Title: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
Director: Wayne Wang
Starring: Bingbing Li, Gianna Jun
After the first 30-45 minutes, one can easily see how “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan” worked as an engrossing read. As for the 120 minute cinematic adaptation of Lisa See’s novel: A Gilbert Gottfried “ehhh not so much.” (Youtube it)
This telling, that poorly attempts to run the original story set in 19th century China parallel with a modern-day narrative, fails to capture your attention. The script and the performances, while admirable, do absolutely nothing to gain the viewer’s emotional interest. So just to be clear, you will not give a rat’s ass how this turns out. That is, if you can figure it out as you’ll have to deal with the worst jumping back-n-forth transitioning & storytelling in recent memory.
Lily (Bingbing Li) works at a high level bank in present day China. Her CEO (Russell Wong) announces that they have successfully opened an office in New York City and Lily has agreed to head up operations in North America. All is well.
Then a phone call leads to distressing news that her best friend, who is more of a sister, Sophia (Gianna Jun) was in a terrible accident that has rendered her comatose. Lily puts her life on hold and rushes by her estranged sister’s side, as she reminisce on the times they had growing up together all the way through to when Sophia abruptly stopped contacting her, roughly 6 months prior to the current incident.
Sounds pretty boring right? Well it was. However, director Wayne Wang (Maid in Manhattan) decides to work in the source material with showing how the same two leads – who are given the names Nina (Bingbing) & Snow Flower (Gianna Jun) – dealt with the harsh Chinese traditions revolving around having perfect feet. Yeah, having perfect feet earns you a man apparently (Quentin Tarantino is all about this). Since they know they will be separated when it is time to marry, they communicate via inscriptions on a folding fan they secretly pass back-n-forth. Nina’s path is much smoother than Snow Flower as she lives a stable lifestyle; while Snow Flower lives frugally and feels like a burden to her caring BFF.
While that’s being established, the story jumps back to the present day, and then flashes back to recent years, displaying similar situations on Lily’s and Sophia’s tight bond that resembles the struggles seen in the 19th century storyline depiction.
Watching this is the equivalent of asking directions from somebody who is bi-polar with A.D.D. There have been films where this style has been executed in a both entertaining and/or cohesive manner (Incendies, Julie & Julia). The only elements that are worth exploring are the nicely designed set pieces when this flick is stuck in the 19th century, and why Hugh Jackman decided to make a cameo appearance. I’m guessing to show off more of his singing skills as he belts out a big-band tune in the third act.
Now the dialogue in this film wants to be powerful – as evident by the crescendos found in the musical score that seem to close every scene – but it’s just not happening. So in cases like this, perhaps the cinematography can assist in telling the tale. At certain turns the camera work is helpful yet there’s a claustrophobic tone as the majority of shots are zoomed in to the max (to the max? Did I just write that?).
Overall, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is a long journey to nowhere. The last half-hour clears things up a bit, that is, if one hasn’t tuned out already. You need to have the focus of Gandhi to not walk out on this.
Technical: C+
Story: D
Acting: C
Overall: D+
Review by Joe Belcastro
