Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan Image
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Metascore
42 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 31 Critics What's this?

User Score
6.8 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 4 Ratings

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  • Starring: Bingbing Li, Gianna Jun, Vivian Wu
  • Summary: In 19th-century China, seven year old girls Snow Flower and Lily are matched as laotong – or "old sames" – bound together for eternity. Isolated by their families, they furtively communicate by taking turns writing in a secret language, nu shu, between the folds of a white silk fan.In a paraparallel story in present day Shanghai, the laotong's descendants, Nina and Sophia, struggle to maintain the intimacy of their own childhood friendship in the face of demanding careers, complicated love lives, and a relentlessly evolving Shanghai. Drawing on the lessons of the past, the two modern women must understand the story of their ancestral connection, hidden from them in the folds of the antique white silk fan, or risk losing one another forever.What unfolds are two stories, generations apart, but everlasting in their universal notion of love, hope and friendship.(Fox Searchlight Pictures)


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Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 31
  2. Mixed: 20 out of 31
  3. Negative: 7 out of 31
  1. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Kirk Honeycutt
    Jul 13, 2011
    70
    So strong are the emotions - and, yes, the melodrama - that Snow Flower and the Secret Fan represents one of Wang's best films to date.
  2. Boxoffice Magazine
    Reviewed by: Pam Grady
    Jul 16, 2011
    60
    This elegant weepie offers plenty for fans of melodrama, character-driven stories and period pieces.
  3. Tampa Bay Times
    Reviewed by: Steve Persall
    Aug 3, 2011
    58
    Wang's high regard for women is intact, plus a keen eye for period detail making the 19th century sequences lovely to observe. But it's nothing we haven't seen before.
  4. New Orleans Times-Picayune
    Reviewed by: Mike Scott
    Aug 19, 2011
    38
    Rather than a moving story of sisterly love, we get little more than a grandly appointed disappointment.

See all 31 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 3
  3. Negative: 0 out of 3
  1. ChuckGosh
    10
    This is a terrific film, but guys won't get it. At all. Touching, moving, powerful, subtle. A story about women, especially those who have a deep, lifelong relationship with another woman whom they love as a close sister.

    Except for one or two minor characters, the male figures in this story do not generally show men in a good light.

    Women understand that you can learn more truth from the look on someone's face than you can from the words they speak, and that is used often here.

    If they'd added a few car chases, some gunfire and explosions, then guys would enjoy it. Until then, it's wasted on most of them. See it on the big screen before it's gone.    … Expand
  2. MarcDoyle
    7
    Something about the lead actresses just worked for me. I like the theme of friendship being as important if not more important than traditional blood relationships in many circumstances. It's great seeing women stick together in the historical context.… Expand
  3. smijatov
    5
    The theme of the film is very beautiful - lifelong, committed and loving friendship. While the theme is good, the execution of the film is not quite the best. The setting is the parallel stories of two female friends in China - one pair in the 1830s and 40s, and the other pair in modern day Hong Kong. While it's nice that the story was laid out that way (I'm assuming that's how it was written in the book), it just did not translate very well in the film. The 19th century story was very moving and much more interesting than the modern day one. The modern day one just seemed to twist and change for the sake of it, and for the sake of making the 19th century one more interesting and beautiful. I was expecting more from the production design also, which may be the fault of the so-far popular Chinese films with impressive production design, costumes and effects. Snow Flower, however, is not quite up to par with those films, but still holds its ground, I guess. One of the two leads was excellent, Bingbing Li, who performed beautifully throughout the film. The story and idea behind the film are the highlights of it, but as I said, only one half was necessary. Something like Julie/Julia, but not even quite as good as that (not to say that Julie/Julia was that good). Nonetheless, worth the time to watch.… Expand

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