The movie “M.Butterfly” is an avatar movie since it plays with the identity of the characters around the story of “Madame Butterfly”. At first the viewer thinks it is a love story between a Chinese opera singer and a French accountant. It seems that the opera singer is passive and waiting for her “western hero” to save her, like in the opera. After the plot goes further the woman turns out to be a man that tries to manipulate the western man by dressing up as an oriental fantasy and we see that the real dominant is the woman who is actually a man. The Chinese man disguises himself as a woman because he is a spy works for the government at that time, when it is under the Culture Revolution in China. It seems that he works for his nation, however, he actually works to protect himself since he is under suspicion as an enemy of the government.
The character is Vajravarahi which is one of the most popular female Tantric denties in the tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. Each detail of the character symbolizes her values and charctersitics. For instance, her red color represents her inner fire, her two arms symbolizes her realization of the two truths in Buddhism and her third eye shows her ability to see everything from the past to the future.
comparing one character from the film to the Avatar at the Rubin.
