Two stories of dual friendships across the centuries, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is not quite the emotional journey the filmmakers intended it to be. Directed by Wayne Wang of the very emotionally charged The Joy Luck Club, the film is a lovely production and contains heartfelt performances, but neither story is grippingly compelling, and without that, one settles for two pleasant, somewhat parallel stories set almost two hundred years apart with honest emotions but not much in the way of dramatic momentum.
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (Blu-ray)
Directed by Wayne Wang
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Year: 2011
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 1080p AVC codec
Running Time: 104 minutes
Rating: PG-13
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Mandarin/English
Subtitles: English, SDH, Spanish, French
Region: A
MSRP: $39.99
Release Date: November 1, 2011
Review Date: October 31, 2011
The Film
3.5/5
When her friend-for-life Sophia (Gianna Jun) is injured in a traffic accident, Nina (Li Bingbing) postpones her business move to New York City to be with her friend. As Sophia lies in a coma, Nina, who had been estranged from her friend for some months, investigates the papers Sophia had with her, a book she had been working on concerning two eternally-bound female friends from 19th century China, Snow Flower (Gianna Jun) and Lily (Li Bingbing), whose lives together and apart roughly parallel the relationship between Sophia and Nina.
Lisa See’s original best seller contained only the story of Snow Flower and Lily, so it was director Wayne Wang’s idea (and screenwriters Angela Workman, Ron Bass, and Michael K. Ray later) to invent the framing plot with the modern day Nina and Sophia having stories that in many ways travel the same paths trod by Snow Flower and Lily. The nature of laotong (the ancient sisterhood of female allegiance, a lifelong bonding love) isn’t really explored in either half of the stories to any great degree though we see evidence of Lily’s and Nina’s devotion and sacrifice for their respective beloveds continually through the movie. We see it visually, but the emotional complexity just doesn’t come forward from celluloid to one’s heart. (The secret writing invented by these laotong-paired women called nushu is also more suggested than explained.) Because of the parallel nature of the stories, the intrusion of men into the lives of the women (Jiang Wu in the ancient story, Hugh Jackman of all people in the modern saga) causes the same kind of disruptive problem in both cases making the stories seem a bit too similar as we constantly switch back and forth from one era to the other. (Back-and-forth parallel stories worked with greater élan in the film of The French Lieutenant’s Woman.) Wang does have his cinematographer do interesting things to differentiate the eras making them so visually different that one doesn’t need to even see the costumes to know we’ve switched time periods. In the 19th century section, a snowstorm is so blissfully and beautifully rendered than the tragedy it causes is almost frustrating: something this lovely surely couldn’t bring about death.
Li Bingbing has the weightier role in both the older and more modern facets of the stories, and she does well in both though Lily offers her more emotional opportunities that she does quite well with. Gianna Jun is lovely in the 19th century section of the movie with an occasional effective moment or two (when not in a coma) in the modern section. Jiang Wu is very convincing as the brutal butcher who makes demands on his wife he expects to be met without question and abuses her with impunity when things go wrong. Hugh Jackman as Arthur, the nightclub star/boy friend of Sophia, does some surprisingly shaky vocalizing (Oriental pop is not his thing) in his biggest moment in the spotlight but does decent dramatic work in his other two short scenes.
Video Quality
4.5/5
The film is framed at its theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and is presented in 1080p using the AVC codec. The 19th century sequences are all shot with a warm color palette featuring striking color depth and intensity and excellent clarity. The modern scenes are much cooler in look and tone (sometimes with color that seems a bit desaturated), and sharpness doesn’t always seem as quite as crisp or detailed. Black levels are good but not great. The white subtitles are very easy to read. The film has been divided into 24 chapters.
Audio Quality
4.5/5
The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 sound mix does an exemplary job with Rachel Portman’s exquisitely delicate score spreading it through the soundstage with superb craftsmanship and allowing it to resonate through all of the available channels. There’s good use of panning effects as well across and through the field adding nice depth to the mix. Dialogue appears in the center channel, but the ADR dubbing is sometimes quite obvious and distracting from time to time when volume levels don’t match with the live recording.
Special Features
2/5
“The Sworn Sisterhood of the Secret Fan” is a 29-minute featurette which allows director Wayne Wang, original author Lisa See, producers Wendi Murdoch and Florence Sloan, and the film’s two stars (along with some featured players) time to discuss their feelings about the story and their work in bringing it to the screen including the filming in Shanghai and their difficulties in dealing with multi-language barriers in the production. It’s in 1080p.
The film’s theatrical trailer runs for 2 minutes in 1080p.
There are promo trailers for The Descendants, Water for Elephants, and entries in the Fox World Cinema line.
In Conclusion
3.5/5 (not an average)
Wayne Wang’s Snow Flower and the Secret Fan doesn’t match his The Joy Luck Club in emotional intensity or dramatic fluidity, but fans of the book will certainly be interested in seeing the unusual way the book was brought to the screen with its newly invented framing story. The Blu-ray also excels in video and audio quality making for a pleasing viewing experience.
Matt Hough
Charlotte, NC
