Review: Butterfly and Sword, though far from perfect, is still a great example of the wuxia pien at the height of the genre's evolution during the early '90s. It features top Hong Kong stars of the day both martially inclined - Michelle Yeoh and Donnie Yen - and not - Tony Leung and Joey Wong. But the real star is action director Tony Ching Siu-tung who turns everyone into a whirling dervish of silk arrow-slinging, body-rupturing, and tree-skimming masters of death.

Although the action is advanced, the story is classic wuxia material but presented with somewhat less skill. At its heart Butterfly and Sword is an angst-filled romance with the emotions of four martial heroes getting entwined. But you wouldn't know that from the action-packed opening. Meng Sing-wan (Tony Leung), Ko (Michelle Yeoh), and Yip Cheung (Donnie Yen) are childhood friends and sole members of the Happy Forest, a leading clan in the martial world presently offering their services to Eunuch Li of the imperial court. After literally plowing through a caravan to assassinate one of Li's targets, they are next ordered to take out the leader of Elite's Villa, Suen Yuk-pak (Elivs Tsui). In order to infiltrate the clan, Sing-wan fakes his death and resurfaces as a traveling swordsman who gains the trust of Yuk-pak. Meanwhile, tension mounts among the Happy Forest members due to a complex love rectangle. Sing-wan has fallen in love with a woman named Butterfly (Joey Wong), yet Ko is in love with Sing-wan and Yip Keung is in love with Ko. In other words, no one's having a good time. As the ill-named Happy Forest crew close in on Yuk-pak, bigger problems surface when a plot to wipe out all of the clans is revealed.

Frankly, the story is a mess. The narrative runs as fast as the manic action editing and only slows down at the wrong times. There is too little time spent on developing our heroes' enemies and too much time spent on soap opera fluff between the quartet. The inclusion of childhood flashbacks crowds out other story elements that should have been explored more thoroughly in what is already a short running time. Contemporary gags such as a reference to 'Western' underwear appear here and there and are unnecessary and distracting. The synthesizer music that accompanies the film is no help either.

On the plus side, the wire fu action is phenomenal and features tight, stylized editing and endlessly creative choreography from Ching Siu-tung. Siu-tung is a pioneer in the complex editing style used for many modern martial arts films. Some of its early development can be seen in Duel to the Death, Siu-tung's directorial debut. The violence level is quite high without being excessively gory. It's great, excessive nonsense. Heads explode from kicks and Jimmy Lin's character performs an insane 'whirlwind kick' where he spins through the air upside down with legs extended. Highlights include the bamboo fight scene where Michelle Yeoh performs downward-sliding splits between bamboo stalks (not unlike what Siu-tung also gets Zhang Ziyi to do in House of Flying Daggers). The best stunt is where Michelle launches Tony Leung like an arrow literally through several enemies. Donnie Yen pulls out a few of his trademark moves, but apart from a terrific drunken sword display, he gets engulfed by the action excesses.

The art direction is excellent and the costumes are particularly impressive. With more attention paid to the script and music this could have been a brilliant film. Even so, the action is hot and the cast make the most of their roles. For extreme wuxia akin to Kung Fu Cult Master you'll have a hard time finding anything more entertaining than Butterfly and Sword.

The cover of the Mei Ah DVD release shows Yeoh, Tony Leung Chiu-wai (Chungking Express), Donnie Yen (Iron Monkey), Jimmy Lin (Flying Daggers) and the lovely Joey Wong (City Hunter). Pretty much because of the Yeoh-Leung-Yen triumvirate, it seemed worth buying sight-unseen when spotted at a local used DVD shop, and that impulse proved to be justified. While the actual film turned out to be something of an incoherent mesxs, it's redeemed to watchable status by the talents of its co-stars.

The film's plot is murky, especially when filtered through English subtitles that vary from the teaser text on the back of the keep case (which is the Mei Ah trademark blue). As a result, this review promises not much in the way of consistency between the teaser text and the subtitles, and makes no claims whatever about the applicability to the actual dialogue.

Yeoh plays Sister Ko, a master of the Happy Forest style of kung fu. After dispatching a rival in a brief, fierce opening battle, Ko is charged by her master, the Eunuch Tsao, with retrieving a letter from the enemy Hill Villa clan. The letter, it seems, contains the details of a plot to discredit the Happy Forest school with the Emperor. Before beginning her mission, Ko is distracted by a visiting young noble (Lin) who seems to enjoy playing ball in the courtyard with a group of lovelies.

Ko is joined in her quest by Yip Cheung (Leung) and Meng Sing Wan (Yen), whom she has raised since childhood. Of course, there are complications. Cheung is in love with the pretty Butterfly (Wong); her father was a martial artist and died when attacked by a rival (you know, kinda like the sort this film is about). She has renounced kung fu and just wants to play house with Leung, who conceals his mad beat-down skills from his squeeze. (The pair do enjoy a romantic interlude in a forest during which they leap among the treetops Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon-style, so the exact extent of his evasiveness isn't clear.)

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the lovebirds, Ko has fallen in love with Cheung. Wan, meanwhile, is secretly in love with Ko, and mopes around the edges of the screen as Ko and Cheung head off to retrieve the McGuffin -- er, letter. (You've probably already guessed that the letter is merely an excuse to have Yeoh and her crew hand out extreme wire-fu beatdowns to all comers, but otherwise never really has an impact on the story.)

When Ko dispatches Cheung to infliltrate the enemy Hill Villa clan and retrieve the letter, he pretends to be off on business. Cheung then joins up with a heavily armored heavy who's tops amongst the Hill Villa people; the chief is backed up by his bumbling son and a highly skilled mercenary, who's suspicious of the newcomer.

Battles abound in locations from bamboo forests to elaborate fortresses; eventually, Ko and Leung take on the armored Hill Villa chief, only to discover the surprise villain who's been manipulating their quest.

The fighting style is over the top and loaded with insane wire-fu stunts. Butterfly and Sword is the kind of wuxia pian flick where the extras don't stand around waiting to get hit; they topple by the dozens when attacked by flying masters. (One wonders how the various clans manage to find recruits, as the masters usually announce their presence by slicing a dozen hapless warriors to ribbons.) The madcap action by choreographer Chi Li Tang gets pretty bloody. The film opens with a man's face getting ripped off and tossed into a fire; in other battles, limbs are severed, heads sliced off and blood flies everywhere.

The carnage is offset by romantic interludes with Butterfly at home writing to Cheung, or Ko in a bathtub strewn with rose petals, mourning her isolation from Cheung (cool your jets; the scene is discreetly shot and shows nothing you wouldn't see on broadcast TV). Switching gears like this hampers the film's pace; the romantic scenes are well done, but the film seems impatient to get back to the fray, and viewers may feel the same. Fortunately, they usually don't have to wait too long before the fists and feet start flying again.

While Yeoh has played some surprisingly hard-edged characters -- her Invisible Woman in The Heroic Trio might be conflicted about using the man she loves to obtain the Invisibility Cloak, but use him she does -- Sister Ko is without a doubt the coldest of the lot. She thinks nothing of carving up a host of extras or tearing a defeated fighter's head off with her deadly Flying Sleeves. In action, Yeoh is, as always, an amazing combination of grace and deadly power. Yet her acting chops prevent her Sister Ko from being all sharp edges. She even sings the film's closing theme.

There's no doubt Butterfly and Sword emphasizes action over plot. With a cast of lesser actors, Butterfly and Sword could have been a complete disaster, but the charismatic presence of Yeoh, Leung, and Yen -- and some insanely violent flying-sword action -- prevent it from being a total bust. While only completists would likely want to shell out the import price, it's definitely worth a rent, or grabbing in an aftermarket venue.

Butterfly and Sword is a promising flying swordsman movie ultimately let down by a extremely muddled plot (I watched it twice and still didn't really get what was going on) and a poor script that kills any momentum the film builds by throwing in several boring, talky exposition scenes. It feels like a Wong Jing movie without the gusto or madcap fun usually found in Wong's work. The movie's saving graces are its' high-flying and extremely bloody fight scenes and a nice performance from Michelle Yeoh, who steps out a bit from her "nice but tough girl" image with a role that's a bit more cold-hearted and calculating. For instance, she uses the "flying sleeves" technique to rip some poor guy's head off, something which I have a hard time imaging Wing Chun or Invisible Woman doing. However, these things still can't save this movie from falling into the range of mediocrity and, as such, I can only really recommend it for big Michelle Yeoh fans who want to see a slightly different side of her work.

But nothing compares to the final battle. Oh sure, the final battle is always where everything fecal hits the fan. But again, that's doubly so with "Butterfly And Sword". You get a eunuch wielding a claw-like device that would make Wolverine feel inadequate, more human arrow action, a man able to turn his opponents into human pincushions (complete with tiny geysers of blood), and my favorite, soccer ball kung fu capable of crushing human skulls.

And think of what I left out from the rest of the movie. You get a fight in a bamboo forest that puts the one in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" to shame. Yeah, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" had Zhang Zi-Yi, but I bet you didn't see anyone get impaled on bamboo stalks with their own swords. There's Michelle Yeoh's character, who can turn her clothing into deadly weapons, a la the monk's attack in "Iron Monkey". Oh yeah, and let's not forget the headless corpse that keeps fighting, despite being, well, a headless corpse.

I bet you're feeling a little overwhelmed with all of those ideas. Well, that's nothing compared to actually seeing it take place in front of your eyes. And I'm pretty sure there's a lot that I missed. I'm not sure, but I think there was a period of 20-30 minutes where my mind shut down, most likely due to some sort of built-in self-defense mechanism. Any plot or character development gets buried alive underneath all of the action and dizzy editing (which, I assume, was done with help of copious amounts of crack). And the fact that the subtitles ran by at about warp factor 5 didn't help too much, either. From the few subtitles I was able to read, and with the help of brief synopsis on the DVD, this is what I gathered.

The "Happy Forest" martial arts school has been asked by Eunuch Tsao to destroy his rival, Eunuch Li, and his school, "Elite Villas". "Happy Forest" is led by Sister Ko (Yeoh), who sends Meng Sing Wan (Leung) to infiltrate "Elite Villas". This doesn't sit well with Butterfly, Sing's beloved. Meanwhile, Wan's brother, Yip Cheung (Yen) loves Sister Ko, but Sister Ko loves Wan. While infiltrating Elite Villas, Wan finds his longlost sister, Ho Ching, who has infiltrated Elite Villas as its leader's concubine. When Wan finds evidence of Elite Villas' conspiracy, Yip, Ko, and Wan utilize those creative killing methods that I mentioned earlier and deal with Elite Villas. However, they soon have to deal with treachery from within, as well as their romantic triangle.

Sound confusing? Probably. But whatever it was that you just read makes a whole lot more sense than whatever it was that I just watched.

Eunuch Li, the benefactor of Sister Ko (Michelle Yeoh), sends her on missions to eliminate other martial artists that pose a threat to his position. Sister Ko uses her childhood friends, Brother Sing (Tony Leung) and Yip Cheung (Donnie Yen) to accomplish these tasks. However, internal conflicts stop them from being at the top of the world. Sister Ko loves Brother Sing, but Yip Cheung loves Sister Ko and Brother Sing loves Butterfly (Joey Wang), who thinks Sing is an ordinary merchant.

Here's a run-down of some things you can expect to see in the film: Flying carriages, decapitations, bodies getting ripped apart, spraying blood, soldiers that leap into the air like spinning tops, Tony Leung and Joey Wang swinging through a forest like Tarzan and Jane, people getting stabbed by twisted articles of clothing, a guy gets his face SLICED off, Donnie Yen kicks a guy into the ground - literally burying him, Michelle Yeoh splits a bamboo shoot that stabs two guys on the opposite ends, a sword is split in half by another sword and reflects both halves back at the victim - impaling him on a tree, a human bow and arrow, a Chun Li esque whirlwind kick, and flying Ball-Fu!

In a year of epic achievements that brought us such classics as Swordsman 2 and The Bride With White Hair, Butterfly & Sword offered an entertaining alternative. Though the budget wasn't nearly that of the previously mentioned films, Butterfly & Sword still manages to shine. The choreography is brilliant and the costume designs are both cool and interesting.

Butterfly & Sword is a must for fans of Michelle Yeoh. The fight scenes are excellent and show some great creativity in choice of weapons (i.e. Using a sword with a bow instead of an arrow). There are also some genuine funny scenes that fit well with the movie. They don't distract you from the story but make you feel closer to the characters.