The Butterfly Murders: Quick Takes

Though finally available in widescreen and sporting readable subtitles, Tsui Hark's directing debut still comes off as a bit incoherent. Sure, these wuxia stories are about supremacy in the martial arts world so latching on to that story strand isn't impossible but what it all means on a deeper level and how everyone and everything relates, is trickier (but probably crystal clear to Tsui Hark). Despite that, it's a decent, though unspectacular debut from Tsui and a movie that ignited the new wave of films and directors (including Ann Hui and Allen Fong).

On a visual level (one of Tsui's trademarks) the film offers some imaginative cinematography with nods to both Eastern and Western classic imagery. The ending battle is quite spectacular also and features some nifty ideas either from wuxia stories or Tsui Hark's mind. Could be either really.

Mei Ah's newly remastered dvd looks good in terms of sharpness and detail considering the age of the film but suffers from heavy color staining that is highly apparent during several sections of the film. It's reportedly a negative damage trait that not only this Seasonal production has suffered from. HK Video's release in France also features this damage. Further more, as per the old pan and scanned vcd, the movie is clearly a missing a piece of footage detailing the reading of a letter. As it stands now, we get a really abrupt cut at the hour mark. The BBC showed a print during the 90s, in Mandarin, and its running time suggests that it was up to 3 minutes longer which could mean it contained the cut scene from the Hong Kong dvd but additional minutes of footage!

As If this wasn't enough of a mess already, people have recollections of a screening at the 1997 Hong Kong International Film Festival that at least had a print in much better shape. If it was uncut however, no one has at the time of writing confirmed.