M. Butterfly

In 1960s Beijing the French diplomat René Gallimard falls in love with the Peking Opera performer Song Liling. Song presents as a woman and is a man, using Gallimard's fantasy about the East to draw intelligence out of him. The affair unravels after his return to Paris and he is arrested. David Cronenberg directed. The source is David Henry Hwang's 1988 Broadway play, itself loosely drawn from the real espionage case of the French diplomat Bernard Boursicot and the Chinese opera performer Shi Pei Pu. Jeremy Irons plays Gallimard and John Lone plays Song. The budget ran between 17 and 18 million dollars and the film was a commercial disappointment, taking only 1.5 million domestically. Cronenberg gave the reason himself: it was overshadowed by The Crying Game, released the same year. Reviews split. Some wrote that the adaptation flattened the play's power; others defended the performances and found not a single unearned tear in the final act. Who it is for: viewers interested in films about identity and deception, and in Cronenberg's stranger assignments. Who it is not for: anyone expecting body horror from him. This one is cold, formal and almost entirely verbal.