The movie begins with the mysterious death of a the paper mill owner, causing the attention of the Tien Clan into the incident. In the meantime, the owner of Shum Castle invited the people of Tien Clan and Fong Hung Yip (a chronicler of jiang hu history) to stay in their castle, telling them about the butterfly murders that has been going on there. But before Fong and Tien had found out why the butterflies are out killing people, the owner of Shum was murdered by those butterflies. As a result 3 more Jiang Hu leaders were called to the Shum Castle and the mystery of the butterfly murders gradually unfolded.
The story was filled with twists and turns, and the middle of the movie was like a detective story as Fong and the Green Shadow (an unexpected guest at the Shum Castle) were investigating the murders. An extremely interesting and entertaining plot. The set decoration was done exquisitely, especially the labyrinth-like underground tunnel and the place where butterfly specimens were displayed. Unlike other movies in the same genre, the weapons used by the characters (no swords involved) and their costume were all creatively designed. So there is a certain degree of novelty in the movie, even though it was shot in 1979. In fact to some extent, a lot of the recent Hong Kong jiang hu movies had copied the art designs of this movie.
The butterfly invading the Shum castle scene as well as the butterfly killing people scenes were beautifully shot, and reminds me a lot of Hitchcock's The Birds (the difference between the two movie is that this film explains towards the end why the butterflies are killing people).
This film was said to have opened the new page for the Hong Kong New Wave movement in movies. It also proves that Tsui Hark is quite an expert with jiang hu movies. In fact this one is better than some of his later works, like the Blade.
This is an extremely worthwhile movie for the Jiang Hu martial arts fans to watch, especially those who like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.
The story was filled with twists and turns, and the middle of the movie was like a detective story as Fong and the Green Shadow (an unexpected guest at the Shum Castle) were investigating the murders. An extremely interesting and entertaining plot. The set decoration was done exquisitely, especially the labyrinth-like underground tunnel and the place where butterfly specimens were displayed. Unlike other movies in the same genre, the weapons used by the characters (no swords involved) and their costume were all creatively designed. So there is a certain degree of novelty in the movie, even though it was shot in 1979. In fact to some extent, a lot of the recent Hong Kong jiang hu movies had copied the art designs of this movie.
The butterfly invading the Shum castle scene as well as the butterfly killing people scenes were beautifully shot, and reminds me a lot of Hitchcock's The Birds (the difference between the two movie is that this film explains towards the end why the butterflies are killing people).
This film was said to have opened the new page for the Hong Kong New Wave movement in movies. It also proves that Tsui Hark is quite an expert with jiang hu movies. In fact this one is better than some of his later works, like the Blade.
This is an extremely worthwhile movie for the Jiang Hu martial arts fans to watch, especially those who like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.