40 movies, 40 pieces of thought.: The Butterfly Lovers

The Butterfly Lovers (梁山泊与祝英台) is a well-known folklore in the Chinese history, along with The Legend of White Snake (白蛇传), Meng Jiangnu’s Bitter Weeping (孟姜女), Cowherd and Weaving Maid (牛郎织女), these four ancient love stories play an important part in Chinese literature.

I was a kid when I had my first exposure to The Butterfly Lovers. Flipping through a simple Mandarin Chinese storybook, the beauty of the story had me in awe, and also the relentless bugging of my mum with the question, “did they really turn into butterflies?”

Long before watching The Love Eterne by Li Han Hsiang (1963), I had long heard about the actress, Ivy Ling Po, from my mum, and about how the actress performed the role of the guy Liang Shan Bo with such charismatic demeanor that was unrivalled in that period of time.

Watching the film made me felt like I travelled back in time, it reminded me how fond of these Chinese folklores I used to be when I was a child. The old fashioned make-up, the operas my parents used to tell me about, the cliché storyline, the beautiful costumes the performers donned on, these elements constitute the “classic” feel of the movie.

Often referred as the Romeo and Juliet of the Far East, The Butterfly Lovers spanned many remakes in plenty forms of arts, be it movies, music, theatre performances, even drawings, paintings and such. I did some research, and here are a few of them!

Movie - The Lovers by Tsui Hark (1994)

Movie – The Butterfly Lovers by Jingle Ma (2008)

Music - Violin Concerto Butterfly Lover 梁祝 by Lu Si-qing

Animation (music video of movie) - The Butterfly Lovers: Leon and Jo (蝴蝶梦-梁山泊与祝英台)

Television Series - The Butterfly Lovers (梁山伯與祝英台) (2007)

Drawings