Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

2 Stars

The film version of "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" proceeds as if willed into being by a particularly misguided "question for discussion," the kind you'd find at the tail end of a best-seller's paperback edition.

The question would go something like this. What would happen to novelist Lisa See's story of two 19th century Hunan province women and everything their friendship endures -- foot-binding, arranged marriages, tragic loss of children, typhoid outbreaks, political turmoil -- if that story were forced to share the screen with a parallel story, that of two early 21st century Shanghai women, one of whom has written the story set in the Hunan province of old?

It would fall apart, that's what would happen. "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan," directed by Wayne Wang with as much feeling as an ill-starred screenplay allows, may find its ideal audience in those who enjoyed the movie version of "Julie & Julia," but really only liked the modern-day stuff about the blogger with the less-than-riveting domestic crises.

Produced by Wendi Murdoch, she of the lightning-fast volleyball-trained reflexes, "Snow Flower" begins with Sophia, a rising businesswoman played by South Korean actress Gianna Jun, offered a prestigious job transfer from Shanghai to America. Events of the previous few months, we learn, have brought her lifelong friendship with Nina (Li Bingbing) to an abrupt halt. Flashbacks reveal the conflicts; another set flash further back to 1997; meantime, the manuscript Sophia has written relays the tale of Snow Flower (also played by Jun) and Lily (Bingbing). Some two-tier narrative structures locate the echoes and rhymes between eras; this one's just all over the place.

The historical particulars deserve more effective dramatic treatment. See's 2005 novel hinged on two key notions. The first is that of a young Chinese woman's laotong, or "old same" -- an arranged friendship deeper than marriage, more durable than human suffering or geographical distance. Through the ages this "deep-heart love" was often expressed in nu shu, a private language passed from woman to woman, laotong to laotong, typically by way of poems or sentiments written in the silk fabric of ladies' fans. Aesthetic beauty married to intimate communication: a fine place for any novel, or film, to begin.

Did See's novel really need a contemporary hook? Perhaps for financial reasons, but certainly not for creative ones. Hugh Jackman, not seen in any of the film's promotional materials, shows up as an Australian entrepreneur and nightclub singer in Shanghai, charged with delivering back-story information. Jun and Bingbing throw themselves into their respective roles. But what can an actress do when a script credited to Ron Bass, Angela Workman and Michael Ray, with Bass doing most of the modern-day additions, forces a pan-Asian ensemble into one too many English-language dialogue sequences and then has one character comment, "Enough of this silly English"?

Also, the gentle erotic undertow in the friendship of Snow Flower and Lily has been toned down, and replaced by ... niceness. Lines from the novel such as "a fire burned inside me far hotter than anything the gods could inflict on us through the mere cycles of the seasons" are reduced to a glance or two, and then it's back to the Taipei rebellion or the latest, wearying return to contemporary Shanghai and two characters who do not quite hold up their end of this pretty but pretty screwy adaptation's enforced 50/50 bargain.

 

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"Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" Movie Trailer

 

MPAA rating: PG-13 (for sexuality, violence/disturbing images and drug use).

Running time: 1:40.

Cast: Gianna Jun (Snow Flower/Sophia); Li Bingbing (Nina/Lily); Vivian Wu (Aunt); Jiang Wu (Butcher); Russell Wong (Bank CEO); Hugh Jackman (Arthur).

Credits: Directed by Wayne Wang; written by Ron Bass, Angela Workman and Michael Ray, based on the novel by Lisa See; produced by Wendi Murdoch and Florence Sloan. A Fox Searchlight Pictures release.

 

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