Movie: Butterfly Lovers- Review

Butterfly Lovers starring Wu Chun, Hu Ge, Charlene Choi.

Like everything else, I have heard of this for the longest time before I decided to watch it, today is that day. 

Originally one would think that it's the original Butterfly Lover shortened into a movie, boy was I wrong.

Summary/ Recap

 During the opening credits, the narrator starts off by saying there is a legend of a virgin boy and girl who fell in love in heaven and was banished to the mortal world to suffer ten lifetimes. The first being Meng Jiangnu and Man Qilang, Second, and also the most notorious, Liang ShanBo and Zhu Yingtai, Third Guo Hualang and Wang Yueying and skips to the tenth, the main characters who are supposedly reincarnations of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai.

Its starts off with a dream that the girl has of a guy, but only from the back. Then the girl is woken up by her maid announcing that she needs to get dressed as a guy for school. She did that, blah blah blah, her father tells her to find the Physician at the school who is his friend and knows her identity. Her escort to school is none other than the great Hu Ge *jaw drops and drool* On the way to school (I'm still really lost on this part) different cults were putting their mark on her bag and when they were all about to gang up on her Wu Chun jumps in and saves her, but she thought he was trying to steal her bag and pushed her into a pile of dirt. Eventually, Hu Ge or Brother Ma, shows up when the fight is 3/4 of the way over and helps, then Wu Chun bids without saying farewell and keeps saying don't mention it. 

When she arrives at school, Brother Ma (Hu Ge) leaves and she goes off on her own and find the herbalist and tells him that its her and more blah blah blah. The Herbalist later then brings her to the headmaster. The Headmaster tells her that she will be put under watch and will train for 100 days to see if she is fit enough for the school. He tourguide and aid is Wu Chun. He shows her around and then she meets the other disciples. She was given an initiation bath or thrown into the lake by everyone. She got sick from that and Wu Chun has to take care of her out of guilt because its his fault while the herbalist is away picking plants/ herbs. She gets better. He brings her into town for some drinking, she gets jealous of other girls flaunting themselves at him, hes drunk, realises she looks kinda like a girl, she gets drunk. They go back.They talk they chit chat, she falls for him, he helps her train, he questions his sanity and his sexuality. You then find out Hu Ge is a bad guy for some reason. The physician one day told her of a turtle pill which he will test to see if it works, the pill will make it appear as though he is dead but after three days he wants her to feed him the revival plant to see if it works or not. After the physician "dies", out of fear she won't find the plant she went to look for it. Wu Chun was worried and wondered where she was. Once he found her she appeared unconscious and he opened her shirt and BAM. boobies. he closed the shirt and made her conscious. When she woke up she realized her knew and secret. He carried her home, massaged her ankle, she told him the physician wasn't really dead, figured out he was adopted, she drew two girly butterflies on his sword, he built her a makeshift shower stall, and made her a wait for it.... wooden butterfly pin. On the 100th day, her test day, she was tested by three judges, Her martial arts teacher, the Herbalist, and you guessed it, Wu Chun. The first teacher failed her, Wu Chun passed her because "of her good morals mean more than her martial arts"( he was biased caused he liked her), the herbalist followed suit but the martial arts teacher said it doesn't count because he sucks at martial arts, all the disciples voted yes on her staying. Once she was approved, she gets knews that Brother Ma (Hu Ge)  is there. He tells her that terrible things have been happening so her parent sent her to Ease Soul Mountain, they got arrested and only he can save them since he got promoted. During her departure from Ease Soul Mountain Wu Chun wasn't there, then on the way down he was. He brought her to the place in his dream where he saw her, and she was like I had a dream of a guy here too and it was you, they almost kissed, he gave her a hairpin and asked if she was ever coming back, she asked if he was ever going to come find her and it was that.

She arrives home and sees everyone and fine and sees all the red and asks her mom whos getting married, and that it was her. She was oblivious and thought it was with Wu Chun. He father then announced it was to Brother Ma (Hu Ge). She refused, they locked her up. 

The nest scene is of Wu Chun asking his way to the Zhu household and then the manager asks if he is there for the wedding of Ma and Zhu. He later then sneaks into the house and follows a random butterfly to her. through the rice paper screening they see each other, be dramatic, he sees her in chains. They depict a plan where she says yes to the marriage then she will go the the temple the next day and he waits by the river. A worker under Ma tells Ma that she says yes but also that Wu Chun has arrived and that it might be a trap. At the temple she goes to a carriage and change and her mom comes in giving her her blessing. She leaves. Zhongshan(Wu chun) on the other hand is bombarded by hundred of soldiers and after a spear to the shoulder, an arrow to the shoulder blade and back and some parkour, he makes it there to find out she's not. While she was waiting, her servant came to tell her that Ma (Hu Ge) arrested her parents and threatened to hang them if she does not return.

She comes before Ma and asks him why and blah blah blah, he was just worried she wouldn't come back. She then tells him she only sees him as a brother and out of anger he slaps her, then she said that Zhongshan would not have treated her like that. A guard then comes running in reporting that Zhongshan is back in town, then Ma says to prepare the archers. 

ZhongShan is later then brought into the room where he finds her sitting and embroidering. He asked her why she never showed up and she replies by saying she made her choice to marry Ma. After breaking his heart, he asks her to prove it to him, so she cut her hair as a sign of them cutting their ties. He then asks why she is still wearing the hairpin he made and she she stabbed it in his heart. He then leaves and is found by his brothers. He wakes up and asks for the hairpin, then ends up spitting blood everywhere from all the internal injuries. The Herbalist then has the lightbulb look in his eyes and runs to Zhu in the middle of the night to give her the new and improved turtle pill that she will take on her wedding day to appear dead, then he and Zhongshan will save her and live happily ever after. Unfortunately, once the Herbalist is on the other side of the wall he was bombarded with soldiers and killed leaving Zhongshan having never knowing of the plan. Just GREEEEEAAATT. 

Its the wedding day, her parents are released, she is in the carriage, she takes the pill, and Ma finds her dead. Back at the Inn, Herbal Head still hasn't returned and Zhongshan was taking the initative to leave but her maid then comes running saying she has committed suicide. He knocks out his brothers, and goes to the Ma house and after a bunch of fights he brings her to the Butterfly Valley, digs a grave for the both of them, jumps in and he dies. When his brothers arrive, they finds the both of them dead and starts shoveling dirt on the both of them. She then wakes up and mentally says "butterflies should be a pair, one left behind is very lonely, so wait for me." and she gets buried alive the end.

PHEW

That was a lot, because I did it as I was watching the movie. 

Do I recommend the movie? H-E-DOUBLE HOCKEY STICK NO

imagine Butterfly lovers and Romeo and Juliet at its worst, mash it together and you get this movie.

The worst part is that the actors and actresses themselves were great but was ruined by the overacting, bad plot, timing, details, script, and speech.

Cons/ Bad Points.

-They threw her in the water and said they were going to strip her, they obviously didn't

- too forced

-bad acting

- Charlene was at point too annoying: She made females look as though they can't fend for themselves

-over dramatic

-The part where Hu Ge implanted fake evidence in Minister whatever was unnecessary

-Charlene forgot many times to act like a guy making to way too noticeable that she was a girl

-Charlene is too high pitched in the beginning

-Hu Ge looked too pale and unhealthy, and just creepy

-You don't get to know much about the characters

-too rushed

-the fact that she got buried alive creeped the heck out of me

-no substance

-makes you miss all the orginal character

Pros/Good Points

-Super AWESOME cast

-Hu Ge

- Wu Chun

-Really good action scenes, best I've seen in a while actually

-Really beautiful scenery

-The lantern and umbrella, and rain scene

-When they both hit her death bed and ran to look at her

-When Charlene spoke in a soft gentle, girly voice

-nice hair and clothing

-pretty ending

-Herbal Head was my favorite character

Notes

*The entire time I was watching this I was always doing something else

*The director is a martial arts choreographer before, thats why all the action scenes were done so well, but the writing was just unmentionable, same with plot.

*If you want to watch something Butterfly Lovers related, just watch the original Butterfly Lover, or the one that came out a few years back with Peter Ho and Dong Jie

* I did not like how they covered up Wu Chun's tattoo (on his arm), I understand why, I just don't like it

*I realized that all the character had surnames of the original characters.

*How could she have not want to marry Hu Ge? I know I would. I'd marry Hu Ge and Wu Chun

Hu Ge

Charlene Choi

Wu Chun

Wu Chun- Liang Zhongshan

Charlene Choi- Zhu YanZhi

Hu Ge- Ma *something*