Review of M. Butterfly (1993) by James R — 25 May 2009

A well done film with a historically interesting and thought provoking plot. Jeremy Irons gives a great performance, and even though there is some issue with John Lone, I found his performance decent. There are some interesting scene changes and standard 80s, (even though this is 1993,) romance-drama movie shots.

There is a lot going on in the movie -- even a little too much than it should be taking on. We see snippets of Maoists destroying Chinese cultural heritage and on post French colonial politics. A new issue for a Cronenberg movie was Orientalist stereotypes, (e.

G. asian fetish,) but the way Cronenberg portrays it is quite similar to his other portrayals of other fetishes and part of his omnisexual concept/postulation. SPOILER ALERT: the idea of this movie is not really to trick you into believing a man is a woman, but it is to demonstrate that through the infatuation of a fetish the objects that surround the fetish are more meaningful than the male/female sex of the actors engaging in it.

END SPOILER ALERT. I think Cronenberg is using this true story as a demonstration of his concept thus it is actually a postulation. Music was good, and plot developed smoothly with minimal filler. People who have read or seen the play, or are aware of the story's actual events may not enjoy this movie.