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Snow flower and the secret fan
2011
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From the director of The Joy Luck Club, and based on the best-selling novel, comes a timeless portrait of female friendship. Centuries ago, two “sworn sisters” are isolated by their families, but stay connected through a secret language written in the folds of a white silk fan. Now in modern-day Shanghai, their descendents must draw inspiration from the past as they struggle to maintain their own eternal bond in the face of life’s complications. What unfolds are two stories, generations apart, but everlasting in their universal notion of love, hope and friendship. - (Alert)

Centuries after two inseparable friends in China exchange messages through a secret language inside the folds of a fan, their descendents discover the fan and the history of their own friendship. - (Baker & Taylor)

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Based on Lisa See's titular bestseller, Wayne Wang's lushly melodramatic tale revolves around two pairs of Chinese women in different centuries, linked by the concept of "laotong," a traditional bond between unrelated young girls that makes them "sisters" for life. As the present-day story begins, confident Shanghai financial whiz Nina (Li Bingbing), who is being transferred to New York, arrives at the hospital bedside of her estranged longtime friend Sophia (Gianna Jun), who lies comatose following a bicycle accident. During her vigil, Nina discovers a manuscript by Sophia telling the allegedly ancestral story of 7-year-old Lily and Snow Flower. Pragmatic Lily (also played by Bingbing) eventually marries a wealthy, emotionally remote man, and fragile Snow Flower (Jun) becomes the wife of an abusive country butcher; the two women exchange letters that are secretly written in the folds of a white silk fan. While See's novel was about lifelong female friendship in 19th-century China, the screenwriters here have added the parallel contemporary story, resulting in a contrived, disjointed film that will likely disappoint those who have read the book—as well as those who haven't. Optional. (S. Granger) Copyright Video Librarian Reviews 2011.

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