Specimen No. Ⅳ | Written by Maya Lee

The film’s protagonists, Cynthia and Evelyn, are lepidopterists who study butterflies. Whilst they appear to share an ordinary daily life, their dialogue and actions are in fact part of a meticulously calculated role-play. One plays the strict mistress, the other the obedient maid; reciting a predetermined script, they confirm each other’s desires. Yet within these seemingly perfect rules, fatigue accumulates between genuine emotion and performance, whilst the intricate butterfly specimens filling the screen and the wing patterns viewed through a microscope mirror the two women’s rigid, fossilized relationship.

In the film, the butterfly is not merely a subject of study, but appears as the sole norm and means of control sustaining the pair’s relationship. Evelyn craves moments of pain, whilst Cynthia coldly orchestrates the situation to satisfy that desire. The images of butterfly display cases and pinned insects exhibited throughout the mansion can be interpreted as a directorial choice that concretely illustrates how, the more Evelyn immerses herself in sadistic situations, the more her emotional equilibrium with Cynthia crumbles and their relationship falls apart.

Their sadomasochistic relationship is driven by a psychology in which they paradoxically choose submission in order to be loved. According to Jessica Benjamin’s theory, whilst humans seek recognition of their existence from others, they fall prey to the temptation of domination—the desire to control the other completely—in the process. ^[1] Evelyn constantly demands that Cynthia punish her and offers her own submission; however, this is in fact another form of domination, an attempt to confine all of Cynthia’s actions and emotions within a role-play she has designed, thereby seeking to monopolies her. ⁋