siucin Reviews

Cambridge Spies (2003)

What a joke!

[12 May 2003]

Being a student in Cambridge, I am naturally curious about the show. Not that I had much expectation when I watched this TV series, but I was very disappointed with what I saw. The script is inadequate. Dialogue is corny. Abrupt cutting in between scenes. It felt as if the story was cut in such a way just to fit into a one or two hour TV time slot. It seemed that a lot of things happened between the characters, but we the audience were not told. So we don't know why some of the characters behave in such and such a way etc.

Almost all the characters in the show were portrayed as gay men, and they were either fascist or communist. Not that I doubt that there were indeed gay people, fascist people and communist people back in the old days in Cambridge, but I think the portrayal of the characters are just too one-sided and incomplete. There are no emotional depth in the portrayals.

Toby Stephens has managed to top his corny performance in Die Another Day with yet another cornier portrayal of Kim Philby.

If anyone wants to know more about the true facts of the spies or the real history of Cambridge, please go read a book on the subject, and stay away from this show.

The Butterfly Murders (1979)

As good as Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, if not better

[8/10 · 20 April 2001]

The movie begins with the mysterious death of a the paper mill owner, causing the attention of the Tien Clan into the incident. In the meantime, the owner of Shum Castle invited the people of Tien Clan and Fong Hung Yip (a chronicler of jiang hu history) to stay in their castle, telling them about the butterfly murders that has been going on there. But before Fong and Tien had found out why the butterflies are out killing people, the owner of Shum was murdered by those butterflies. As a result 3 more Jiang Hu leaders were called to the Shum Castle and the mystery of the butterfly murders gradually unfolded.

The story was filled with twists and turns, and the middle of the movie was like a detective story as Fong and the Green Shadow (an unexpected guest at the Shum Castle) were investigating the murders. An extremely interesting and entertaining plot. The set decoration was done exquisitely, especially the labyrinth-like underground tunnel and the place where butterfly specimens were displayed. Unlike other movies in the same genre, the weapons used by the characters (no swords involved) and their costume were all creatively designed. So there is a certain degree of novelty in the movie, even though it was shot in 1979. In fact to some extent, a lot of the recent Hong Kong jiang hu movies had copied the art designs of this movie.

The butterfly invading the Shum castle scene as well as the butterfly killing people scenes were beautifully shot, and reminds me a lot of Hitchcock's The Birds (the difference between the two movie is that this film explains towards the end why the butterflies are killing people).

This film was said to have opened the new page for the Hong Kong New Wave movement in movies. It also proves that Tsui Hark is quite an expert with jiang hu movies. In fact this one is better than some of his later works, like the Blade.

This is an extremely worthwhile movie for the Jiang Hu martial arts fans to watch, especially those who like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.