Watch Snow Flower and the Secret Fan For Free

Lack of good storyline.

Don't listen to the negative reviews

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is a film based on the novel by Lisa See. It stars Gianna Jun and Li Bingbing together with Archie Kao, Vivian Wu, and Hugh Jackman.Wayne Wang directed this feature about female friendship.The screenplay is set on two historical periods.One is during the 19th century in China wherein two girls,Snow Flower and Lily, are bonded together for eternity.They were paired by a matchmaker as "laotong". They are isolated by their families and they try to maintain their relationship by communicating through a secret language known as Nu shu. They support each other through the ups and downs of their village, dealing with harrowing traditions like foot-binding and arranged marriages.The other story is set at present day Shanghai.Their descendants are Sophia Liao and Nina Wei.Both are struggling with their own childhood.During their teen-age years,they were introduced on the concept of "laotong".They maintained their special bond all throughout the years but struggled with their friendship due to their careers,love lives and modern society .Then both got into an argument that resulted into a temporary separation but they eventually got reunited when Sophia got into an accident.Nina reads the unpublished manuscript she wrote when she got into the hospital and she tries to understand the story written in it which is based on the lessons of their past generation particularly with their ancestral connection of Snow Flower and Lily.This was a well-shot film.The cinematography was definitely great.But unfortunately,Gianna Jun and Li Bingbing weren't able to generate interest on the characters that they are portraying both in the 19th century China and modern day Shanghai.It is not their fault since are talented actresses particularly Gianna Jun whom I have loved and admired in movies like My Sassy Girl,Daisy and A Man Who Want To Be Superman.Part of the reason is that the progression of the story is on a very slow pace and emotionally inert to capture one's interest.Even Hugh Jackman's singing in Chinese couldn't even lift it as both lead characters aren't given enough to capture the viewer's attention.Added to that,the mix of multiple languages served as a distraction the shift from Chinese to English and vice-versa despite the fact that it adds realism to the story.Finally,I felt that it wasn't really able to emphasize the message that it tries convey that that old traditions does work in modern times as it became very predictable and often times melodramatic especially in telling the story of female friendship and the people around them.Too bad that this beautiful story told by Lisa See could have had a better film adaptation.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is a beautifully written book by Lisa See; it tells the fictional story of two women, bound together since childhood as laotong, or old sames. The laotong relationship is a life- long relationship between women, often with similar birthdays, horoscopes, or other social or biological markers; and was often revered higher than a marriage. They communicate with each other, across time and distance, on fans on which they write their special women's language, nu shu. Nu shu is a complex language, where context is paramount, and is reserved for women only. See's book details the life of two girls, Snow Flower a daughter of a formerly-well-to-do family whose grandfather was an Imperial Scholar, and Lily, whose family is of a middle class caste. They share their life experiences including the painful process of foot binding, mothers who push for good marriages, and the struggles that each encounter once they are married, even war comes to their area. Throughout their lives there is tension, both beautiful and awful until a misunderstanding severs their bond for several years. Wayne Wang once again fills the screen with a great caste, wonderful scenery, and subtle emotion. But here is where the film adaptation fails. The beautiful and tragic story by Lisa See is eclipsed by a contemporary story line created to follow the lives of 2 friends in modern day Shanghai: Nina, a go getter who is very ambitious, and Sophia, a Chinese Korean who has struggled with her mother's death, her father's subsequent remarriage to a shrew, and her father's untimely death. **SPOILER** It is suggested that Sophia is descended from Snow Flower, and has the fans that the women had shared throughout their life together. There is too much focus on the contemporary characters, which are created solely for this film. The tension and strife that Snow Flower and Lily faced throughout their lives is gone, and events are extremely telescoped. As women of different classes in 19th century China, their fates were bound to their marriages, and their own relationship was shaped by their relationships with their mothers (but whose isn't?). This is lost in the film.Wayne Wang does a beautiful script, but attention to the original story would have done this film more justice.

The current scandal surrounding Rupert Murdoch makes it all the more surprising that his wife produced Wayne Wang's "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan". But even so, it's still worth seeing. It tells the story of two friends in present-day Shanghai, and the connection that they have with two girls in 19th century China through a fan on which they wrote secret messages.Wang famously focused on Chinese-American families in "The Joy Luck Club", and took a bittersweet look at people's lives in "Smoke". This movie doesn't equal either of those, but I still recommend it. The development of Shanghai certainly reflects the changes in the lives of the girls (and the changes that China has undergone over the past 100 years). Not great, but worth seeing.

Sunflower and the Secret Fan is the poignant tale of two 21st century Asian girls and their matches in the 19th century: Both couples are bound by the dictates of a patriarchal culture that challenges the natural love and devotion they feel for each other. These lady laotongs or "old sames" take an oath to make them faithful sisters forever, the outward show of an enduring, lifelong commitment to their sisterhood.Director Wayne Wang's challenge is to intercut the centuries and women without confusing the audience, a virtue not always achieved in two hours of traversing between times. His limited success can be attributed to the striking skyline of modern Shanghai, an apt metaphor for the change in the ladies' lives, indeed for change itself.Just as arresting as the visual images is the stringed music of Rachel Portman, which dictates emotions as strongly as any other score I have heard this year. Some might complain of manipulation; I enjoy the excess as if it were an ancient Chinese fan of innumerable design. BTW, the titular fan was used by the 19th century ladies to make messages to each other in their special language. Wang's considerable success showing devoted friends in Joy Luck Club is evidenced in the ladies here.The bonding of protagonists is strong on the surface, but because there is so much to do in only 2 hours, we never have sustained conversation among them to verify what we intuit without much dialogue. It would be sweet to linger more with them while they show through dialogue the bond that makes them sacrifice for each other throughout their lives.Snow Flower and the Secret Fan in the end turns on love, its many forms and demands and on change, which frequently derails the best intentions of love itself. The ladies here evidence in delicate ways the tumult and reward accompanying a lifelong commitment to another human being. And that's no secret.