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Butterfly (Joey Wong) has nothing to do with the martial arts world.
Her father was once a renowned member of the m.a world, but she
is just another young girl deeply in love with Meng Sing Wan (Tony
Leung). They live happily in a small hut next to a river, where
he spends time trying to catch fish, and writing poetry. From time
to time, Sing has to go away on business to earn money, that's what
he tells her anyway, but the horrifying truth is that he is an assassin.
He
is a member of the Happy Forest, a group of assassins lead by Sister
Ko (Yeoh), but he is tired of the never-ending life of killing for
a living. Yip (Donnie Yen) is another member of the group, and is
Sing's best friend. The both of them, along with Sister Ko, and
a girl called Ho Ching grew up together, forming the best of Happy
Forest. Yip is in love with Sister Ko, but is afraid to tell her.
However, Ko only has eyes for Sing, but Sing regards her only as
an older sister.
Ko
is given a mission by the Grand Eunach Tsao, who instucts her to
steal a letter from the hands of Master Suen (Tsui) from the Elites
Villa sect, who was given to him by Grand Eunach Li, Tsao's adversary
in court. Ko tells Sing to fake his own death, then enter Suen's
service as a lone swordsman. Sing does this and more. He impresses
Suen with his skills and soon has his trust. At this time however,
he encounters Suen's girl, who looks remarkably like the Ho Ching
that once disappeared many years ago. Suen sees Sing's interest
in his woman, and so, gives her to him.
But
on the night of the wedding, Ho Ching tries to steal the message,
but fail and dies. Sing is devasted by her death, and he goes back
to Happy Forest, confronting Ko as to why he wasn't told that Ho
Ching was alive all this time, and was being an undercover. Ko is
upset by Sing's outburst, only wanting what is best for all of them.
Ko and Yip forces into Suen's Elites Villa, and with Sing already
inside, they are able to defeat Suen and take the message. When
Ko and Sing deliver the message to Eunach Tsao, it is revealed that
Eunach Li is really Eunach Tsao, and that he hatched up the plan
to destroy the people of the martial arts world. In the end, Tsao
is defeated by the teamwork of Ko, Sing, and a young prince (Jimmy
Lin).
I
didn't see this film when it first came out a few years ago. It
has been recently re-released onto the VCD format, so I bought it
and tried it out. My first impression was that the film looked dated,
it didn't have that quality about it, but the film wasn't bad. The
story was simple, but most importantly the action was good. What
with martial arts films being so common place, you'd expect them
to be full of action, and good action it is too. Butterfly and Sword
doesn't disappoint. There are plenty of swordfights here to keep
you amused, and that is the real point. To be honest, I didn't give
a toss about the plot, or the characters, just that the action was
enjoyable, and it was.
The
VCD disc is of good quality, and the subtitles have been done over,
which looks sharp and very readable. The film is in widescreen format
(1.85).
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