The ties that bind. That is what SNOWFLOWER & THE SECRET FAN (PG) could have alternatively been called.
Inspired by the bestselling novel by Lisa See, SNOW FLOWER AND THE SECRET FAN tells the story of seven-year-old girls Snow Flower and Lily, in 19th century China, who had their feet bound at the same age and on the same day, which sealed their fates together as laotongs – bound together for eternity. Isolated in their marriages, they furtively communicate by taking turns writing in a secret language, nu shu, between the folds of a white silk fan.
In a parallel story in present day Shanghai, the laotong’s descendants, Nina and Sophia, struggle to maintain the intimacy of their own childhood friendship in the face of demanding careers, complicated love lives, and a relentlessly evolving Shanghai. Drawing on the lessons of the past, the two modern women must understand the story of their ancestral connection, hidden from them in the folds of the antique white silk fan, or risk losing one another forever.
What unfolds are two stories, generations apart, but everlasting in their universal notion of love, hope and friendship.
Produced by Rupert’s wife, Wendi Deng Murdoch, the picture, directed by Joy Luck Club helmer Wayne Wang, is beautiful and sumptuous to look at but Wang wains under the strain of an unwieldy screenplay by Angela Workman, Ron Bass and Michael Ray.
The lead actresses, Bing Bing Li and Gianna Jun, doubling as friends across time, do a terrific job of fleshing out two quite different characters, one historical the other contemporary, all four forged by an unbreakable and universal bond.
And watch out for Hugh Jackman as a showbiz shark operating in Shanghai. Quite the cameo romeo.
(c) Richard Cotter
15th September, 2011