Purple Butterfly finds Zhang Ziyi playing Cynthia, who is a member of a Chinese resistance group called Purple Butterfly that are doing their part to oppose the Japanese occupation of Shanghai. Along the way, she falls in love with a man named Itami (Toru Nakamura of 2009: Lost Memories), but soon after they meet he's sent home to do his civic duty and work for the Japanese army.

After Itami heads back to Japan, Cynthia's oldest brother is killed by a surprise attack from a very extreme Japanese faction. This sets her off (understandably) and she changes her name to Ding Hui and devotes herself full time to her work with Purple Butterfly to oust the Japanese. Sadly for Cynthia/Ding Hui, she's reunited with Itami when he ends up heading a group that are tasked with stopping Purple Butterfly, and their loyalty to their respective countries and to each other is put to the test.

Purple Butterfly starts off with an interesting premise. I admit, I like the melodramatic concept of two lovers torn apart by their political beliefs and because of the tensions between their two countries during the time that this film takes place. It could have made for an interesting paradox and should have lent the film a solid plot and some room to expand both the characters and their motivations. Sadly, this doesn't happen. None of the roles are developed enough to make you care about anyone and the story jumps around too much, never concentrating on one aspect of the story long enough to flesh it out and instead it ends up flip flopping for over two hours.

There are a couple of interesting shoot outs and action scenes in the movie but there aren't enough of them to make this one work as an fun 'no brainer' shoot'em up.

Final Thoughts: ...the movie suffers from pacing problems and a story that jumps all over the place and doesn't really go anyway. Zhang Ziyi sure is pretty, but that doesn't mean you should bother with this one. Skip it.