Snow
Flower and the Secret Fan
Rated PG-13. Our Ratings: V -4;L -1; S/N -1.
Running time: 2 hours
 |
Snow Flower and Lily, two friends in 19th century China. © 2011 Fox Searchlight |
Friends come and friends go,
But a true friend sticks by uo like family.
Proverbs 18:24 (The Message)
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in
humility regard others as better than yourselves.
Let each of you look not to your own interests, but
to the interests of others.
Philippians 2:3-4
Director Wayne Wang’s latest venture, like his best known
film The Joyluck Club, deals with Chinese
women, but it is set in China, not the U.S. It chronicles the friendship,
or better, sisterhood, of two
sets of women. One pair lives in present day Shanghai and the other in 19th
century Hunan province in central China. The 2005 novel by Lisa See is the
story of a lifetime female friendship in 19th century China, but the filmmakers
decided to encase this story within that of a contemporary friendship. Thus
the screenplay by Angela Workman, Ron Bass and Michael K. Ray’s helps
us better uinderstand the changes taking place in Chinese society.
The parallel stories introduce us to the concept of “laotong,” a
covenant-like arrangement that young women (or girls) from different families
enter into. In the 19th century story neither will have any say about their
future, such as whom they marry, but they will have at least this friendship.
There is even has a secret language (nufu, I think it was called) in which
the two write short messages in a fan, sent back and forth between them over
a period of years.
The film begins with Sophia (Korean actress Gianna Jun) leaving a nightspot
on her bike and being hit by a car. Nina has not seen her for a long time
but rushes right away to the hospital. During the long days with Sophia lying
in a coma Nina discovers her friend’s manuscript of a novel set in
the past about two little girls, Snow Flower (Jun) and Lily (Li), who in
1829 pledge themselves to each other.
Of course, Nina sees herself and her friend in the fictional story. Each
of the girls had endured the painful process of footbinding, the parents
believing that “perfect feet” were little feet, leading to a
better bargain when the marriage broker negotiated a marriage with another
family. When the girls grow up they go separate ways, but always maintain
contact through the fan, even though in-laws tried to keep them apart. Then
comes a circumstance in which one makes a sacrificial decision to sever the
relationship for the good of the other. There is no opportunity to explain
the cutting off of contact, this creating great pain in the hearts of both
women.
People of faith will respond to the theme of oppression, covenant making,
and sacrificial love. The church itself in the 19th century was for the most
part still in the foot-binding-keep-them-at-home mentality. Just as Sonwflower
and Lily faced great opposition to their small gesture of female independence
in entering into laotong, so women in the church have struggled for their
rightful place in the church’s leadership. The foot-binding sequence
might bring to mind the fine film about Gladys Aylward, the British missionary
who became Foot Inspector for her province, in the film Inn of the 6th Happiness.
This might not be director Wang’s finest film, but it is a very engaging
one beautifully photographed and impeccably acted out. It provides a welcome
relief from all the sweaty overblown action flicks that dominate the cinemaplexes
in the summer.
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