Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

Li Bing Bing and Jun Jihyun

Lisa See’s new book came out the other week, and seeing it on the shelf got me thinking about a few years back when they’d re-released her book Snow Flower and The Secret Fan to tie into the new movie that had just come out…I’d made  plans to check out that movie at the time, but it must have came and went without much fanfare because I didn’t hear anything much about it after that. With renewed interest, I went onto ebay and found that there were a good many affordable DVD copies for sale, and I was able to grab a deal of about 7 dollars for the Bluray version which arrived just the other day!

Now, I didn’t remember much about the movie except that it was noted that Wanye Wang, the director who’d done “The Joy Luck Club” had also directed this film. I didn’t know who any of the actors or actresses attached to the film were either, so imagine my surprise when I got the bluray movie into my hands and found that one of the girls (the aforementioned “Snow Flower” in the film’s title), was played by none other than Gianna Jun, AKA Miss Jun Jihyun, the sassy actress who recently took my heart for a ride with her cute and sexy take as Cheon Song Yi in “You Who Came From The Stars”!!! WOW!

Gianna Jun and Bing Bing Li

 Snow Flower and The Secret Fan tells the tale of two girls in 1893 China who are bound together as lifelong companions in a ritual called laotong (the ceremonial choosing of one's confidant, think arranged marriages, but for friendship among girls) and the support they have for each other as they grow up, get married and pursue their own paths through its ups and downs. It’s also a tale of two modern-day friends who have the same friendship pact between each other, and the rituals they got through relying on each other. 

Friends comforting each other in 1839 China...

...And in Modern Times, too.

   Both the Olden China story and the Modern Day girls’ story’s characters are played by the same two actresses, Gianna Jun and Li Bing Bing (playing main character Lily), and it’s fascinating to watch them jump back and forth from the rigid ceremonial past to the free-wheeling electronic age, but best of all, you get to see Jun Jihyun in not only her traditional China garb, but also as the sexy-hot Jihyun we all know so well from You Who Came from the Stars as well as films like “The Thieves” !

Jun Jihyun and Hugh "Wolverine" Jackman in Snow Flower

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is a pretty straightforward tale of true friendships that endure all the pitfalls and heartaches of life, and though it didn’t rock my world or anything, I still came away afterwards thinking about the movie (as well as wiping away my tears) and will definitely be watching this one again!

PS: one drawback about getting the movie in bluray is that I couldn’t play it in my computer, and therefore wasn’t able to make any screencaps!  
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com