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My second video-based film of the day* and The Butterfly managed a nice balance of art and entertainment. Anna Kim flies in to Korea from Germany looking, like so many others, for the 'Oblivion Virus', a commutable phenomenon that erases the memory. In the near-future, catching amnesia has become a commodity to those wishing to forget painful pasts, and companies offer tour guides and personal liability waivers to that end, sending hunters out with the 'tourists' to track the swarms of butterflies that herald the presence of the virus. |
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But Anna's journey does not produce the immediate results she is hoping for, as she gets caught up in the personal lives of her young tour guide Yuki and the taxi driver K. Eventually she identifies with Yuki for the same reasons she initially sought the virus - not to forget but for forgiveness. Yuki's plight becomes her own, and K's desire to reconnect with a past he never had a choice about losing offers a parallel of hope for her own salvation. The question is not about what grief we might save ourselves from if we could forget, but what meaning we are losing in trying.
Visually, Director Moon Seung-wook's control over the camera is remarkable, exploiting its portability and limited dynamic range to truly gorgeous effect. He does not once lose sight of the point, despite moments of submerged symbolism, making the image work in support of the characters and story and not the other way around. The cast is strong and the acting outstanding, especially in the case of Kang Hae-jung (Yuki) and for an obviously relatively low budget film, the effects and sets are surprisingly seamless. Both technically, narratively and emotionally,
The Butterfly, like its namesake, is beauty, delicacy and grace all too fleeting.
Rating: 7 Acid Rain-storms out of 10
* The first was Seafood.
Reviewed by Deni Stoner
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