''Snow Flower and the Secret Fan'' is a 2011 historical

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

directed by

Wayne Wang Wayne Wang (; born January 12, 1949) is a Hong Kong–American director, producer, and screenwriter. Considered a pioneer of Asian-American cinema, he was one of the first Chinese-American filmmakers to gain a major foothold in Hollywood ...

, based on the novel of the same name written by Lisa See. The film stars Gianna Jun,

Li Bingbing Li Bingbing (; born 27 February 1973) is a Chinese actress and singer who rose to fame with her role in '' Seventeen Years'' (1999) and since then received critical acclaim for her roles in ''A World Without Thieves'' (2004), '' Waiting Alone'' (2 ...

Archie Kao Archie David Kao (born December 14, 1969) is an American actor and producer. He is best known to American audiences for series regulars roles on '' Chicago P.D.'', '' Power Rangers Lost Galaxy'' as well as long-running hit ''CSI: Crime Scene In ...

Vivian Wu Vivian Wu ( Wu Junmei; ; born February 5, 1967) is a Chinese-American actress.Chen Nan ''China Daily'', 27 April 2007. Her big break came in 1987, appearing in the biographical film '' The Last Emperor''. She later went to starring in films '' ...

, and

Hugh Jackman Hugh Michael Jackman (born 12 October 1968) is an Australian actor. Beginning in theatre and television, he landed his breakthrough role as James "Logan" Howlett / Wolverine in the 20th Century Fox ''X-Men'' film series (2000–2017), a role ...

Plot

In nineteenth-century China, two girls named Snow Flower ( Gianna Jun) and Lily (

Li Bing Bing Li Bingbing (; born 27 February 1973) is a Chinese actress and singer who rose to fame with her role in '' Seventeen Years'' (1999) and since then received critical acclaim for her roles in '' A World Without Thieves'' (2004), '' Waiting Alone'' ( ...

) are forever bonded together as sworn sisters. They are paired as '' laotong'' by a matchmaker who is also responsible for arranging their marriages. They are isolated by their families and communicate by writing in a secret sisterly language, ''

Nü shu Radical 38 or radical woman () meaning "woman" or "female" is one of the 31 Kangxi radicals (214 radicals total) composed of three strokes. In the ''Kangxi Dictionary'', there are 681 characters (out of 49,030) to be found under this radical. i ...

'' (a historical practice in China in that period) on a unique Chinese fan that Snow Flower possesses. Meanwhile, in the present day Shanghai, their descendants Sophia Liao and Nina Wei struggle with the intimacy of their own pure and intense childhood friendship. As teenagers, Sophia and Nina were introduced to the idea of laotong, and they signed a traditional laotong contract on the cover of Canto-pop

Faye Wong Faye Wong ( zh, 王菲; born Xia Lin on 8 August 1969) is a Hong Kong singer-songwriter. Early in her career she briefly used the stage name Shirley Wong. Born in Beijing, she moved to Hong Kong in 1987 and her debut album '' Shirley Wong'' ( ...

's album Fu Zao (Restless in English). Faye Wong was their favorite singer and their liberated dancing to the "degenerate" sounds of the cheerful refrain "la cha bor" was one of the reasons Sophia's stepmother attempted to separate them. Eventually they are separated but come together again when Sophia falls into a coma after being struck by a taxi while cycling. Reunited at long last, they must come to understand the story of the strong and close ancestral connection hidden from them in the folds of the antique white silk fan or lose one another forever in the process.

Cast

* Gianna Jun as Sophia/Snow Flower *

as Nina/Lily *

as Aunt *

as Arthur *

as Sebastian * Wu Jiang as Butcher * Angela Evans as Ballroom guest * Jennifer Lim (''voice'') as Snow Flower * Christina Jun (''voice'') as Sophie

Production

The film was produced by IDG China Media. The filming locations were

Hengdian World Studios Hengdian World Studios () is a film studio located in Hengdian, a Chinese town in the city of Dongyang, Zhejiang Province. It is one of the largest film studios in the world. The movie studio is operated by the privately owned Hengdian Group fo ...

, Heng Dian, China, and

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

, China with many scenes at The Peninsula Hotel on the Bund.

Distribution

Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...

personally arranged for the film to be released by

Fox Searchlight Pictures Searchlight Pictures, Inc. is an American film production company and a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, which is part of the Walt Disney Company. Founded in 1994 as Fox Searchlight Pictures, Inc. for 20th Century Fox (later 20th Century Stu ...

, which opened the film in North America on July 15, 2011.

Reception

The film received generally negative reviews from critics. , the film holds a 21% approval rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, based on 89 reviews, with an average score of 4.52/10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, it has a score of 42 out of a possible 100, based on 31 reviews.

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Snow Flower And The Secret Fan 2011 films 2010s historical drama films 2011 independent films Films about Chinese Americans Asian-American drama films Films directed by Wayne Wang Films scored by Rachel Portman Films set in China Films shot in China Chinese historical drama films Chinese independent films Fox Searchlight Pictures films American historical drama films American independent films Films based on American novels 2011 drama films Films set in 19th-century Qing dynasty Chinese-language American films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films