New Release: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan Blu-ray and DVD

Release Date: Nov. 1,  2011
Price: DVD $29.99, Blu-ray $39.99
Studio: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment


Snow Flower and The Secret Fan movie scene

Bingbing Li embraces life in Snow Flower and the Secret Fan.

Director Wayne Wang (The Joy Luck Club) weaves a contemporary tale with an old-world fable in the historical period drama Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, based on Lisa See’s best-selling novel of the same name.

The film follows two girls growing up in 19th century China, Lily (Bingbing Li, The Forbidden Kingdom) and Snow Flower (Gianna Jun, My Sassy Girl). They are brought together in a “Laotong” friendship — a lifelong bond between two women who rely on each other for companionship and comfort.

Amid the civil unrest and gender discrimination of the era, the pair deals with life’s hardships together until they are separated by marriage and childbirth. But the sworn sisters continue to communicate through the secret Chinese language of “nushu,” hiding their stories and messages within the folds of delicate silk fans.

In present day Shanghai, the Laotong’s descendants Nina (also played by Li) and Sophia (also played by Jun) struggle to maintain the intimacy of their own childhood friendship in the face of demanding careers and complicated love lives. Drawing on lessons of the past, the two modern women must understand the story of their ancestral connection or risk losing one another forever.

Also starring Russell Wong (Romeo Must Die) and Vivian Wu (The Last Emperor), Snow Flower and The Secret Fan is another entry in veteran filmmaker Wang’s ever-diverse filmography. Wang’s resume also includes such varied movies as the neo-noir Slam Dance (1987), the Jennifer Lopez star vehicle Maid in Manhattan (2002), the gangster comedy Life is Cheap … But Toilet Paper is Expensive (1989) and the sexually charged drama The Center of the World (2001).

The PG-13-rated Snow Flower received a limited release to theaters in July, 2011, where it grossed $1.3 million.

Check out the trailer for the film:

 

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About Laurence

Founder and editor Laurence Lerman saw Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest when he was 13 years old and that’s all it took. He has been writing about film and video for more than a quarter of a century for magazines, anthologies, websites and most recently, Video Business magazine, where he served as the Reviews Editor for 15 years.