Film Director Wayne Wang
discusses his new film
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
He has worked with Queen Latifah, Jennifer Lopez and Ms. Cicely Tyson, now acclaimed filmmaker Wayne Wang’s new film, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is being described as one of the most beautiful films of the year.
Inspired by Lisa See’s bestselling novel, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is centered on friendship, an enduring friendship between two young girls who are closer than sisters.
In 19th-century China, seven-year-old girls Snow Flower and Lily are matched as laotong – or “old sames” – 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.
A similar story running parallel in present day Shanghai, the laotong’s descendants, Nina and Sophia, struggle to maintain the intimacy of their own childhood friendship in the face of demanding careers, complicated love lives, and a relentlessly evolving Shanghai. Drawing on the lessons of the past, the two modern women must understand the story of their ancestral connection, hidden from them in the folds of the antique white silk fan, or risk losing one another forever.
What opens up are two stories, generations apart, but everlasting in their universal notion of love, hope and friendship.
I sat with Wayne Wang to discuss Snow Flower also the director of The Joy Luck Club--
Sandra Varner (Talk2SV): I left this movie with red eyes and my nose looked like a light bulb. This is a sweet and tender story. The quiet and absorbing nature was powerful yet emotionally moving. In the world of intense action films with amplified special effects, we’ve become quite acclimated to noise and loud theatre. I couldn’t help noticing how quiet this movie is.
W. Wang: Well, I feel the same way. I mean, I go to a lot of these big movies. I can’t even sit through Transformers anymore because it’s so loud. I always wish that something would be quiet and kind of take its time. One of the things that I really appreciate and have for the last few years --perhaps because I’m just getting old, I do a lot of Yoga and I was always told that I don’t take time to breathe. That is the basis of my problems. I’m really trying to use the film’s rhythm to give the audience a chance to breathe. Besides the noise, it’s just that sort of quiet and rhythm, some might call it slow, but I call it more relaxed and more meditative. You can get inside of the story and the characters and that’s really important to me. That’s probably why you felt that way and I’m glad you did.
Talk2SV: What drew you to this story?
W. Wang: First of all, the relationship between the two women in the book in the context of early 1900’s in China where women are treated almost as a baby-making machine, so to speak. They get married, hopefully to a better family, and they have babies. Usually, it (their baby) has to be a son at some point and then they are pretty much left on their own. They have these things called women’s room [according to the book] and they spent a lot of time there drinking tea, doing embroidery, taking care of the house business but never really getting very involved with anything else. So, I find that the friendship between these two women in that context is so moving and so powerful that I decided to do the movie. It’s very different from The Joy Luck Club, a story that is really about mothers and daughters although there is some historical stuff, it’s still about mothers and daughters. This (film) is really about two women who grew up together, actually in the same year, same month, same day of birth; I was really moved by that. But, then, I didn’t want to just do a traditional period story. I’m so fascinated by what China has become, especially Shanghai itself and to juxtapose a contemporary friendship against that story from the book.
Talk2SV: What was revealed during your research of Shanghai that seems to be the continuum between the friendships women had in China during the 19th century and today?
W. Wang: The continuum I find is that even though there’s more freedom now, women are more independent. Women have better jobs in China today. The position and place of women in the family is still a little less powerful than the women here are (in the U.S.) or it’s not as equal. Oftentimes, their friendship with another woman is probably the more emotionally satisfying aspect in the relationship. That’s what I discovered. Many times, even walking down the street even in Shanghai, you’ll see women going out together to movies; women holding hands doesn’t mean that they are lovers. When traveling, they stay in the same hotel room. They are more than friends and it’s a very natural way. I find that to be quite common. Maybe this has some connection to that past and in this case of having a really good friend who is a female.
Talk2SV: Did any aspect of this story seem familiar to you? Question: Did any of your personal experiences like at home or any experiences that you’ve had influence some of the scenes in the movie?
W. Wang: It’s more the modern day China. More than anything, the thing that I came back to was the relationship I have with my father. Actually, because we had a lot of conflicts and a lot of problems that we never really talked it through. Some things got resolved over the years but we never really sat down to have a heart-to-heart talk, then he was hit by a car walking down the street to go pay his taxes. He passed away very suddenly. I find that this movie triggers that regret that I have about not talking to my father in the same way (in this film) with Nina and Sophia. So, in that sense, it’s very related, but I never make things that are specific to my own life. I like to bounce off of it in some ways and that’s the connection that I made for myself.
Talk2SV: To your own personal reflections, do you think that men have the capacity to maintain that same kind of bond as we see in this story?
W. Wang: I think it’s harder but I think that same kind of bond could be had if it’s under a slightly competitive situation where men have to depend on each other. Perhaps in Iraq and Afghanistan and in the Army, there is much stronger bond. All of the documentaries that I’ve seen, you kind of see that and feel it. But, I think American society doesn’t necessarily promote that or encourage that, so to speak. I mean, men watch sports together, drink beer and get drunk; it’s kind of happens at a certain level but they never quite bond emotionally. I think, I’m going to get myself into trouble when I say this but, the gays tend to do that more. There seems to be more of a friendship and bond that develops between them. But, it’s very hard for heterosexual men to have those kinds of relationships, or so it seems, whereas, with Asian cultures, again, it seems more natural because of the cultural context.
Mothers and daughters scene from “Joy Luck Club”
Talk2SV: It’s interesting because I kept waiting-- and again, it’s how we’re acclimated and socialized within the context of movies-- to see the closeness between the two friends move from platonic to sexual. When it didn’t happen-- and that’s nothing against same sex relationships-- it kept the focus of the essence of their relationship, the core element of this story about friendship in a singular perspective.
W. Wang: That’s exactly what I felt while reading the book. It wasn’t about the sexual relationship, it wasn’t about the physical relationship, it’s about a friendship and I wanted to focus on that. If it became a sexual relationship or physical then it’s something else again. That’s why the scene that really touches me is the scene after the Snow Flower is beaten by her husband and she’s cleaning blood off her face, it’s just a very simple moment between two women who are really close, that closeness, you can’t even define. I love that scene and the music that accompanies it. I wanted to get Yoyo Ma to perform but he was too busy but we were able to get a great cellist from London who just watched that scene and she was in tears when she just started playing. It was a solo cello piece that is so beautiful; it’s just a moment from the film that I remember that’s related to that scene.
Talk2SV: Going back to The Joy Luck Club, that movie did so much to elevate you in within popular culture. Given the success of the film and what was expected next of you, was the extraordinary success equally a kiss and a curse?
Jennifer Lopez and Ralph Fiennes in scene from Maid in Manhattan
W. Wang: They (every film) always are! Every success is a kiss and a curse. I did Maid in Manhattan, a few films after that and you’re placed in a box. My whole career, I’ve tried to get out of boxes, people always box you in. Right after Joy Luck Club, it was said of me, “Here’s this Chinese American who is going to do these great emotional dramas related to the Chinese culture.” I tried to get out of that. Then, I did Maid in Manhattan and I was stuck with ethnic divas and romantic comedies. That’s all (the work) I would get so I ended up doing The Last Holiday because I love Queen Latifah. But then I told myself I’ve got to get out of this box again. It’s interesting because Hollywood executives or people in general will sort of box you in all the time. For me, I always want to try to get out of the box. I’m going to do a Bollywood action film in Chinese or something else (laughter).
Queen Latifah in scene from Last Holiday
Talk2SV: What statement, if any, do you want to make with this particular movie?
W. Wang: I think that friendship, love and hope are all things that we should strive for, it’s very difficult these days given the competitiveness of job markets; given how intense big cities and urban cities are. To maintain these relationships and to not have any regrets, I mean, so often we forget someone or do not stay in touch with someone and I’m hoping it is like the old AT&T ad, “reach out and touch someone.” Not be afraid or not feel embarrassed that you wouldn’t do it. The unspoken language between the friends is a private language between women. The thing that I got from doing promotion in China is that many young kids Tweet each other and in their Tweeting, they are creating their own language. I’m sure it happens in English too. But, in Chinese, it’s quite interesting. I can’t read it at all. I can’t understand any of it so in a way they’ve created their own language and created their own relationship as Lao Tung in a modern way.
More on WAYNE WANG:
Born and raised in Hong Kong, Wang studied photography, film, television and painting in the United States before directing CHAN IS MISSING (1982) and DIM SUM: A LITTLE BIT OF HEART (1985) which established his reputation. Wayne is best known for THE JOY LUCK CLUB (1993) and MAID IN MANHATTAN (2002), and premiered at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival his two films, A THOUSANDS YEARS OF GOOD PRAYERS and THE PRINCESS OF NEBRASKA.
SNOW FLOWER AND THE SECRET FAN
Fox Searchlight Pictures
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sexuality, violence/disturbing images and drug use.
