The Silk Fan

Once upon a time, Nina (Bingbing Li) and Sophia (Gianna Jun) were inseparable, best friends who could overcome any obstacles together. But in recent years, contact between the young women has become sporadic, and now that Nina wants to leave Shanghai and move to New York, it threatens to break off for good. But when Nina learns that Sophie is in a coma after a serious accident, she reflects on their wonderful friendship and wants to find out how her best friend has lived in recent years and what has been keeping her busy. In the process, she comes across a story that strongly reminds her of her own friendship.

It is the story of Snow Flower (Gianna Jun), from a wealthy background, and Lily (Bingbing Li), from a poor background, who become bonded for life in 19th century China as so-called laotongs, soulmate sisters in spirit, when they receive their lotus feet on the same day. In this ritual, girls' feet were broken and then bound so tightly that they fit into small beaked shoes. This was to show submissiveness to their eventual husbands. While Lily finds a rich husband rather quickly, Snow Flower must settle for life as the wife of a simple butcher after her father loses all of his fortune. Through fate, Snow Flower and Lily are repeatedly separated from each other, only able to communicate sporadically through the cipher Nu Shu between the folds of a silk fan. Yet their close bond persists even in the face of the worst events - a circumstance through which Nina also learns that she and Sophia are laotongs that nothing can separate...

The Silk Fan is based on the best-selling book by Lisa See, which Chinese-American director Wayne Wang (Smoke) has brought to the screen in beautiful images and opulent sets. To the story about Snow Flower and Lily, which is told in the book, Wang added the plot line about Nina and Sophia, which is nicely staged, but wasn't really necessary for the actual story. Because since the message of the story is already conveyed in a not very subtle way between Snow Flower and Lily, it really wouldn't have needed the clarification by the additional plot line.

The two leading actresses do their thing on both plot levels really well. And the supporting cast, which includes superstar Hugh Jackman in a small supporting role, also make a good impression. Nevertheless, the film only manages to a limited extent to really captivate the viewer and grab him emotionally. The imagery is too intrusive, which gets additional ballast from Rachel Portman's beautiful, but somewhat thickly applied music. Again and again, as a viewer, you feel like you're being forced to feel your emotions. Wang makes too little use of the talent of his actors to slowly but effectively build up the emotions inherent in the beautiful story.

Besides the fact that the film could have done with a little more restraint, a more intense and thus perhaps more critical examination of the rituals and traditions that are touched upon here would have given the film added strength. As it is, the whole thing remains a bit too superficial and ordinary. No question about it, the film is very beautiful to look at. The story told on different time levels also still works quite well despite its lack of depth. But if you expect a little bit more from a movie about friendship and love between tradition and modernity than just high show values, you will probably be disappointed by this adaptation of The Silk Fan. Therefore: only with cutbacks still worth seeing!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp