I thought the movie was very good, . But I give the performance of Charlie Yeung far more than that. She totally inhabits the character. It's not a performance (and I don't even like using the word "performance") that hits you straight away. It creeps up on you. People have spoken about crying over a beautiful piece of music. That is how Charlie's performance affected me. But it was more after the movie, than during it. But it was tears of joy. It's not powerhouse acting, but a kind of spiritual transcendence. Okay that's probably going overboard, but I'll leave it there. Sometimes that word has to be used. So some other thoughts on the movie. This is the second Chinese /Hong Kong movie (The other might have been a Shaw brothers movie) I've seen where the girl disguises herself as a guy. In the first one, i thought the other characters must be blind not to notice she's a girl. I thought the same about this one. But perhaps it's a convention of these movies. Finally I thought the movie should have ended with her beautiful final words to him. I thought the afterlife scene was totally unnecessary. But thank you Charlie for your gift.
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martin-fennell1 October 2011
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jethro-314 April 2002A beautifully done film of the Butterfly Lovers, a traditional Chinese love story. The first half is done as a romantic comedy, wherein a rich girl is sent to college dressed as a boy, and meets another student who can't understand his strong attraction to the new kid. Since the film is set roughly 2000 years ago, the contemporary style of music and dialogue is a bit jarring at points. I sometimes felt like the filmmaker was influenced by the 80's romance "About Last Night..."
The film takes a darker turn when the girl's parents have her return home to complete the marriage they have already arranged. Throughout the film there are references to their pursuit of status -- what the mother gave up, what is expected from the daughter, the father's use of cosmetics for "rosy cheeks" and how that turns out to be less lucky than he expected. It's a hint that not everyone is going to get what they hope for.
Sprinkled throughout is wonderful imagery: A simple wedding gift covered in the dust raised by the retainers for a competing wedding party. A student holding a broken zither overhead as the day turns to night. A monk relaxing on the shore of a koi pond, asking that the fish be set free.
The VHS tape, however, might easily drive you mad. The good news is that it's letterboxed so that you won't miss any of the gorgeous cinematography. Despite this, the subtitles are shown on the film area -- even though there's plenty of room below -- and the white lettering used seems to disappear into the background about 25% of the time. And if you can read the subtitles -- well, the translation has its weaker points. For example, one of the schoolmasters plays a variant of Go while his students are taking their test. The subtitles translate the game as "chess."
There are other artistic nitpicks I might make, such as the pointless "soccer" game that one of the teachers invents, or the complete inability of the girl to look anything like a boy. Overall, though, it's a wonderful film that is well worth seeing for the story, the performances, and the lessons to be learned. -
s03195912 February 2006Imagine a time in China - Eastern Jin dynasty, about 300-400 AD - when women were not allowed to enter the universities and were to follow the rules of obedience and adapt to hierarchies within their own family, in addition to the hierarchy between different social classes.
In this context we find our wealthy female protagonist, Ying Toi, a cheerful yet clumsy girl with a great deal of energy and imagination. After testing her skills in poetry recital, calligraphy and zither playing, the parents decide that she must be educated in a university, or else they won't be able to marry her off. Ying Toi is told to impersonate as a male in order to be accepted to the university, and promise her mother not to reveal her female characteristics. She leaves her home together with a convoy of servants, a little sad at first, but soon realizing the adventure she is about to commence.
Following the arrival to the school, Ying Toi unexpectedly meets Shan Pak, the central male character. He is quite poor but studies hard and has an excellent resilience. They quickly become close friends, and spend much time together. In the process, Ying Toi falls in love with Shan Pak, but are unable to expose her true identity. When Shan Pak leaves the university and goes home after completing his studies, Ying Toi is devastated.
However, when she receives a request from her parents to come home, she makes the most of the opportunity and get together with Shan Pak again. Finally, Ying Toi is able to openly reveal her female identity and express her love for him. He affectionately reciprocates her love and the loving couple decides to get married. The only problem: Ying Tois parents have already promised her hand to a powerful and rich potentate named Ma, making a tragic end to this love story inevitable
As my preceding description of the storyline in this movie may have indicated, the first part of the movie is a romantic and amusing comedy, and the second half a heart-racking tragedy (although with a hopeful end). This combination of laughter and tears, representing the bittersweet characteristics of love, is one of the reasons why I regard this movie as the most precious in my life.I have without doubt learned more about the essence of love from this film than from any other. And maybe it's not so surprising when having in mind that it is influenced by a very old Chinese legend, "Liang Zhu", much loved in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
The music is just beautiful, enhancing the events of the movie and embedding it in a dreamlike aura. Sometimes the music alone can make you feel like your floating in a state of infatuation, or mourning a tragic situation with much sorrow and tears. Most of the music in the movie is based on the "Butterfly Lovers Concerto", composed by Chen Gang and He Zhanhao in 1958. Like the legend itself, this concerto is highly beloved in the Chinese speaking world.
I also have to mention the spellbinding interaction between the main actors: they really seem to be in love. As for the rest of the ingredients in the movie, such as scenery, clothing etc, the only thing I can say is that it creates an authentic atmosphere which makes you feel like you really are transported back to ancient China. -
Tsui Hark, the master of action movie, gave us this incredibly beautiful love story.The direction is superb, the actors are great and you will find this strange but hypnotic sense of fantasy and poetry that you always find in the Chinese tales. If you don't cry at the end your heart is made of stone ! A unique masterpiece, a lot more better than Romeo + Juliet (a good movie, too!)
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thebeautifulones23 December 2005The Butterfly Lovers is a Chinese legend about the tragic romance between two lovers, Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, or Liang Zhu, from whom the name of the legend is known in Chinese. The story is set in the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
Zhu Yingtai is an intelligent but lazy girl who is born into a wealthy family. She was to be married off to the son of the Prime Minister, but her parents found that she was unable to recite poetry or play the guzheng (a minimum requirement for girls born of nobility). Her mother thus sent her to a college disguised as a boy.
Now when Yingtai is enrolled in the college, she is given certain special privileges by the principal's wife who knew her mother (her mother studied there). This was because, Yingtai had sworn 3 oaths before entering the college (see the film for those).
Yingtai met Liang ShanBo, an industrious but poor man who was studying to sit for the national exam. (In those days, to become an official, you had to sit for a national exam, these were based on poetry, the teachings of Confuscious, etc). They developed a strong bond (which causes Shan Bo to feel that he might be homosexual) with each other, and Liang ShanBo did not realise that YingTai was a girl, till the fateful meeting with his ex-classmate who had become a monk.
It turns his ex-classmate was Yingtai's mother's former lover, and she gave him up so that she could marry a rich and powerful official.
Yingtai's father called her back after 6 months so that they could arrange the wedding with the son of the Prime Minister, but before she sets off, she asks his classmate, Ting Mong Chun to pass a message to Shan Bo that she had to leave. They met again, and in the Goddess of Mercy cave, she chose to be his better half.
The story ends in tragedy, because both lovers could not be together in life, but in death they were side by side.
The chemistry between Nicky Wu and Charlie Young is almost flawless. The comic elements in the show help to ease the sad endings, but when it comes to the end, grab your Kleenex tissues. -
davfivr23 July 2019Made in 1994, so cinematography is unbeatable! No CGI and no reliability on technology. The setting takes place in real historical places.
The music is very profound and epic, it will definitely shake your heart and move you to tears. This is the movie you cannot miss it in your life, it's a must watch. I promise the music and story will stay in your heart forever after watching it.
This story is the Chinese version of Romeo and Juliet. I love the portrayal of Chinese culture. Zhu Yingtai is a tomboy who does not fit in the area of her time. She is force to act gentle and womanly by tying her feet together so she will walk slower. She is sent to school and has to pretend to be a boy. She meets Liang Shanbo, a bosom friend and lifetime lover. The loyalty between the two person touch heaven and earth, and they turn into a pair of butterfly lovers at the end. It's a tragedy but beautiful at the same time.
This is the best version of Butterfly Lovers ever made, all the later versions still look up to this version as reference and copy a few things. -
ljllili29 January 2018A sweet and sorrow legend of love in ancient China. But this version I think was not the best Butterfly Lovers.