Plot

In 1960s China, French diplomat Rene Gallimard falls in love with an opera singer, Song Liling - but Song is not at all who Gallimard thinks.

During the Cultural Revolution in China in the mid-1960s, a French diplomat falls in love with a singer in the Beijing Opera. Interwoven with allusions to the Puccini opera "Madama Butterfly", a story of love and betrayal unfolds.—Michael C. Berch <[email protected]>

In 1964, in Beijing, the French Ambassaty accountant René Gallimard goes to a social event without his wife Jeanne Gallimard and meets the opera singer Song Liling. René becomes attracted to Song and soon he meets her at the local opera house. He falls in love with her and Song becomes his mistress. Meanwhile Ambassador Toulon promotes René to Vice-Consul and he becomes advisor for the French Intelligence. But Song has deep secrets that the naive René does not have any idea and believes is part of the Chinese culture.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

1964. René Gallimard is a mid-level bureaucrat working in the French Embassy in Beijing. Being a stickler for doing things by the books, at least as it comes to his own responsibilities, places him at odds with some of his colleagues, but leads to him being promoted to Vice-Consul, especially important during this uncertain geopolitical time with the French having lost the war in Indochina and another war possibly breaking out in Vietnam. Prior to his promotion, he, already married, begins an illicit affair with Song Liling, a starring member of the Beijing Opera. In their relationship, René gets caught up in the western male/demure East Asian female ideal as depicted in "Madama Butterfly", the death scene aria which she sang in the first performance of hers he attended. Aspects of their relationship will ultimately lead to his downfall, those aspects which he either does not initially see or refuses to see in only wanting to see that ideal he has in his mind.—Huggo

Beijing, Red China, 1964. Mild-mannered Rene Gallimard, an accountant at the French embassy, watches captivated as Opera diva Song Liling sings a selection from 'Madame Butterfly'. Afterwards, he tells his wife Jeanne that Song Liling has opened his eyes to the beauty in the tragic tale, but Jeanne pours scorn on his romanticized western ideal of the submissive oriental woman. He tells Jeanne that the Chinese can't stand Madame Butterfly because "the white man gets the girl."

Three weeks later, Rene musters the courage to visit the Opera again where he meets Song Liling backstage. Although he and Song only talk, he lies to his wife about his whereabouts. Song next entertains him in her parlor, a potentially scandalous action in a country "rooted 2,000 years in the past". When Rene kisses Song, she looks offended and asks him to leave. At Frau Bauden's party, Rene is accosted by angry embassy employees whose expenses he has refused. Song begins to write letters to Rene which he does not answer.

Ambassador Toulon notes Rene's sudden personality change by stating: "you've become this new, aggressive, overconfident thing". He appoints Rene as Vice Consul, in charge of setting up a new intelligence-gathering operation to spy on the current Chinese authorities during Chairman Mao's so-called Cultural Revolution. Rene rushes off to Song, and demands to know if she's his butterfly. She shyly admits she is, although to protect her modesty, she insists on remaining clothed as they make love, watched by the prying eyes of Song's maid. Rene and Song's courtship continues secretly with a trip to the Great Wall.

Some time later, the ambassador asks Rene Gallimard's opinion on the current conflict in Vietnam and of China's involvement it for his report. He tells the ambassador that the Americans must show strength, as the Oriental will always bow to a superior force. Song is revealed to be a double agent as she begins to feed Rene misinformation, and relays his comments on American troop movements to local Party official Comrade Chin, who is disgusted to find American movie-star magazines in her parlor. Song counters with saying "I'm trying my best to become somebody else."

At another one of Frau Bauden's parties, Rene embarks on an "extra extra-marital affair" with Song. On his next visit to Song, he demands to see her naked. She tells him that she is pregnant and she must go to her parents village, as is the custom, from which she will bring him back a son. He is delighted. Song then goes to her handler, Chin, and requests a male Chinese baby with blond hair as part of her cover.

Some months later, Rene Gallimard views a Red Guard demonstration with the burning of opera costumes. The ambassador advises caution, as they have become a powerful movement. Song visits Rene with their "son". He proposes marriage, but she is marched away by Red Guard militia who have declared all artists criminals under the Cultural Revolution. Rene is told by the Chinese authorities that he is being deported back to France for wrongly analyzing the Chinese and Vietnamese political situations. On a last visit, Rene finds Song's courtyard quarters full of peasants. Meanwhile, Song is seen entering a re-education camp, as a loudspeaker voice declares hard labor will transform them into real citizens of the future under the tutelage of Chairman Mao.

Paris, France, 1968. Rene is watching a performance of Madame Butterfly at the local opera, where his eyes fill with tears. Outside, Rene runs into a riot where pro-Communist students are attacking the police during the so-called Student Riots. Rene returns to his apartment which the decor is austere of Chinese chic. One day, Song reappears, and Rene is overjoyed to see her again. Rene tells Song that since his dismissal from the diplomatic service, he has been working as a motorcycle courier, carrying diplomatic pouches. Rene is soon arrested by Etancelin, a government agent.

Rene is brought on trial for espionage of leaking classified documents during his tenure as Vice Consul in China. During the trial, Rene is confronted by the crushing spectacle when Song Liling shows up to testify against him, and wearing a suit and necktie... unmistakably a man. Much to the court's incredulity, Song testifies how Rene gave him access to the diplomatic pouches to protect their "son" back in China. When the prosecutor asks Song if Rene ever knew that he was in fact a man impersonating a woman, Song speaks about his Oriental ways of love "out of which I invented myself, just for him." In a police van en route to prison, Song confronts Rene and finally disrobes, bitterly reminding Rene that he still is the same person that Rene fell in love with. Rene angrily rejects his advances, destroyed by the revelation of Song's true gender and that what he loved and believed was all a lie.

In prison, Rene gives a one-man performance, admitting his story about falling in love with a man whom he thought was a woman, and a spy, had given the whole from France a good laugh. As Song boards a plane back to China, having been extradited, Rene plays an audio tape of Madame Butterfly and relates the tale as if he himself were the tragic oriental woman who loved an unworthy man. In oriental clothes, heavy Chinese makeup and a wig, Rene says that he has found the perfect sacrificial woman, far from China. In front of all the inmates and the warden, he kneels forward and commits suicide by slitting his own throat.