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How did Wayne Wang’s Snow Flower and the Secret Fan become such an ambitious failure?

Wayne Wang’s 2011 film blends past and present, but despite its ambition and talent, it struggled to resonate with audiences

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Jun Ji-hyun (left) and Li Bingbing in a still from Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (2011), a film that earned director Wayne Wang some of the worst reviews of his career.
Matt Glasby
Throughout his career, Wayne Wang has cemented his legacy as one of the great Asian-American filmmakers, consistently exploring the East-West divide in acclaimed films such as The Joy Luck Club (1993) and Chinese Box (1997).

Born in Hong Kong in 1949 and living in California since the 1960s, he is uniquely positioned to do so.

“I’m proud to have been born in Hong Kong, when it was a British colony, to very traditional Chinese parents,” he told the Traveling Boy website. “I was educated by Irish Jesuits, then came to America and was influenced by Bob Dylan. So that’s how messed up I am!”

Messed up or not, his 2011 adaptation of Lisa See’s 2005 novel, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, earned him some of the worst reviews of his career.

“[It] bears little resemblance to the book, and even less resemblance to a good movie,” railed the Seattle Times. But is it really so bad?

SNOW FLOWER AND THE SECRET FAN - Official Trailer
In present-day Shanghai, Sophia (Korean superstar Jun Ji-hyun) and Nina (Li Bingbing) are estranged best friends who swore allegiance to each other as laotong (eternal sisters) when they were young, sending each other messages written in nushu (a clandestine script) on a fan.
SCMP Series
East meets West
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