Ding Hui is a member of Purple Butterfly, a powerful resistance group in Japanese occupied Shanghai. An unexpected encounter reunites her with Itami, an ex-lover and officer with a secret police unit tasked with dismantling Purple Butterfly.
At the center of it all is, of course, Zhang. Charismatic and intense, she excels in her most grown-up role to date.
– G. Allen Johnson,
San Francisco Chronicle,
25 Feb 2005
rotten:
There are two movies battling for supremacy in Butterfly, and both lose. As does the audience.
– Ty Burr,
Boston Globe,
21 Jan 2005
fresh:
As atmospheric and moody as a film noir, the stylish, sometimes perplexing Purple Butterfly is a remarkable period piece, evoking the bustling, dense and increasingly dangerous Shanghai of the '30s.
– Kevin Thomas,
Los Angeles Times,
13 Jan 2005
fresh:
Hectic, lyrical, swooningly romantic and almost unwatchably brutal.
– Ella Taylor,
L.A. Weekly,
12 Jan 2005
fresh:
The characters are less compelling than this particular slice of history, which has rarely been dramatized in movies.