SNOW FLOWER AND THE SECRET FAN
2 out of 5 stars

i had trouble rating this one because it wasn’t as good as the joy luck club or other great chinese films i.e. hero or crouching tiger, hidden dragon, but it wasn’t bad either... :/ 

i don’t think the plot followed EXACTLY like the book because there is this present-day connection with two girls named nina (bing bing li) and sophia (gianna jun), who live in shanghai. we learn that sophia had an ancestor named snow flower, who had a laotong named lily. (played by the same actresses in case we couldn’t follow the parallel storyline) snow flower and lily both were born in the same year, had their feet bound at the same time, and went through the motions of signing their laotong contract at temple so that they could be sisters for life. snow flower actually came from a better family, however lily ends up marrying master and lady wu’s son because of her beautiful feet. snow flower ends up with a butcher, and life for her is simply trying to bear sons and deal with his beatings. a lot more happens esp. when the taiping revolution occurs, but back to present-day... it’s nina’s going away dinner because she’s moving to new york city, but then sophia gets into a bicycle accident...slipping into a coma. nina starts to investigate/piece together sophia’s life, and discovers that she was writing a novel on snow flower and how she communicated with lily via a secret fan and a secret language. she also learns that sophia was in a relationship with australian businessman and night club owner arthur (hugh jackman- why is he in this?!? soooooo random!!! and quite a surprise!), and learns sophia’s secret... (you'll see...kind of obvious) 

well, my #1 gripe is basically this parallel storyline with nina and sophia because it was completely unecessary to me. i think they (the producers and whoever wrote this movie) took the audience for granted, and SHOULD HAVE just stuck with the original story by lisa see. this was a very shallow attempt at showing us TRUE chinese culture, and i completely got lost towards the end...mainly b/c we’re not shown/told WHY snow flower and lily break up. also, WHO CARES ABOUT THIS NINA AND SOPHIA?!?!? waaaaaay too much focus on the modern storyline....not enough of the historical/old. I WANTED MORE CULTURE, DAMMIT!!! :P

p.s. why is a korean actress playing a chinese character? correction: a chinese speaking character? b/c gianna jun is korean and doesn't speak chinese, her parts in chinese were dubbed over... seriously- was EVERY actress in chinese hollywood busy at the time? then, give an unknown a big break! :X