Director: Jingle Ma
Cast: Wu Chun, Charlene Choi, Wu Ge, Ti Lung, Harlem Yu
Release Date: Oct 16

Ah, the Butterfly Lovers - China's equivalent of Romeo and Juliet. We can't get enough of silly young lovers who defy their arranged marriages, it seems. Throw in impossibly-pretty teen idols Charlene Choi and Wu Chun, and the young crowd will start running in faster than you can say Mos Burger butterfly prawns. This isn't a straight re-telling of the legend, so don't expect anything as sophisticated as Tsui Hark's version, The Lovers. Instead, this is a slapstick comedy with moments of romantic beauty and some pretty sweet sword fights. Remember, director Jingle Ma also worked on Fong Sai Yuk and Para Para Sakura which should give you some clue about his tastes. Cheesy wushu, anyone?

In Butterfly Lovers, Liang Zhong Shan and Zhu Yan Zhi fall in love while training in a mountain clan by day, and going out boozing by night. Dressed as a male so she can learn martial arts, Yan Zhi is the most girly-looking man in the history of men (maybe with the exception of Toom from Beautiful Boxer). Liang is at first unaware that Yan Zhi's not a dude, thus continuing Wu Chun's penchant for playing guys who fall for cross dressers (see Hanazakari no Kimitachihe). But he starts to have his suspicions when Yan Zhi tattoos his sword with pretty butterflies, and starts giving him the look. Gulp! The rest is history the blissful couple come together, but are torn apart when Yan Zhi is betrothed to the evil General Ma. Is there a happy ending in sight? We think you know the answer.

Ashamed as we are to admit it, we are suckers for stories about tragic star-crossed lovers. We noticed that Butterfly Lovers borrows a lot from its Shakespearean equivalent. For one, it makes use of the draught of death, so Yan Zhi can fake her death to escape marriage a plot detail that wasn't in the original story.

Playing the herbal master is Harlem Yu, undoubtedly the best actor of the bunch. Stuffing himself with experimental drugs and setting things on fire, his comic relief is a much-needed antidote to all the lovey-dovey mushiness. We love seeing him on screen, giving Liang and Yan Zhi a much-needed thwack on the head when they develop googly eyes for each other. We sometimes wish he'd stuff a gourd in Choi's mouth, since her cutesy voice grates on our ears. But what's to be done you can't silence young love. -LT

THE VERDICT
A sweet but cheesy wuxia romance.