Purple Butterfly
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Zhang Ziyi
Liu Ye
Toru Nakamura
Li Bingbing
Alain De La Mata
Lu Jiajin
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
1927. Manchuria. Itami, a young Japanese man, falls deeply in love with Cynthia, a beautiful Chinese girl. Their brief happiness ends when he is called home for his military service and they are forced to part. Returning sorrowfully from the train station where she has bid her lover farewell, Cynthia witnesses her brother's bloody murder at the hands of Japanese right-wing extremists. Three years later, Shanghai has been unofficially occupied by Japan. The city is tense, rife with violence and barely contained anarchy. Cynthia - now known as Ding Hui - is working for Purple Butterfly, a resistance group planning to assassinate Yamamoto, head of the Japanese secret service. Itami is also in Shanghai, operating as a secret agent and reporting directly to Yamamoto. Arriving at Shanghai station to meet his fiancée, Szeto, a young Chinese man is mistaken by the assembled resistance fighters for the assassin they have engaged to eliminate Yamamoto. Violence erupts and Szeto's fiancée is shot dead in the crossfire. Szeto escapes with the Purple Butterfly members, all of whom believe him to be the hired killer. Only Ding Hui realizes the truth Thus three destinies are linked by chance, and three fates ineluctably set in tragic motion.
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Miscellaneous Notes
Released in United States 2003
Released in United States Fall November 26, 2004
Released in United States January 14, 2005
Released in United States May 2003
Released in United States on Video February 15, 2005
Palm Pictures/Arthouse Films acquired project at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival.
Shown at Cannes Film Festival (in competition) May 14-25, 2003.
Released in United States 2003 (Palm Pictures/Arthouse Films acquired project at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival.)
Released in United States January 14, 2005 (Los Angeles)
Released in United States on Video February 15, 2005
Released in United States May 2003 (Shown at Cannes Film Festival (in competition) May 14-25, 2003.)
Released in United States Fall November 26, 2004 (NY)
