The Banquet
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Purple Butterfly Review - by Governor Yu
This is by far Ziyi's most intense dramatic role. There is no other movie where we get to know her better or more intimately. She said that the director often told the actors to improvise, and you can see alot of that in the rawness and sincerity of their performance.
The cinematography is unconventional. Natural lighting is used as much as possible, and some shots go on for minutes without a cut or edit. This means that much of the movie is dark and slow, but the effect is to create a compelling historical atmosphere. Mocha described the movie as "patient" and it is, like Kurosawa. Alot of people who have seen the movie don't ike it's visual style. It is an "ugly" movie by traditional standards. I think the movie is trying to go beyond those standards to find a new degree of realism and intimacy, and I think it succeeds. And some of the shots are very beautiful in their own dark way; you can see some of them in the trailer I made below.
The actors are focused on very strongly, the limited dialogue and extended scenes means that it's their expressions and body language that makes the movie work. Ziyi is incredibly powerful in this way, she has the commitment to her role that she always does, and is given total freedom to express it. There is a perfectly crafted scene on a dance floor near the end of the movie, where she expresses the most completely overwhelming emotion I have ever seen.
The music is very beautiful, it's unfortunate that there is little of it. But what is there is used to good dramatic effect. Some scenes go for minutes with no dialogue, with only the music to lend support to the imagery, and it works well.
I made a trailer that also serves as the introduction to the movie,
Purple Butterfly Trailer - 11 MB
Historical backround is important in this movie, so you might also want to read MonkeyPeaches history article. And there is also the original Ziyifilms thread with reviews. Especially this post by Mocha.