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The Butterfly Murders

Hong Kong 1979
produced by
Ng See-Yuen, Wu Sijian, Zhang Quan for Seasonal
directed by Tsui Hark
starring Lau Siu-Ming, Michelle Mee, Wong Shu Tong, Zhang Guozhu, Chen Qiqi, Wang Jiang, Eddy Ko, Xu Xiaoling, Hsia Kuang-li
written by Lum Chi-Ming, Lin Fan, music by Frankie Chan, Chan Piu, martial arts director: Wong Shu Tong

review by
Mike Haberfelner

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There's unrest in the martial arts world, involving on one hand a book by martial arts chronicler Fong (Lau Siu-Ming) - which is actually a forgery) - on the other mysterious murders at Shum Castle, apparently committed by a swarm of killer butterflies.

So martial arts master Tien (Wong Shu Tong) travels to Shum Castle at Shum's (Zhang Guozhu) express request with Green Shadow (Michelle Mee), a female martial artist who's just intrigued by the mystery and persuades Tien to take her along for the ride.

At the castle, Tien finds out that everybody lives in fear of the butterflies and has hidden underground - but to Tien's dismay, Shum has also invited Fong to help so9lving the mystery, and soon enough Fong and Green Shadow team up and find out quite a few things, including a secret undergroung lab in which someone obviously tried to develop a gun. But before any of that can lead to anything, Shum is killed as well by the killer butterflies, right in front of everyone. His last will invites two martial artists (Wang Jiang, Eddy Ko) to the castle, who are soon enough at each other's throats plus have their quarrels with Tien. But as if that wasn't enough, an armoured killer starts roaming the catacombs beneath the castle as well.

Eventually, Fong and Green Shadow find out quite a few things, like that Shum was never really killed by the butterflies but faked his own death to gain control of the martial arts world with a gun he has developed, and he has only invited all the martial artists to his castle after his staged death to have them kill each other - oh and of course, there are no killer butterflies in the first place, that's another little detail Shum has merely made up (but convincingly so).

Somehow all the martial artists involved ultimately manage to dispose of Shum, but somehow Shum's plan succeeds nevertheless, since all the martial artists kill one another and even Green Shadow is killed in the proceedings, and at the end, Fong, merely a chronicler not a martial artist himself, is left the last man standing.

 

In plot, The Buterfly Murders is reminiscent of Chu Yuan's Ku Lung adaptations, though in style, director Tsui Hark, whose debut feature this was, departs considerably from Chu Yuan's almost excessive direction and opts for something closer to the Italian giallo and Hitchcock's The Birds - but mixed of course with Chinese period setings and lots of martial arts - which are often quite inventive too. The result is a very entertaining and satisfying martial arts mystery full of exhilarating plottwists and a refreshingly light-footed approach to the genre.

Recommended, actually.

 

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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In times of uncertainty of a possible zombie outbreak, a woman has to decide between two men - only one of them's one of the undead.

 

There's No Such Thing as Zombies
starring
Luana Ribeira, Rudy Barrow and Rami Hilmi
special appearances by
Debra Lamb and Lynn Lowry

 

directed by
Eddie Bammeke

written by
Michael Haberfelner

produced by
Michael Haberfelner, Luana Ribeira and Eddie Bammeke

 

now streaming at

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Robots and rats,
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