Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is another movie based on a book. The filmmakers elected to add a modern day storyline to complement the historical story that takes place in the book. The plot involves two sets of women, played by the same two actresses (Li Bingbing as Nina/Lily and Gianna Jun as Sophia/Snow Flower), whose lifelong bond is tested when life's bad times affects them.
In the modern story, Nina's just found out her troubled friend Sophia was in an accident. As Sophia recovers Nina reads a manuscript Sohia has written that is based on her ancestor's life (Snow Flower). We travel back and forth between the modern story showing a falling out between Nina and Sophia, and the historical one, where two young girls Lily and Snow Flower are bonded and grow up as "litao," sort of like soul sisters. Although they spend much of their adult lives apart due to their different economic and social situations, they write each other using fans as their communication medium.

Supporting roles include Vivian Wu as Sophia's aunt and Russell Wong as Nina's boss.  Directed by Wayne Wang from a book by Lisa See.

While the addition of the modern day relationship wasn't exactly an error, there was not enough development between the two women as one was unconscious. Thus we only see their relationship in flashbacks/memories which for the most part showed the women's friendship falling apart. I didn't get enough of a feel for the closeness they shared when they were younger. Adding this modern portion essentially cuts the time devoted to the historical story in half, so for a 90 minute movie, that itself is based on a book, what character and relationship development you can create is narrowed severely.

The historical story also did not live up to its promise, for the same reason.  These two women from different economic castes become soul sisters but again we mostly see the later part of the relationship when there were troubles they faced individually. There was no true buildup of their relationship for the audience. Having seen many historical Chinese epic type stories, this one was neither personal nor epic enough.

Another major detriment is that in the modern part of the story, the two actresses spoke English between themselves which was wholly unnecessary. Since they had to enunciate to get beyond their thick accents, the force of their dialogue was slowed and impeded the emotional connection for me. At an emotional or heated moment I think someone would naturally speak in their native language to get their point across. This movie was a miss for me.