Tsui Hark’s first film is almost like a student film in terms of how indulgently it jumps from giallo mystery to wuxia action, while trying to tell a story that is just incomprehensible. Truth be told, the detective work featured in “The Butterfly Murders” suck. Everything is extrapolated from circumstantial happenings and even the film seems to be telling the audience not to take literally what is onscreen when our narrator ups and leaves the castle.
While the plot makes no sense, it more than makes up for it in the action. Killer butterflies, propeller wires, esoteric explosives, shark claws...the action is super imaginative and is exactly what a wuxia fantasy fanboy like Tsui Hark world make as a first feature.
Tsui Hark’s first film is almost like a student film in terms of how indulgently it jumps from giallo mystery to wuxia action, while trying to tell a story that is just incomprehensible. Truth be told, the detective work featured in “The Butterfly Murders” suck. Everything is extrapolated from circumstantial happenings and even the film seems to be telling the audience not to take literally what is onscreen when our narrator ups and leaves the castle.
While the plot makes no sense, it more than makes up for it in the action. Killer butterflies, propeller wires, esoteric explosives, shark claws...the action is super imaginative and is exactly what a wuxia fantasy fanboy like Tsui Hark world make as a first feature.
