Even though The Butterfly Murders is a martial arts film, or wuxia pian, it is drastically different from those made earlier by Chang Cheh, or by King Hu, one of Tsui's biggest influences. First of all, the film contains within it a kind of meta-narrative, one that portrays the common themes and tropes of the genre while also commenting on its conventions. The story is mainly shown from the POV of a reporter, or novelist, called Fong. Fong is a famous writer, one that travels the land chronicling the lives and times of the people; he is both a bard and an early journalist.

With characters aware of the martial world, and aware of the myth and legend surrounding it, Tsui's film offers a post-modern take on a genre mired in strict traditional themes. Through voice over, we hear Fong declare that, “It is the beginning of a new era of martial arts.” It is with these words that we know something different is underway, in both the film's world and in ours. Being a writer, and not a martial artist, Fong is an outsider to the jiang hu, and it is through his eyes that we are drawn into the underworld of martial heroes, criminal masterminds, strange, almost supernatural technology, and superstition. Fong's character mirrors that of Tsui Hark's own “outsider's” perspective, and is used to craft a personal meta-narrative within a somewhat typical wuxia story.

The narrative is not the only thing that separates The Butterfly Murders from the earlier films in the genre. From the first frame of the film, it is clear that we are no longer being lead by the Shaw Brothers, or the old guard, through the world of martial arts. By breaking free of the familiar sound stages and cliche settings typical to the genre, Tsui's film feels more open, more fantastic, more alien. Gone are the typical tea houses, inns, and decrepit shacks inhabited by old kung fu masters. Also missing are the streets, crowded with merchants, beggars, and street performers. The film's setting feels otherworldly, and yet it still maintains a distinct Chinese atmosphere. Like Patrick Tam's The Sword, another New Wave wuxia pian, The Butterfly Murders is set in a phantasmal limbo, its world is one breaking free of the old, on the cusp of something new.

Another new twist on the genre is how Tsui explains away the seemingly supernatural powers of the martial arts masters. Powers such as iron skin, exploding palm technique, and the power of flight, are often found in other wuxia films, and these powers are typically generated through the focus of one's inner spirit, or “chi,” or through extensive physical and mental training. In Tsui's film, these “powers” are birthed from technology, and from gadgetry. The power of iron skin is nothing more than a special kind of man-made armor; the exploding palm technique is made with gun powder and chemical explosions; the power of flight is granted through the crafty use of a mechanized grappling hook. In many ways, Tsui strips away the mystic element of the genre and infuses it with ideas more similar to science-fiction.

With new ways of explaining the combatants' powers came new ways of filming the action. While directors like Lau Kar Leung and Chang Cheh were perfecting precise, detailed fight instruction that relied more and more on the actual skills of the performers, Tsui took his action choreography in an entirely different direction. While the old school was more interested in crafting fights that featured long, unedited, uninterrupted exchanges between the combatants, Tsui's way was more comic-book in nature. Each precise move was executed and filmed on its own, in its own “panel” if you will, and then edited together to form a sequence of fluid movement. While Tsui was not the first to use such a technique, he did elevate it to an almost absurd level. By using meticulously edited montage, Tsui's action suggests the movement rather than showing it out right. The action set pieces in The Butterfly Murders feel chaotic and dangerous, a trait that would continue throughout his career.

Although The Butterfly Murders failed to gain recognition at the box office, in hindsight, it is considered an important film, and an interesting piece of a genre-puzzle. If anything, I think the film was too ambitious for its time, and I think Tsui Hark wanted to include too many changes for one film to hold. This is often a problem with Tsui's films - they are simply stuffed beyond capacity with creativity and inventive direction, often in exchange for cohesive narratives not dependent on the audience's ability to make massive leaps in logic. In this regard, the film's foundation, upon which Tsui would build his career, possesses both positive and negative aspects. By tracing the genre back, it is quite easy to see the impact Tsui's film had on its themes, its characters, and its cinematic techniques, and while not all of the influence helped to make films better, the good is just too good to dismiss.

Highly regarded scholar and travelling commentator Fong - who also serves as our narrator - finds his reputation on the line when forgeries of his works begin to trickle onto the open market. These works attributed to him apparently reveal various secrets about certain members of the waring clans that dominate China; such dramatic information leads to a series of murders connected to whoever owns them. Fong, however, finds a more pressing issue to be the reasons behind the disapperance of the clan inhabiting a deserted fortress and the mysterious arrival of swarms of deadly butterflies. While in the castle, Fong meets a few of the survivours and a few members of the Tien clan who have entered the fray to find out what has happened. The varied parties find themselves trapped in their new environment by the butterflies and spend their enforced stay trying to find out what has happened in the castle.

Though I have provided a brief over-view of the events in Hark's work, 'The Butterfly Murders' is far more complicated and intriguing than its simple premise implies. With an apparent allusion to the multi-layered swordplay novels of Gu Long and Louis Cha, this is a story that revels in its twists and hidden motives. Western viewers will connect the film's construction and characterisation to the kind of murder mysteries that Agatha Christie wrote, though Tsui Hark makes the revelations of the antagonists even more vague. Despite the rich body of work that 'The Buttefly Murders' has been inspired by, its fame is due to Tsui Hark's ingenuity and invention rather than its narrative trappings; his strong visual style and delicate pacing are stamps of the auteur's best work.

The major strength of the production is Tsui's aforementioned qualities and an imposing setting that creates a truly disconcerting atmosphere. Few cinematic landscapes have exuded such an air of paranoia and desperation as Shum's castle; every dimmly-lit corridor and claustrophobic-inducing inch of the set design adds a further layer of interest. Tsui's desire to set the majority of the action in this fear-inspiring series of catacombs and tunnels is one of the reasons that 'The Butterfly Murders' still proves to be powerful despite its problems. The mixed cast that combines old-school stars and newcomers also makes the most of its material and veiled characterisation - another winning staple of Tsui's very best work.

While most of the commendation lauded upon Tsui's work here is deserved, there's obviously moments that show a director just starting out. The storyline's invention is mostly impressive, but gradually, as the narrative progresses, the film loses its direction. Falling into the same traps that some of the more baffling Gu Long adaptations fall prey to, 'The Butterfly Murders' tends to leave too many plot strands for a 90 minute film to realistically tie-up. Some viewers can forgive this if the action is up to scratch, but that's not really the case here. Tsui's never intended this to be a martial arts masterpiece and it does show quite obviously - a fact that might not be to everyone's satisfaction. As an indication of greater things to come though, 'The Butterfly Murders' is certainly recommended - just don't expect one of his greats though.

Review: The Butterfly Murders is a unique Hong Kong production that was director Tsui Hark's first feature film and also marked the beginning of the New Wave era that lasted for nearly fifteen years.

Pinning this film down to a genre is probably the viewer's greatest challenge. It combines references to both Hong Kong and Hollywood films of the past. It contains elements of Chinese wuxia tales, Hitchcock thrillers and even James Bond-like gadgetry. This was likely due to the fact that Tsui Hark was fresh from film studies in the United States when he returned to helm his first feature. Combining this with Tsui's tireless creativity resulted in an under-appreciated cult classic that provides a welcome and arguably visionary departure from the carbon-copy kung fu pics that dominated Hong Kong's box office at the time.

The story itself, which takes place in the realm of Chinese knight-errantry is about as ambitious as they come, although it does lose its suspenseful edge amongst choppy editing and the eventual slip into standard swordplay conventions. A printer is found dead after being visited by a man who claimed to have discovered eight pages of unpublished documents detailing the chilling fate of Shum Castle. The author is supposedly Fong, a noted scholar who had witnessed a strange occurrence where hundreds of deadly butterflies terrorized the inhabitants. The documents turn out to be fake, but the events are real and Fong himself acts as witness and narrator for the viewer. Word spreads that Shum, the castle's ruler is still alive and several well known fighters come to his aid. Tien Fung leads members from the Tien Clan. He is joined by a woman known only as the Green Shadow who performs a lot of high-wire antics. They arrive at the castle to find it nearly deserted except for Scholar Fong, Shum, his wife, and a mute servant who are hiding below in a labyrinth of tunnels. Tension mounts as several attacks by the butterflies take place, leaving their victims dead by poison injected by hundreds of "bites." It eventually becomes clear that a mysterious assassin in Black armor is controlling the butterflies. He is revealed as one of three vicious killers known as the Thunders, all enemies of Tien Clan. The other two Thunders are Li Kim, AKA "1000 Hands," a master of small hand weapons and Kwok, AKA "Magic Fire," a master of flame and explosives. They arrive at Shum Castle and everyone battles it out in a bloody three-way match to decide the fate of Shum Castle and the martial world.

The key feature that separates this from so many other martial arts films are the butterflies themselves. Ask any experienced filmmaker and they will likely tell you that getting real animals or insects to follow the script is not easy. The film impressively employs hundreds of real (and undoubtedly fake butterflies) in scenes reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (1963). Of course, Tsui Hark's scenes lean more towards campy fantasy in the vein of Piranha II: The Spawning (1981) where the flesh-eating fish sprout wings and terrorize their victims on land. The likelihood of being attacked by butterflies capable of killing anything, let alone a full-grown person is just as far-fetched. Nevertheless, it provides a visually creative device to spice up the story with a proven horror element. Yet, Tsui doesn't stop there in generating chills. He successfully builds a fair amount of suspense in the first half of the film by slowly unraveling the plot which culminates in the discovery of the man behind this lepidoptera menace.

The second half reverts back to a more conventional martial arts film as the remaining fighters duke it out. Yet, the costumes and weapons used are definitely unusual. The lead villain wears thin black armor and a helmet straight out of Mortal Kombat (1995). He wields an odd device not unlike a bent strainer that he uses to grate the face of his victims. He also uses a rope and pulley system to get around that would have Batman suing for patent infringement. Eddy Ko Hung (The Sword) actually commands an exploding black bird as well as wielding a portable Bunsen burner! The emphasis is clearly on gimmicks rather than on any noteworthy display of martial arts skills.

The Butterfly Murders may not have the mass appeal of Tsui Hark's more famous films such as Once Upon a Time in China (1991), but it does display a high level of ingenuity and technical filmmaking that had not been previously seen in Hong Kong. Its highly recommended as a slightly more challenging film for the adventurous viewer.