M. Butterfly(1993)- User Reviews

I had to read the play this movie is based on for lit. class and I was very impressed with it. (I wish I could see it performed...but alas it is no more.) The writer takes the classic story of madam butterfly and turns it into an analysis of sexism and racism. Here is a man so enamored with the concept of the perfect, obediant, submissive asian woman that he fails to notice that his "madam" butterfly is, in fact, a man.

So, the point of the story really isn't gay romance. It is the white mans need to dominate....both women and members of other ethnic groups. The author of the play, who is asian, has said that the opera madam butterfly has always bothered him because of its stereotypical portrayal of asian woman and asians in general. (In the opera, Madame Butterfly commits suicide at the end because her white lover abandons her.) Hence, in the play he changes it to the white diplomat who basically goes crazy and can not deal with the loss of his lover.
(This is based on a true story of a french diplomat arrested for giving secrets to a chinese man who was his lover. The diplomat claimed he had no idea that the man was a man...let alone a spy.)
I like this movie because the concept facinates me. But, I did not throughly enjoy Lone's performance and so I had to give it a B. Still a good movie though. Read the play if your really interested.