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| Director: David Cronenberg
Actors: Jeremy Irons, John Lone, Barbara Sukowa, Ian Richardson, Annabel Leventon
Studio: Warner Home Video
List Price: $14.98
Buy Used: $7.20
You Save: $7.78 (52%)
New (1) Used (24) Collectible (4) from $7.20
Rating:  21 reviews
Sales Rank: 727
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: VHS Tape
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 101 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 4.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 6303031897
UPC: 085391298434
EAN: 9786303031897
ASIN: 6303031897
Theatrical Release Date: October 1, 1993
Release Date: November 10, 1997
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 6-10 of 21
Cronenberg's M BUTTERFLY: most underated movie of '93 November 18, 1998
Legionrecords21@hotmail.com (Massachusetts USA)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
David Cronenberg's 11th movie, M BUTTERFLY, is one of his greatest silent achievements (next to FAST COMPANY his 3rd movie). The critics hated it, hollywood hated it, but here's the bottom line: Cronenberg fans will eat up all the elements of a perfect Cronenberg movie, non-Cronenberg fans will love it because the story sucks you in right from the beginning. This is the second time Jeremy Irons worked with Cronenberg (DEAD RINGERS the other), and what a remarkable job he does. If you liked the Crying Game, this is the mvie for you. Drama and suspense fans alike, see this movie. It has one of the most intriguing endings of any Cronenberg film (next to THE DEAD ZONE)
 Jeremy Irons was wonderful, but his "butterfly" was not . October 16, 1999
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I gave this film 3 stars for the wonderful performance of Jeremy Irons. He gives a very sensitive and authentic performance. However, the "butterfly" was not believable and that is the downfall of this film. To believe that a diplomate actually was deceived by a man portraying a woman, you, as the viewer, also have to see him as a woman, and this actor simply was not effective. There have been many actors who have been able to do a much more convincing job. Once again, I found the incredible talent of Jeremy Irons wasted in a film that does not measure up.
 Completely implausible plot April 26, 2005
Ondrej Sekanina (Prague, Czech Republic)
3 out of 17 found this review helpful
I fail to understand what the true story could have been that the film is supposedly based on. The plot is completely implausible. Leaving aside the basic premise of the film that Gallimard can sleep with a man without noticing this man was in fact a man and not a woman... just one example: does anybody really believe that the French police (perhaps with the exception of Luis de Funes) would transport two suspects together so that they can conveniently discuss a common strategy of hiding their former spying activiites? Preposterous if you ask me. Not to mention that there were absolutely no bumps on the road during the whole scene in the police van... (was that perhaps a hovercraft?) And there are also more improbabilities that the average European or American eyes fail to see but that left my Chinese wife totally flabbergasted... I wonder if David Cronenberg ever bothered to consult experts in the field as is the good practice with movies that involve distant regions, long-gone periods of history or special fields of human activity. Now back to the basic premise of the film, and I am not spoiling the final surprise for anyone because you figure out Butterfly is a man as soon as you have a look at the photographs on the box of the videocasette... my only explanation is that Gallimard was in fact bisexual and because of that decided to play the part of Butterfly himself in this weird relationship... be this a postscript to the dicusssion in the previous reviews as to whether John Lone was sufficiently female to be persuasive... All that having been said, the movie has its good moments and an intensive atmosphere, maybe too theatrical at times, but overall worth watching if you are a fan of things oriental or like to explore sexual ambiguities...
 We Make Our Own Reality January 16, 2007
Michael T. Starnes (Movieland)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I thoroughly enjoy watching this movie over and over. I remember seeing the Barbara Walters interview with the real life participants in this story and being able to see the real people(especially their "son" as an adult) and hearing their stories helped me become very curious as to how a story like this could unfold. I was completely blown away by John Lone in this portrayal of Song Lilling and think he did an awesome job with what he had to work with. He played the nemesis in the Alec Baldwin movie The Shadow. Watch that movie and then watch this one and tell me the man doesn't have range as an actor! I have shown this movie to several men who have NO IDEA what the movie is about and they are SHOCKED to find out Song Lilling is a man. I find it interesting that most of the reviewers here have been so negative about John's portrayal. He wasn't wearing any padding in the chest to try hard to be a woman. His character in this movie is a MAN who in real life fooled another man into thinking he was a woman because Renee' CHOSE his own reality. Maybe Song Lilling was right in the movie dialogue to her Comerade(paraphrased but never forgotten quotable line from this movie)--Do you know why most of the roles of women in Chinese opera are traditionially played by men? Because only men know how a true woman is supposed to act. --Jeremy Irons and John Lone give incredible and underrated performances in this movie. They believed in the project and it shows. The music is gorgeous, the costumes are very "Memoirs of a Geisha" and anyone who is a fan of The Crying Game or any play by Charles Busch should purchase this movie. The music, scenery, and locations alone rate 4 of the stars I have assigned to it.
Cognitive Dissonance December 16, 1999
Abe J. Flores (Culver City, CA United States)
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
There are two major things to be said about this one.First off: Regarding the complaints that John Lone was "too male" to pass for a woman. Well if people were actually listening to what was being said, they would realize that the point of the film was that Western preoccupations with stereotypes and the "Idea" of an Asian woman, blind us from the reality of what is actually before us. John's "maleness" not only is not a detraction from the film, it should have driven the point home even more strongly. Which brings us to the second point. David Henry Huang had some very specific points to make with his script and indeed the Screenplay is remarkably faithful to the stage script. Unfortunately I think David Cronenberg's interests in filming this one were very different from Huang's interests in writing it. What we are given is two brilliant artists tackling the same material together but with very different agendas. These differences unfortunately do not gell and we are left with neither agenda being adaquately served. Sadly, a less visionary director may have served Huang's vision better.
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