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Lou Ye’s Suzhou River and Purple Butterfly 197Segment 1.5 (0:14:41–0:14:48) is a long transition fade from Segment 1to Segment 2. The transition fade might be jarring and confusing to somepeople because the image changes from horizontal panning over dead, bloodybodies lying in a street to a stationary shot of a man smiling and whistlingwhile grooming himself in front of a mirror. At this point, the movie jumpsfrom 1928 to 1931, from northeastern China to Shanghai.Segment 2 (0:14:48–1:48:02) is the main body and can be understoodindependent of the rest of the movie. Segment 2 is about events that takeplace in 1931’s Shanghai.Segment 3 (1:48:02–2:02:39) is a flashback to a period prior to the trainstationshootout, though this is not apparent until the end of the segment.The movie cuts abruptly to an extreme close-up shot of Xieming’s face ashe sits in a dark room waiting for Xinxia. The music that was playing atthe end of Segment 2 is also cut off abruptly rather than used as a soundbridge between Segments 2 and 3. During a first viewing, one might thinkthat Xieming survived the botched assassination attempt on Yamamoto.Segment 3 is the movie’s Achilles’ heel. Running for approximately12 minutes, Segment 3 forces the movie to double back on itself while yieldingminimal results. The dialogue reveals emotions and motivations thatcan be inferred from words and actions elsewhere in the movie. In this regard,Lou Ye unwisely abandons the economy of narration and informationdelivery used elsewhere in the movie.This segment also has a (too long) long take that shows Xinxia,Xieming, and Yiling in the same frame. This long take feels like an unnecessarilyrepetitive technical exercise after the long take in Segment 2’strain-station shootout sequence. The Segment-3 long take confirms thatXinxia and Xieming are in the background of an extreme close-up shot ofYiling’s face in Segment 2 as she sits in a cable car on her way to the trainstation. However, in the story’s chronology, the characters inhabit thesame spaces (the area in front of the laundry service and the train station)twice within a matter of minutes/hours, so whatever point the Segment-3long take makes is simplistic and forced. Not clarifying that Yiling passedby Xinxia and Xieming on her way to the train station would have eliminatedan unnecessary coincidence. Segment 3 can be removed altogether withoutdiminishing the rest of the movie.Segment 4 (2:02:39–2:05:00) is comprised of vintage documentaryfootage showing destructive Japanese actions in China. This segment hasno direct narrative relation to Segments 1, 1.5, 2, 3, or 5. Thematically,Segment 4 reinforces a pro-Chinese/anti-Japanese sentiment.