Butterfly (2004 film)

Plot

The film follows Flavia (Josie Ho), a married high school teacher, who meets a beautiful free-spirited female singer-songwriter named Yip (Tian Yuan) and strikes up a relationship with the younger girl. Flavia is a closeted lesbian because she was brought up in a society where homosexuality was not accepted. When Flavia was a teenager, she fell in love with a girl in her class, but was forced to end the relationship when it was discovered by her parents. Heartbroken, she eventually married a competent and caring businessman after graduating from university. Now in her 30s and married with a child, she meets Yip. Flavia is deeply attracted to Yip's carefree personality and bright spirit, and falls for Yip in the same way she fell for her first love in high school. She slowly dares to break out while worried about the consequences but at the same time, hopeful about finding her true self again.

Soundtrack

The film features a set of interesting music and songs from various artistes such as Múm, an experimental Icelandic musical group; Hopscotch, Tian Yuan's independent Chinese band and at17, a Hong Kong Folktronica band.

Reception

Butterfly was chosen as the Opening Film at Venice Film Festival Critics Week and Tian Yuan was awarded as the Best New Artist at the Hong Kong Film Awards in 2005. The film was also nominated at the Taiwan Golden Horse Awards in 2004 for Best Adapted Screenplay (Yan Yan Mak) and Best New Performer (Tian Yuan). Also, actress Josie Ho received a nomination at the Golden Bauhinia Awards for Best Actress and at ILMA Awards for Best Leading Actress, both in 2005.

Also, a blogger on Grace the Spot, a lesbian entertainment and pop culture blog, rated Butterfly as her favourite lesbian film.

Casting and hidden feature

According to the commentary on the DVD, director Yan Yan Mak invited Ellen Joyce Loo and Eman Lam of at17 to star as two of Flavia’s students who also fall in love with each other, but they rejected the roles. The role later was taken by Isabel Chen and Joman Chiang.

There is a hidden music video of the song 'I will see you', sung by Tian Yuan, in the DVD (2005 Hong Kong version).