WOMAN CHASING THE BUTTERFLY OF DEATH (1978)
Label: Mondo Macabro
Region Code: Region-FREE
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 117 Minutes
Audio: Korean DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1)
Director: Kim Ki-young
Cast: Kim Jeong-cheol, Kim Ja-ok, Kim Man
If you're looking for some serious head-trip foreign films I think the self-proclaimed "wild side of world cinema" distributor Mondo Macabro has a film you should look into, the surreal South Korean melodrama Woman Chasing the Butterfly of Death (1978) from director Kim Ki-young (The Housemaid). Thi strange bit of weirdness opens with college student Young-gul (Jeong-cheol) on a butterfly-catching excursion at the park where he encounters a young woman who comments on the cruelty of killing butterflies.
Nevertheless she offers him a glass of orange juice, but as soon as he drinks it she informs him that she's at the park for a planned suicide pact with her friend, but her partner-in-death failed to show so she has now chosen to poison him, so she will not die alone. Upon hearing this Young-gul flees screaming for help and is spared, with the poisoner succumbing to lethal elixir.
Afterward Young-gul falls into a depression, contemplating suicide he attempts to hang himself inside his sad little apartment, but he is interrupted by the arrival of an antagonist bookseller who tells him of a book that will allow him to cheat death itself through willpower alone. The bookseller is relentless, verbally harassing the non-believing young man, encouraging him to try and kill him, which he eventually does, stabbing the salesman with a kitchen knife. True to his words the stubborn salesman refuses to die, laying on the floor of the apartment rotting away for what seems like days, all the while rambling on about the cheating death through sheer will. Young-gul attempts to bury the bookseller, when that doesn't work he burns his body, but even then his burned skeletal remains return to torment the young man with words before crumbling into dust.
This bit of strangeness is only just the beginning of this wild South Korean tale, with Young-gul later exploring a cave with a friend when they unearth what appears to be an ancient skeleton. Young-gul takes the bones home in an attempt to restore them, hoping to find employment with a local archaeologist. Re-configuring the bones of the skeleton magically turns into a gorgeous woman who tells him of a thousand years-old curse that requires her to eat human liver or turn back into a pile of bones! The non-stop madness continues when Young-gul brings an automated cake-making machine home and makes love to the woman as the machine churns out a blizzard of tiny cakes that fall over their naked bodies.
Yeah, this is a strange one for sure, lots of bizarre and surreal happenings continue with Young-gul working for the demented archaeologist, who is weirdly being sent skulls by a butterfly-themed serial killer. Young-gul also develops a relationship with the archaeologist morbid daughter who is revealed to be the woman who was supposed to have killed herself along with the first girl that poisoned him at the park, and she's still bent on a suicide pact with Young-gul being the most promising partner.
The film is gorgeously shot but comes off a bit episodic, for at least an hour I was unsure of how these events were connected to each other, and at the end of the film I wasn't that much clearer on the subject other than it being a strange examination of death with a butterfly theme threaded through it. That said, the striking visuals and nightmarish lunacy of the film kept me absolutely fascinated and I was never bored.
Audio/Video: Woman Chasing the Butterfly of Death (1978) debuts on region-free Blu-ray from Mondo Macabro with a new 4K scan (or 2K scan according to the press release) of the original camera negative. Whatever the source they do good work with the restoration with what looks to have been a problematic source element. There are vertical lines, cigarette burns, scratches and other damage evident throughout, with the cinematography occasionally leaning soft at times, but looking nicely crisp in others which looks to be a stylistic choice. Overall though this is a solid presentation with warm colors and decent black levels, though the darker scenes do tend to be grainier.
Audio is advertised as PCM on the wrap but what is actually on the disc is a Korean DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono with optional English
subtitles. Overall it's a solid track, but like the video presentation there are some baked-in source issues like hiss and minor distortion, but I did not find it ruinous to any degree, very minor stuff.
Extras include an informative audio commentary from Kenneth Brosson and PauL Quin of the 'What's Korean Cinema?' Podcast, who offer insights into the meaning of the film, which I appreciated. There's also an hour's worth of interview with producer Jeong Jin_Woo, cinematographer Koo Jong-mo, and South Korean cinema expert Darcy Paquet who all speak about their collaborations with the director, and his place in South Korean film history, but for my money there's just not though time spent talking specifically about this supremely strange film, but it is an impressive array of extras for this obscure film.
This single-disc release comes housed in a standard Blu-ray keepcase with a sleeve of artwork featuring a new illustration by artist Naomi Butterfield. The film was previously issued by Mondo Macabro as a Red Case Limited Edition with exclusive reversible cover featuring artwork by Mathieu St-Pierre in addition to the Butterfield illustration. The Red Case edition also contained a booklet featuring a brand new essay on the film by writer Kelley Dong that is not present with this standard edition.
Special Features:
- Interview with actress Lee-Hwa-si (11 min)
- Two-Part Interview with producer Jeong Jin_Woo (29 min)
- Interview with cinematographer Koo Jong-mo (6 min)
- Interview with Darcy Paquet (15 min)
- Audio Commentary by Kenneth Brosson & Paul Quin of the 'What's Korean Cinema?' Podcast
- Mondo Macabro Trailer Reel (14 min)
Woman Chasing the Butterfly of Death (1975) is a strange bit of South Korean melodrama with ample amount of head-scratching weirdness, surreal images and lunatic humor that kept it interesting even when the plot sort of lost me, and that's not a complaint, I still dig it. If you're into severely strange cinema like Hausu (1977) I think there's definitely a spot on your shelf waiting to be filled by this crazy flick.