Fox Searchlight's new trailer for Wayne Wang's Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is luscious, warm, and emotionally stirring -- kind of like Wang's other opus about familial Chinese legacy, The Joy Luck Club. The new movie reunites him with Ronald Bass, who co-wrote that screenplay and this adaptation of Lisa See's novel. It comes out July 15, but will you be bothered to forsake the summer diet of skanky blockbusters in its honor?
Aw, yeah, that's some Prismacolor cinematography of the highest caliber. It looks like a fancy coloring book where you use both your red-orange and orange-red pencil. Quite sumptuous.
The most interesting aspect of this story is the laotong relationship between 19th century friends Lily and Snow Flower, who deal with their difficult upbringings by forming a secret language. The special bond is one that's more intimate than a marriage, and as Lily's aunt notes, "A laotong relationship is made by choice for the purpose of emotional companionship and eternal fidelity. A marriage is not made by choice and has only one purpose -- to have sons." Beautiful, yet grim. These tales of clandestine histories often are.
Though Zhang Ziyi dropped out of this project, Snow Flower is still left with the formidable trio of Li Bingbing, Jun Ji-hyun and -- yes -- Hugh Jackman. Finally, Hugh stars in an origin story we can be proud of.
Verdict: Hard to argue with an acclaimed story and gorgeous photography, wouldn't you say?