Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

In 19th-century China, two seven year old girls are matched as laotong (old sames), and 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 parallel story in present day Shanghai, the laotong's descendants, struggle to maintain the intimacy of their own childhood friendship in the face of demanding careers, complicated love lives, and a relentlessly evolving Shanghai. They try to decipher the secrets written in the fan by their ancestors.

105 minutes.
No persons under 10 (Sex, Violence).
Drama, Period piece, On the art circuit

Can you keep a secret?

Credits

Cast	Bingbing Li, Gianna Jun, Vivian Wu, Hugh Jackman
Director	Wayne Wang
Screenplay	Angela Workman, Ronald Bass, Michael Ray, from the novel by Lisa See
Music	Rachel Portman
Cinematography	Richard Wong
Editing	Deirdre Slevin
Sound formats	Dolby Digital, DTS
Soundtrack	Available
Made in	2011
Produced by	IDG China Media

Official Site | IMDB page
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Film and Publications Board (FPB) Report (SA)

Genre	Drama
Language	None
Nudity	None
Sex	One scene, brief, implied, mild to moderate
Violence	Fairly frequent, some bloodiness, mild, some mild domestic violence, brief.
Prejudice	None
Blasphemy	None
Drug abuse	None
Comments	A dark, heavy theme.
These details are supplied by the FPB. If you have a problem with any of the above, please take it up directly with the FPB. Read the Classification Guidelines.

Ratings

Scale (Max)	20
What the Critics say
Cape Argus / The Star Helen Herimbi Tedious tale of female bonding misses the mark	5
Die Burger Jeanne Calitz Stil blik op waarde van vriendskap	10
Box Office Pam Grady This elegant weepie offers plenty for fans of melodrama, character-driven stories and period pieces.	10
Metacritic.com 31 critics	8
Rottentomatoes critics 74 critics	9
Rottentomatoes tomatometer Tomatometer	4
Movie Review Query Engine MRQE critics	10
What the People say
Internet 316 Netizens	11
Average .. 42%	8