"A shooting star burns but briefly, but while it burns what other star in the heavens is as bright, as brilliant. When a shooting star appears not even the stars in the enduring constellations can match its light. The life of a butterfly is delicate even more fragile than flowers, but alas it lives only in the spring. It is beauty, it is freedom, it is flight. Although its life is short it is fragrant. Only swords, in comparison are eternal. A swordsman holds his light, his brilliance and light in his hands, but should the sword feel emotion will its brilliance be as short as that of a meteor."
— Ancient Martial Arts Proverb
Butterfly and Sword is a 1993 Wuxia martial arts / romance / action / drama film starring Michelle Yeoh, Tony Leung, Donnie Yen, Joey Wong and Jimmy Lin. It is an In Name Only remake of the 1976 martial arts film Killer Clans, and one of the most well-known 90s entry of wuxia cinema for its Ensemble Cast, over-the-top special effects, and ridiculous amounts of gore which often crossed into Bloody Hilarious territory.
Ming Dynasty Swordsman and assassin Meng Sing-wan (Tony Leung) grew up with his best friend Yip Cheung (Donnie Yen) and elder Sister, Ko (Michelle Yeoh); as orphans, the trio spend most of their lives training to be the best of martial artists and fighters in the clan they were raised, but now adults, Meng is engaged to his fiance Butterfly (Joey Wang), not knowing that Sister Ko secretly harbours a crush on him. And at the same time, Yip Cheung have a similar crush on Sister Ko, despite all three of them being oblivious to each others' true feelings.
All that lovey-dovey stuff can wait, however, because their clan leader Grand Eunuch Tsao have plans for them to assassinate Master Suen of a rival clan, who have plans of his own to take over the martial arts world. Their only potential ally is Prince Chai (Jimmy Lin), a secret member of their clan who have snuck into the Imperial palace as a spy for the trio. However their master isn't what he may truly seem, because in the world of wuxia martial arts, always expect the unexpected...
Actually, screw having a plot, because when a film opens with a guy launching himself with his own bow, and flying horizontally through the air and then slicing a dozen faceless extras into giblets, before segueing into another scene where a woman rips off a dude's head with her sash, you'd pretty much know you're NOT here for the plot. Bring on the blood and gore!
This film contains examples of:
- All Chinese People Know Kung-Fu: Every single named character, except Butterfly, is a martial artist and assassin of some sort.
- Bald of Evil: Eunuch Tsao, although he's not immeddiately identified as the real villain. But then again he does look Obviously Evil.
- Battle Couple: Sister Ko and Yip Cheung in the bamboo forest fight, the two of them taking out a small legion of rival fighters.
- Canon Foreigner: The Prince played by Jimmy Lin is created just for this movie, and doesn't have a counterpart in the 1976 original.
- Cloth Fu: Most notably Sister Ko's scarf, but Meng and Yip occasionally use their coats and scarves as weapons too.
- Cool Big Sis: Sister Ko to Meng and Yip. Adoptive sister, to be precise, but close enough.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: More than one opponent receives some degree of over-the-top, excessively gory overkills throughout the film.
- In the bamboo forest fight, Yip stomps on an opponent's head, causing said opponent's entire body to sink through solid ground with only the head remaining. The opponent then pukes blood and dies, just a single head sticking out of the ground.
- In the same scene, Yip impales a guy into a bamboo tree, then forcibly twirls his sword numerous times until his victim's carcass is crunched by several bamboo splinters.
- Exhibit C, Eunuch Tsao. See Rasputinian Death below.
- Dramatic Thunder: Featured in the one scene where Sister Ko pledges Meng to confess his true feelings about her, to her…. His confession is interrupted by a sudden bolt of dramatic thunder.
- Ensemble Cast: There are at least 5 main characters (Meng Sing-wan, Sister Ko, Prince Chai, Butterfly, Yip Cheung) and they get roughly equal amounts of screen-time and development.
- Eunuchs Are Evil: Eunuch Tsao, the real Big Bad and The Man Behind the Man of the conspiracy threatening to rip the martial arts world apart.
- Evil vs. Evil: Eunuch Tsao vs Lord Suen. Neither of them are on the side of good, but unfortunately our heroes Meng, Yip and Sister Ko knows nothing about the truth.
- Faking the Dead: Halfway through the movie, Meng faked his death to distract the authorities hot on his trail because of the killings he did in the opening scene. Bonus points that his "killers" are none other than Sister Ko and Yip Cheung, and they even staged a Meaningful Funeral for him!
- Fastball Special:
- Meng somehow did this with himself in the opening scene, launching himself through the air with his bow into a group of enemy soldiers.
- Later on during the battle with Lord Suen, Sister Ko uses her sash to launch Meng through the air so that Meng can land a lethal hit on Suen.
- Furo Scene: One scene had Sister Ko (the absolutely gorgeous Michelle Yeoh) in a bathtub.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Happens during the bamboo forest battle, with more than one rival swordsman getting the pointy end through their midsections. The last two, notably, gets impaled when Sister Ko slices a bamboo tree vertically into half, and then splits it, causing the halved tree to impale both opponents at the same time.
- Improvised Weapon: In the final battle, Eunuch Tsao briefly used a pillar he ripped out of the ground with his bare hands to fight Sister Ko and Meng.
- Just Friends: Meng considers Sister Ko to be this, despite her romantic advances being clear she has the hots for him. Also between Yip and Butterfly, since Yip knew Butterfly is Meng’s fiance; and he have no business getting between them.
- Ludicrous Gibs: Happens throughout the film, but most notably in Meng's Establishing Character Moment; rushing into a group of enemy soldiers, and then slicing a row of men into mincemeat almost effortlessly.
- A Minor Kidroduction: A flashback scene midway shows how Meng, Sister Ko, and Yip meet as kids and how they become sworn blood siblings.
- Mr. Fanservice:
- Meng Sing-wan, played by Tony Leung, who have at least 4 Shirtless Scene throughout the film.
- Donnie Yen's Yip Cheung have one Shirtless Scene to, and the camera lingers rather close to his pecs in that scene.
- Power Fist: Eunuch Tsao wears a fiendish-looking spiked gauntlet on his right hand, which turns out to contain a secret projectile launcher and can be fired, Rocket Punch style.
- Off with His Head!: Happens more than once. Sister Ko ripped off a guy's head with her sash the moment she shows up, and later on there is Lord Suen's dragon killing 4 other martial artists by removing their craniums. See also Rasputinian Death below.
- Precocious Crush: Inverted. It’s Sister Ko, the elder sister-by-blood of Meng Sing-wan, who had a crush on him.
- Rasputinian Death: Eunuch Tsao; after getting a hole ripped through his guts by Meng, and his head kicked off by Prince Chai, his chamber then collapses right on top of him. After Meng, Sister Ko and Prince Chai escape his Collapsing Lair to the outside, they stop to catch their breath... only for Tsao's headless corpse with a massive hole in it, reanimated by his chi, to come leaping towards them. Yip arrives in time however to deliver the final blow, slicing what's left of Tsao into ribbons.
- Scarf of Asskicking: Sister Ko's sash, which she used to kick massive amounts of ass. Her Establishing Character Moment involves her using her sash to rip off an enemy's head.
- Shoot the Bullet: A variant. Meng shoots an arrow out of mid air with his own bow and arrow.
- Spin Attack: More than one martial artist / swordsman uses a form of Spin Attack during battles, most notably Yip during his fight with The Dragon.
- Spy's Suspicious Spouse: Or Assassin’s Suspicious Spouse. Butterfly doesn’t have a clue that her lover/fiance, Meng is actually an assassin by trade, and tries to find out what he does for a living.
- The Tape Knew You Would Say That: A written version. After Meng left for the city, a week later Butterfly receives a scroll from him, which is his letter to her. In his letter, he wrote, "Hey, stop eating cookies on our bed!"... just as she is eating cookies while seated on their bed and reading his letter. Its one of the most hilarious moments of the movie.
- Tear Off Your Face: Right away in the opening scene, we have Yip Cheung slicing away a traitor's face.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Veteran ass-kicker and fighter Sister Ko (played by Michelle Yeoh) is the Tomboy, to the feminine and demure damsel Butterfly (Played by Joey Wang).
- Torso with a View:
- Lord Suen is finally killed when Meng carves a tunnel through his midsection, one wide enough for Meng to walk across.
- Meng did this again to Eunuch Tsao, but the Eunuch is Made of Iron and survives.
- Unfriendly Fire: Combined with Deadly Dodging. During the fight between Sister Ko and Lord Suen, Suen’s son, Kim, tries to ambush Sister Ko by throwing a couple of darts at her. Sister Ko dodges, causing said darts to fly towards Lord Suen, who deflects both darts… accidentally sending one into Kim’s forehead.
- Vine Swing: During their more intimate scenes, Meng and Butterfly would spend their time swinging from tree-to-tree in the woods outside their humble home.
- Waif-Fu: Sister Ko's fighting patterns have traces of these. Being played by Michelle Yeoh, that's a given.
- Wife Husbandry: The crush relationship between Sister Ko and Meng plays out like this trope, having spend their childhood days growing up together before she started having feelings for him.
- Wire Fu: Most of the fight scenes features this trope, especially the bamboo forest battle where Sister Ko and Yip takes out several opponents.
- Wuxia: One of the most popular wuxia of the 90s.
- You Are Already Dead: One fight scene had Yip fighting Lord Suen's dragon, one-on-one. Yip's opponent managed to disarm Yip, knocking Yip's sword out of his hands. Yip only smirks, and as The Dragon approaches, suddenly a dozen wounds on his body starts gushing blood, the same spots Yip had injured a few moments ago, enough to kill him instantly.
