The screening on 11 April will be introduced by Tom Cunliffe (UCL).
Tsui Hark made an immediate impact and established himself as a cinematic visionary with his directorial debut The Butterfly Murders, a pioneering and ‘futuristic’ Hong Kong New Wave take on the traditional wuxia. Combining swordplay, mystery, science fiction, and more, Hark’s first film is breathlessly creative, packed full of stunningly fluid camerawork, gorgeously surreal sets, and hyper-stylised visuals.
Tied together by a dark sense of ironic humour, the film is narrated by Lau Siu-ming’s scholar Fong, who weaves the tale of his investigation into a series of murders seemingly committed by killer butterflies. Enlisting the help of a woman called Green Shadow and a martial arts clan leader, Fong is led to a deserted castle where a conspiracy unfolds, and where a mysterious figure clad in black armour seems to be on a killing spree. Groundbreaking in every sense of the word, the film sees Hark gleefully deconstructing the wuxia form, throwing in a dizzying array of cinematic nods to Hitchcock, spaghetti westerns, Italian giallo cinema, and Japanese crime thrillers along the way.
This screening is in partnership with the Chinese Cinema Project and Focus Hong Kong. Supported by the Hong Kong Economic Trade Office London. 2K restoration, in Cantonese with English subtitles.
