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

196 Yunda Eddie Fengher dead body). The other characters’ viewpoints are also strongly presented,though a general atmosphere of distrust pervades. Since Mada betrays Mudan,the other characters and the viewer doubt Mada’s statements. Meimeifrequently expresses disbelief at what Mada and the narrator say to her.Until the movie’s climax, no one knows for sure if the characters genuinelybelieve that the others are lying or if they pretend to think that the othersare lying.Lou Ye shies away from keeping the movie shrouded in uncertainty byliteralizing Mada and Mudan’s tale. Indeed, the voiceover’s barrage ofinformation, otherwise a method of confusion and concealment, gives awaymost of the story during Segment 1. The movie’s climax – when the narratorand Meimei stand over Mada’s and Mudan’s dead bodies – eliminatesthe blurring of the characters’ memories and identities. Thus, the viewerno longer wonders whether or not the narrator and Mada are the sameperson, whether or not Meimei and Mudan are the same person, and whetheror not the entire story is a figment of the narrator’s imagination.Purple ButterflyPurple Butterfly is Lou Ye’s reworking of Hitchcock’s spy thriller sub-genre.Xinxia (Zhang Ziyi) and Xieming (Feng Yuanzheng) are members ofan anti-Japanese resistance group. 4 Itami (Toru Nakamura) is a Japaneseintelligence agent. Xinxia and Xieming want to assassinate Yamamoto, Itami’sboss. Xinxia and Itami were lovers in the past, so they use each other toaccomplish their goals. Situ (Liu Ye) and Yiling (Li Bingbing) are nonpoliticalcivilians, but they are victims of the clash between anti-Japaneseand Japanese factions. 5Situ is the “wrong man” who is doubly pursued by spies (Xinxia, Xieming,and their associates) and the authorities (Itami and the Japanese, who effectivelyruled China’s seacoast during World War II). Xinxia uses another name(“Ding Hui”) with her associates in Shanghai. The MacGuffin is a casewith information about Japanese operatives in Shanghai. The main storyconcludes with a turnabout as Situ, fed up with being threatened byeverybody else, hunts his persecutors.Purple Butterfly can be divided into five segments. Segment 1 (0:00:00–0:14:40) is about events that take place in 1928’s northeastern China. Thissegment includes the opening credits, which begin appearing on a blackbackground and continue to appear as the narrative begins.