Buckland-Warren-Puzzle-Films-Complex-Storytelling-Contemporary-Cinema

Lou Ye’s Suzhou River and Purple Butterfly 189male and female points of view, with the villain’s perspective occasionallyinvoked to complicate matters further” (Rubin 1999, p. 82). The thrillersusually end with images that suggest that the male and female leads willlive happily as lovers.Lou Ye breaks Hitchcock’s mold in several important ways. In Hitchcock’smovies, “the thriller hero monopolize(s) the reader’s sympathy and allegiance. . . It is therefore possible to have suspense even if the outcomeis predictable or the solution already known; what is important is thatthe reader identify wholeheartedly with a hero who is perplexed” (Rubin1999, pp. 11–12). Suzhou River and Purple Butterfly disperse attention toseveral principal characters. Most of these principal characters can be consideredtheir respective movies’ protagonists, though as they all commitreprehensible acts, none of the protagonists are clearly heroes or villains.Suzhou River and Purple Butterfly share several themes that indicate apessimistic world view in contrast to the general optimism of Hitchcock’soeuvre. Lou Ye depicts love and sex as destructive forces rather than onesthat heal, perpetuate humanity, or at least give pleasure. In both movies,problems arise when one set of lovers crashes into the lives of another setof lovers, and most of these characters eventually die. In Suzhou River, twomen are in love with two physically identical women; one man’s efforts toreclaim his lover ruin the other couple’s relationship. In Purple Butterfly,two pairs of lovers (at different times) go on dates before the men leavethe next morning by train. Ironically, three of these characters first meetin a train-station shootout that initiates a series of killings throughout therest of the movie. Lou’s pessimistic worldview suggests that “positive” forcessuch as China’s recent economic boom and patriotic heroism hurt morethan they benefit people.Lou’s movies are character studies as opposed to plot-driven entities likeHitchcock’s movies. In Hitchcock’s thrillers, a MacGuffin initiates a manhunt,and the characters pursue each other to determine who ends up withthe MacGuffin. Neither Suzhou River nor Purple Butterfly is interested insuch mechanisms. Rather, they prefer to observe characters in episodic “reallife” moments. In fact, while Purple Butterfly has an obvious MacGuffin,the movie gets rid of it quickly once its initial utility expires.Lou Ye and Complex StorytellingLou Ye’s use of complex storytelling further complicates and enriches thethriller genre. Hitchcock’s thrillers use classical storytelling, with linear