The classic Chinese story of Butterfly Lovers gets a new treatment by director Jingle Ma (Fly Me to Polaris). However, this new version borrows so many plot points from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet such that it loses much of its Chinese character.
We don't want to be puritans, but we have to say we prefer Tsui Hark's 1994 version with Charlie Yeung and Nicky Wu for its stronger Chinese flavour and greater faithfulness to its source material. Among its other flaws, this new version just feels too bastardized to enjoy.
Charlene Choi (of girl-band Twins) plays a rich girl who is sent to learn martial arts with the all-boys Ease Soul Clan. Because she's a girl, she has to dress up as a boy so as to attend classes. She soon falls in love with best student (teen heart-throb Wu Zhun) who develops feelings for her when he suspects she's really a girl.
The plot, acting and direction are fairly ordinary. Even the fight sequences fail to impress. All in all, Butterfly Lovers is a forgettable movie that does no favours to the classic tale.
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