M. Butterfly (1993), A Timid Adaptation That Flattens the Real Story
I’m not sure how I came across the true love affair between French diplomat Bernard Boursicot and Chinese opera singer Shi Pei Pu, but it was a story so bizarre that I had to learn more. When I discovered that David Cronenberg had made a film adaptation of the story, M. Butterfly, I knew I had to see it. For the uninitiated, Boursicot was a French diplomat who fell in love with a Chinese opera singer, Shi Pei Pu, and believed that the opera singer was genetically female, when in fact Shi was a male who merely portrayed women on stage and used Boursicot to feed information to the Chinese government.
To make things even crazier, their affair lasted throughout part of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, during which time Bouriscot (supposedly) did not know that he was having an affair with a man. Just to make sure you’re still paying attention, Shi was actually a spy on behalf of the People’s Republic of China, collecting information from Bouriscot about French national secrets and operations in Asia. Toward the end of their affair, Shi even claimed to have birthed a child and convinced Bouriscot that he was the father. Finally, when the French government found out about all of this, it came to light in a courtroom in 1987, when Shi was forced to show Bouriscot his genitalia to prove that he had been lying for years.
