre: Drama, History, War
Released: November 26, 2004
Duration: 127 min
Rating: 68
Cast: Tôru Nakamura, Ye Liu, Ziyi Zhang

2004

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Generally favorable reviews based on 12 Critic Reviews

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7.8	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 5 Ratings

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Movie Details & Credits

Palm Pictures | Release Date: November 26, 2004 | R

Starring: Tôru Nakamura, Ye Liu, Ziyi Zhang

Summary: An epic tale of doomed passion, mistaken identity and the terrible personal cost of political resistance. (Palm Pictures)

Director: Ye Lou

Genre(s): Drama, History, War

Rating: R

Runtime: 127 min

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Critic Reviews

100

G. Allen Johnson

A gorgeously shot, ambitious epic. Read full review

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 Read full review

Dana Stevens

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. Read full review

V.A. Musetto

Director Lou Ye, who gave us the lilting "Suzhou River," doesn't care much for dialogue. He lets Wang Yu's pulsating camerawork do the talking. Read full review

Lisa Schwarzbaum

Too often, Purple Butterfly is as impenetrable as Zhang's placid, obdurate beauty. Read full review

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. Read full review

Ty Burr

Ye bites off substantially more than he can chew. Read full review

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EpicLadySponge

May 3, 2016

Purple Butterfly is one of those legendary butterflies I'll never give up collecting. Same with the other colors such as red, yellow, green, blue, and orange. What makes Purple Butterfly unique unlike the others is not that Purple Butterfly has its own movie, it's that it behaves perfectlyPurple Butterfly is one of those legendary butterflies I'll never give up collecting. Same with the other colors such as red, yellow, green, blue, and orange. What makes Purple Butterfly unique unlike the others is not that Purple Butterfly has its own movie, it's that it behaves perfectly than the other kinds of legendary butterflies.… Expand

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