The film Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is very loosely based on the novel of the same name by a Chinese-American author named Lisa See. The changes in the film add confusion to a beautiful story which is set in China in the 19th century.
Both versions, the film and the novel, explain a practice present at that time of binding the feet of small female children in order to inhibit the growth of their feet which will make them attractive to a rich prospective husband. Another practice is also described. Chinese girls are brought together as laotong which binds them in friendship for all eternity. The matchmaker who brings them together is also responsible for arranging their marriages.
Snow Flower and Lily are the laotongs described in the story. Snow Flower is from a wealthy family while Lily has a poverty-stricken background. Lily marries above her station in life and Sun Flower has an unhappy marriage to a man beneath her. The girls continue to remain close however in spite of their separate and distant lives.
To accomplish this, Snow Flower and Lily use an ancient secret language called nu shu which allows them to send messages to each other by writing on the folds of a fan which is passed back and forth to them secretly by various couriers. They exchange poems and sentiments with regard to their marriages, their children, their loneliness, typhoid outbreaks and political turmoil.
At this point, the novel and the film part ways. The screenwriters, perhaps to achieve greater appeal, add new characters who live in the present day. They are Sophia and Nina. Confusion arises for the audience because both sets of girls are played by the same actresses. Flashbacks add to the puzzle as the story weaves back and forth between the two centuries.
Sophia and Nina have learned about their ancestors, Snow Flower and Lily, and decide to become laotong themselves. Present-day culture in a hectic American setting does not foster the type of friendship that Snow Flower and Lily experienced. Sophia and Nina separate until a traffic accident brings them together again.
Having read the novel a few years ago, I had difficulty trying to pull together the separate plots which evolved in the film version. It was disappointing to experience the parallel stories, knowing that they bore no resemblance to the original tale. It is also difficult to believe that Lisa See allowed her novel to be portrayed in this fashion.
Films on chinese culture got a great boost when Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club achieved such success. Perhaps the screenwriters of Snow Flower felt they had another winner along that line. Their efforts fell short as their version of Lisa See’s novel did not do well at the box office.
Sources:
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (2011)
www.imdb.com/title/tt1541995
