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Butterfly Director：Yan-Yan Mak |
Every butterfly has gone through the dark and tough process of evolution before it can fly freely in the sky. It has to experience the process on its own because no one can help and any attempt to rush through it is fatal.
Flavia knew from the very beginning that things are meant to be.
A thirty-year-old high school teacher always does what people expect, until one day, destiny introduces her to a charming kid-woman who is eating hungrily in a supermarket. Flavia is deeply attracted to the woman and her long dormant desire is rekindled.
To stop herself from doing anything foolish, Flavia tries to concentrate on her job and family. She keeps reminding herself how precious everything she possesses is.
But things cannot be stopped. She comes to realize how enclosed her own world is and that she has to face the feelings buried deep inside her heart again, including her old lover Jin.
She is tired of satisfying others, seeing them pleased. She knows she does not want to give up this time. She wants to be the real her, the real Butterfly, just for once. She is scared of the uncertain future. But let it be.
We are standing and waiting on the verge of cracking of the chrysalis so that we can become a butterfly.
When we can finally emerge from our shelter and take up the responsibility, we will be able to look at the sky and be proud of what we have done.
Flavia did it.Hong kong people did it too.
DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
Most of the time, we don ' t want to know the truth so we pretend that we don ' t know the truth. But the choice is up to us.
When you look at a caterpillar moving on a leaf, you can choose not to believe that it can fly someday.
“ Butterfly ” is about a married school teacher who has to choose between her family and her love affair. On one side is her husband and her child. On the other side is the woman she loves. Interwuven into this story is the memory of her first love as a lesbian, the plight of her two female students in love, and her mother ' s desire for freedom after a lifelong marriage.
This is a love story about homosexuality. It is a story about being honest to oneself. At the end of the story, Flavia says: “ I don ' t know. I have been losing things all my life. Now I have also lost my own child. But I have myself. Perhaps this is the only thing that I could ever have, and the only thing that I could never lose. ”
I do not think about the themes of my films. They just come. I have visions and I try to understand them. I try to give some sort of meaning for myself without trying to say something. I do not choose my material according to some social or critical statement I want to make. I like films that make you feel pain when you are supposed to feel it and films that can inspire you.
Time is changing and our society has accepted homosexuality as it is. However, in Hong Kong cinema, homosexuality is still being treated as a gimmick. A gay or lesbian film in a Chinese society should provide an opportunity for different voices to express themselves. Although this story is told from a woman ' s point of view, it shows the multiplicity of identity as well as the story itself, just like the scent of tea leaves spreading out from boiling tea.
A caterpillar evolves into a chrysalis. A chrysalis matures to become a butterfly. “ Butterfly ” is not just the history of the first half of Flavia ' s life, but the common experience of the Hong Kong people of my generation. I believe the summer of 1989 did change a lot of young people, and the 1 st July 2003 has become a truly remarkable date for Hong Kong people.
“ You ' re not a butterfly if you can ' t fly! ” 
