''M. Butterfly'' is a 1993 American romantic

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

directed by David Cronenberg. The screenplay was written by

David Henry Hwang David Henry Hwang (born August 11, 1957) is an American playwright, librettist, screenwriter, and theater professor at Columbia University in New York City. He has won three Obie Awards for his plays '' FOB'', '' Golden Child'', and '' Yell ...

based on his play of the same name. The film stars

Jeremy Irons Jeremy John Irons (; born 19 September 1948) is an English actor and activist. After receiving classical training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Irons began his acting career on stage in 1969 and has appeared in many West End theatre ...

and

John Lone John Lone (; jyutping: zyun1 lung4; born October 13, 1952) is an American actor. He starred as Pu Yi in the Academy Award-winning film '' The Last Emperor'' (1987), for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor. A veteran ...

, with

Ian Richardson Ian William Richardson (7 April 19349 February 2007) was a Scottish actor. He portrayed the Machiavellian Tory politician Francis Urquhart in the BBC's '' House of Cards'' (1990–1995) television trilogy. Richardson was also a leading S ...

Barbara Sukowa Barbara Sukowa (; born 2 February 1950) is a German actress of screen and stage and singer. She has received three German Film Awards for Best Actress, three Bavarian Film Awards, Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress, Venice Film Festival ...

, and

Annabel Leventon Annabel Leventon (born 20 April 1942 in Hertfordshire, England) is an English actress who has acted in various roles on stage and television. While reading English at the University of Oxford she made several appearances at the Oxford Playhouse ...

. The story is loosely based on true events which involved French diplomat

Bernard Boursicot Bernard Boursicot (born on 12 August 1944) is a French diplomat who was caught in a honeypot trap (seducing him to participate in Chinese espionage) by Shi Pei Pu, a male Peking opera singer who performed female roles, whom Boursicot believed to ...

and Chinese opera singer Shi Pei Pu.

Synopsis

René Gallimard (

), a French diplomat assigned to

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

, China, in the 1960s. He becomes infatuated with a

Peking opera Peking opera, or Beijing opera (), is the most dominant form of Chinese opera, which combines music, vocal performance, mime, dance and acrobatics. It arose in Beijing in the mid-Qing dynasty (1644–1912) and became fully developed and recognize ...

performer, Song Liling (

), who

spies Spies most commonly refers to people who engage in spying, espionage or clandestine operations. Spies or The Spies may also refer to: * Spies (surname), a German surname * Spies (band), a jazz fusion band * Spies (song), "Spies" (song), a song by ...

on him for the Government of the People's Republic of China. Their affair lasts for 20 years and they subsequently marry, with Gallimard all the while apparently unaware (or willfully ignorant) of the fact that in Peking opera, ''

Dan Dan or DAN may refer to: People * Dan (name), including a list of people with the name ** Dan (king), several kings of Denmark * Dan people, an ethnic group located in West Africa **Dan language, a Mande language spoken primarily in Côte d'Ivoi ...

'' roles are traditionally performed by men.

Cast

as René Gallimard *

as Song Liling *

as Ambassador Toulon *

as Jeanne Gallimard *

as Frau Baden *

Shizuko Hoshi Shizuko Hoshi is a Japanese-American actress, theater director, dancer and choreographer. Born in Japan, she is a graduate of Tokyo Women's College and University of Southern California. She was married to actor Mako, the founding artistic direc ...

as Comrade Chin *

Vernon Dobtcheff Vernon Dobtcheff (born 14 August 1934) is a British actor, best known for his roles on television and film, he has acted in numerous stage productions. Biography Dobtcheff was born in Nîmes, France, of Russian descent. He attended Ascham Pre ...

as Agent Entacelin

Differences with real life events

At the end of the film Gallimard kills himself. Nevertheless, the man the character is based on,

, did not do so in real life.

Themes

One theme of the film (as well as with the play it's based on) is Orientalist stereotypes, but Cronenberg removed many of the political overtones from the story, in order to focus more intensely on the relationship between Gallimard and Song. A key line in the film is "Only a man knows how a woman is supposed to act".

Reception

''M. Butterfly'' grossed $1,500,000 in the domestic box office. On

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 43%, based on 21 reviews, and an average rating of 5.60/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "David Cronenberg reins in his provocative sensibility and handles delicate material with restraint, yielding a disappointing adaptation that flattens ''M. Butterfly'' into a tedious soap opera." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 43 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:M. Butterfly (Film) 1993 films 1993 romantic drama films 1993 LGBT-related films 1990s spy drama films American romantic drama films American spy drama films 1990s English-language films Films directed by David Cronenberg Cross-dressing in American films Spy films based on actual events Romance films based on actual events Drama films based on actual events American films based on plays Films set in Beijing Films set in the 1960s Films about interracial romance Cold War spy films The Geffen Film Company films Warner Bros. films Films scored by Howard Shore Transgender-related films LGBT-related romantic drama films 1990s American films