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In Chinese culture, a laotong is a bond entered into by two women--a bond that's formed to meet the emotional needs of women and that lasts a lifetime. Lisa See's book Snow Flower and the Secret Fan explores the very special relationship between laotongs Lily and Snow Flower in 19th-century China--following them through the painful tradition of foot binding, the traditional constraints imposed on women, their arranged marriages, and the difficulties of child-rearing, and culminating in an event that supremely tests their commitment to one another. The film version does a good job of conveying See's story, and while it certainly doesn't delve into the level of detail found in the book, the sense of intense emotional connection between Lily (Bingbing Li) and Snow Flower (Gianna Jun) comes through very powerfully. The frequent juxtaposition of spoken English and spoken Chinese with English subtitles is unexpected, but not unwelcome and is, in fact, quite effective. What is less successful is the film's addition of a modern-day parallel in which Chinese women Nina and Sophia (also played by Li and Jun, respectively) enter into a laotong contract with one another and are tested by modern pressures. The contemporary women struggle with challenges like a broken family, college-entrance testing, loving the wrong kind of man, and overseas job opportunities, eventually becoming estranged, only to be thrown back together by a terrible accident. While the filmmakers' efforts to connect See's story to a more contemporary setting is not unappreciated, the thinly developed plot line and shallow characters in the modern story fail to really engage the viewer and drag down the entire film. There's a real sense when viewing the film that a great writer's powerful story has been slapped together with a marginally talented scriptwriter's modern translation, and the hopping from time frame to time frame is abrupt and clumsily handled. Had the filmmakers left viewers to draw their own connections between the past and the present, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan would have been a much stronger film. --Tami Horiuchi
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Here we have a famous book, bestseller, that many people saw and recall, I've even come across a few of her books, and it digs into the ancient conflicts from a time past, a difficult time with several conflicts, political and personal and we have information told by persons and that we read, and this is the story the author tries to tale. She begins her tale (or the scenarist) from the standpoint of suffering and a hospital scener in Hong Kong that puts in our mind the awareness of being ill and then we shift to a scene with a mother and daughter and foot binding scene,performed by a female..to make perfect feet in which the ladies are matchmakers..some imponderables like size they cant control? This is an ancient society of those who dictate and control and those that serve. Those that serve to be coopted into the affluent class..must be a perfect match..to meet the wants of the class served. Then we have more suffering..typhoid..or disaster scene..death and plague like conditions and death? Scenes of great suffering..the feet scene recall scenes where children suffer..for what the ladies hope will bring them a better life later..here the natural disaster is meaningless..suffering for no reason and quite innocent people. Like a cross/icon innocent suffering these at times brightly coloured images which meant things to ancient peoples and in the far east..buddhist ideas of suffering..and here there are political rebellions..to give people a way of understanding suffering..and there are temple scenes in the past..but a sisterhood is formed between two girls..snowflower..snow..flower as two opposing images..then a modern night club scene and the phrase "upside down" an ancient image from the far past wnen a crucifixion was performed upside down..a condemnation of that society's values. Then the phrase between the two girls "love me as I am"..is this a reflection of their family upbring or cross gender relations..of being forced to change for others sakes to meet expectations? Then another modern scene of one of the modern characters kissings a stranger deeply but emotionlessly..on the dance floor..libertinism in modern dress..or the meaningless of her life and copying an adjunct of modern culture to find some meaning in an age when the temple is gone..and so is the mind and culture that went there? At the end of the film the same idea of suffering is represented.."I do not want you to suffer" husband wife relations..and a husband's death..trying to make sense of less and trying to understand life..at the end we are presented with sisters and 10000 lives..the life span over countless generations of the ancient Buddha..as he teaches the doctrine of Buddhahood and making sense of innocent and meaningless suffering..the ancient could recall all those lives/years..or something to that effect..that is the story here presented making sense of our lives and suffering from an ancient and modern perspective..and how women do it through sisterhood...leot..yesterday and today..and they use a buddhist like technique as she informs us at film's end where the outside changing world is non permanent and our values and being is not taken from that but from the inner person who in their values and relations finds permanence. I'm told the book is quite different and I need to read it..the film has some problems the sunday school format of characters fitting into a didactic framework..resolving all conflicts at end not a good idea of modern life..as they try to give a philosophy of life..but still entertaining..they should be more subtle with the resolution at film's end..but the dramatization of suffering and somehow a person, women finding redemption, especially given the changes in chenese female identity in modern culture, and this may not be homogenuous..and what really is there for them to live for..I enjoyed the film..its not the novel..the scenarist and producers have other aims..and our modern/ancient attempts to deal with suffering.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3.3 out of 5 stars
87 reviews
37 of 42 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
"I Wrap, I Bind" ~ Exploring The Depth Of Sisterly Love
Nov 4 2011
By Brian E. Erland
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:DVD
Let me begin by saying I have not read Lisa See's book upon which this film is based, hence I'm not in the category of other reviewers who disliked this movie primarily because of its deviation from the novel. Translating a work of art from one medium to another is a difficult task at the very least and it comes as no surprise to discover that a person who loves something in one medium is seldom pleased with its appearance in another. Personally I think a film should be judged solely on its own merits, like it or dislike it for what it is, not for what you thought or hoped it would be.
Having said that I would like to convey how much I loved this film. Director Wayne Wang instilled `Snow Flower and the Secret Fan' with the same depth of emotion and sensitivity that made his `Joy Luck Club' such a moving and memorable viewing experience.
The storyline moves neatly back and forth between two sets of Chinese women living in different times (Lily and Snow Flower in 1829 China, Nina and Sophia in present day Shanghai). Though time and place differ, the shared cultural and spiritual bonds formed by their mutual `vows of sisterhood' are identical and timeless. Bingbing Li plays the parts of both Lily and Nina and Gianna Jun the dual roles of Snow Flower and Sophia. Both story lines are engaging but clearly the Snow Flower and Lily tale is the more important of the two. Nevertheless the present day friendship between Nina and Sophia is essential to the intent of the film, providing not only context to the earlier friendship but a cultural bridge between past, present and future. In other words, while everything around us is constantly changing what's really important in life remains the same.
I strongly recommend this film; the storyline, dialogue, soundtrack, visuals and cast all make for a well spent evening of viewing entertainment. The only warning I would level is to say that this is, like `Joy Luck Club' a chick flick so gentlemen view at your own risk.
Having said that I would like to convey how much I loved this film. Director Wayne Wang instilled `Snow Flower and the Secret Fan' with the same depth of emotion and sensitivity that made his `Joy Luck Club' such a moving and memorable viewing experience.
The storyline moves neatly back and forth between two sets of Chinese women living in different times (Lily and Snow Flower in 1829 China, Nina and Sophia in present day Shanghai). Though time and place differ, the shared cultural and spiritual bonds formed by their mutual `vows of sisterhood' are identical and timeless. Bingbing Li plays the parts of both Lily and Nina and Gianna Jun the dual roles of Snow Flower and Sophia. Both story lines are engaging but clearly the Snow Flower and Lily tale is the more important of the two. Nevertheless the present day friendship between Nina and Sophia is essential to the intent of the film, providing not only context to the earlier friendship but a cultural bridge between past, present and future. In other words, while everything around us is constantly changing what's really important in life remains the same.
I strongly recommend this film; the storyline, dialogue, soundtrack, visuals and cast all make for a well spent evening of viewing entertainment. The only warning I would level is to say that this is, like `Joy Luck Club' a chick flick so gentlemen view at your own risk.
25 of 28 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Fails to capture the gentle nuances found in the book
Dec 2 2011
By Z Hayes
- Published on Amazon.com
Having read and loved Lisa See's Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: A Novel (Random House Reader's Circle), I was looking forward to watching the movie adaptation. I missed the theatrical run, and so waited patiently for it come out on DVD. Unfortunately, this is a terrible adaptation of a heartbreakingly beautiful work, taking too many artistic liberties, and butchering the story in such a manner as to render it incomprehensible to those who read and loved the book. If you watch this movie without having read the book, then it might appeal on some level, but to those who savored the detailed descriptions of traditions in 19th century China, and the close bond between the two central characters, i.e. Snow Flower and Lily, this movie seems such an aberration and I truly felt let down.
The movie takes a different approach than the novel in that it has two parallel story lines - one set in the present featuring two young women who are kindred spirits, but whose friendship is eventually strained by conflicting ideas regarding relationships, lifestyle, etc. On the same day that she receives news that she has a job opportunity in New York, Nina (Li BingBing) receives news that her estranged best friend, Sophia (Gianna Jun) has been in an accident and is in hospital. As Nina goes through Sophia's things at the hospital, she comes across a manuscript, parts of a story of two women in 19th century China, whose friendship mirror Nina and Sophia's own close bond.
The trouble is that this parallel storyline does not work - by dividing the story up into two disparate timelines, not much time is spent in developing the central characters. The most affected here is the story in the present - viewers are given brief glimpses of Nina and Sophia bonding over music etc. but their friendship is meant to be an unbreakable bond and this is not credibly portrayed. The story of the two laotongs or "old sames" (sort of like sisters of the heart) set in 19th century China is much more credibly portrayed, ironically played by the same actresses playing the parts of Nina and Sophia in the present.
Lily and Snow Flower are the laotongs, coming from two very different social classes. The poorer of the two, Lily, has her feet bound to perfection under the supervision of a zealous mother. The scenes of foot binding are rather uncomfortable to watch, but they are nowhere near as gruesome as the graphic descriptions provided by Ms. See in her novel. Lily's perfect lotus bud feet eventually garner her a very advantageous marriage, but poor Snow Flower ends up being married off to a butcher despite her rich beginnings.
In the novel, readers are given a deep insight into the secret language of women, i.e. nushu which provides an intimate glimpse into the lives of women in 19th century China (historically nushu was the language used by the women of the Yao ethnic minority). Reading between the lines, readers get the idea that it is Snow Flower who has a more interesting sex life than Lily, but in the movie, viewers get a brief glimpse of this, not through nushu, but of Lily playing peeping tom. It just completely put me off - such short cuts when it was completely unnecessary, not to mention detracting from the very essence of the novel.
Then there's the disaster in the form of Aussie actor Hugh Jackman (it begs the question, why did he stoop to such a role in the first place?). Any actor could have played his role, but I guess the filmmakers thought they could get the movie more exposure with a star presence? Jackman plays Sophia's on-off lover and his most 'memorable' scene here is him serenading Sophia at a party and indulging in some serious liplocking. Sigh...need I continue?
Final verdict - fans of the novel should steer away from this disaster of an adaptation, and those who haven't read the book will probably not miss much, though I'd recommend the book over the movie anytime.
The movie takes a different approach than the novel in that it has two parallel story lines - one set in the present featuring two young women who are kindred spirits, but whose friendship is eventually strained by conflicting ideas regarding relationships, lifestyle, etc. On the same day that she receives news that she has a job opportunity in New York, Nina (Li BingBing) receives news that her estranged best friend, Sophia (Gianna Jun) has been in an accident and is in hospital. As Nina goes through Sophia's things at the hospital, she comes across a manuscript, parts of a story of two women in 19th century China, whose friendship mirror Nina and Sophia's own close bond.
The trouble is that this parallel storyline does not work - by dividing the story up into two disparate timelines, not much time is spent in developing the central characters. The most affected here is the story in the present - viewers are given brief glimpses of Nina and Sophia bonding over music etc. but their friendship is meant to be an unbreakable bond and this is not credibly portrayed. The story of the two laotongs or "old sames" (sort of like sisters of the heart) set in 19th century China is much more credibly portrayed, ironically played by the same actresses playing the parts of Nina and Sophia in the present.
Lily and Snow Flower are the laotongs, coming from two very different social classes. The poorer of the two, Lily, has her feet bound to perfection under the supervision of a zealous mother. The scenes of foot binding are rather uncomfortable to watch, but they are nowhere near as gruesome as the graphic descriptions provided by Ms. See in her novel. Lily's perfect lotus bud feet eventually garner her a very advantageous marriage, but poor Snow Flower ends up being married off to a butcher despite her rich beginnings.
In the novel, readers are given a deep insight into the secret language of women, i.e. nushu which provides an intimate glimpse into the lives of women in 19th century China (historically nushu was the language used by the women of the Yao ethnic minority). Reading between the lines, readers get the idea that it is Snow Flower who has a more interesting sex life than Lily, but in the movie, viewers get a brief glimpse of this, not through nushu, but of Lily playing peeping tom. It just completely put me off - such short cuts when it was completely unnecessary, not to mention detracting from the very essence of the novel.
Then there's the disaster in the form of Aussie actor Hugh Jackman (it begs the question, why did he stoop to such a role in the first place?). Any actor could have played his role, but I guess the filmmakers thought they could get the movie more exposure with a star presence? Jackman plays Sophia's on-off lover and his most 'memorable' scene here is him serenading Sophia at a party and indulging in some serious liplocking. Sigh...need I continue?
Final verdict - fans of the novel should steer away from this disaster of an adaptation, and those who haven't read the book will probably not miss much, though I'd recommend the book over the movie anytime.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Bitter Disappointment
Dec 10 2011
By Michelle D.
- Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase
Loved the book, hated the movie. The modern story line and its characters did not exist in the book and failed miserably. It's not a matter of the expected changes or omissions that typically take place when a movie is made based on a book. In this case well over half the movie had nothing at all to do with the Lisa See's beautiful story about Snowflower and Lily. Very glad I didn't spend the money to drive 6 hours round trip to see this in a theater!
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3.3 out of 5 stars
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