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4 items from 2011

1 September 2011 1:07 PM, PDT | Disc Dish | See recent Disc Dish news »

Release Date: Nov. 1,  2011

Price: DVD $29.99, Blu-ray $39.99

Studio: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment

Bingbing Li embraces life in Snow Flower and the Secret Fan.

Director Wayne Wang (The Joy Luck Club) weaves a contemporary tale with an old-world fable in the historical period drama Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, based on Lisa See’s best-selling novel of the same name.

The film follows two girls growing up in 19th century China, Lily (Bingbing Li, The Forbidden Kingdom) and Snow Flower (Gianna Jun, My Sassy Girl). They are brought together in a “Laotong” friendship — a lifelong bond between two women who rely on each other for companionship and comfort.

Amid the civil unrest and gender discrimination of the era, the pair deals with life’s hardships together until they are separated by marriage and childbirth. But the sworn sisters continue to communicate through the secret Chinese language of “nushu,” hiding their »

- Laurence

28 July 2011 3:30 PM, PDT | Slash Film | See recent Slash Film news »

Novelist Paul Auster has seen his work on screen through a variety of processes: The Music of Chance adapts his novel of the same name (not very well); Smoke and Blue in the Face are the product of a collaborative writing/directing process with Wayne Wang, and Mr. Wang also filmed The Center of the World, on which Mr. Auster was a story collaborator. So: several films, but few direct novel adaptations. That could be in part due to the fact that his books aren't quite straight fiction, but rather a blend of genre tropes, existential curiosity and magical realism. Not the easiest adaptations. Those elements also make up a good part of the ingredient list for Terry Gilliam's scripts, however, and so it makes sense that he is now writing a script based on Mr. Auster's novel Mr. Vertigo. Terry Gilliam recently said at  Q&A session, I got a book. »

- Russ Fischer

9 March 2011 11:44 AM, PST | The Playlist | See recent The Playlist news »

Director Wayne Wang has never been a director that could be easily pigeonholed. He broke through with a trifecta of critical and arthouse faves with “The Joy Luck Club,” “Smoke” and “Blue In the Face,” but he’s also tackled more mainstream fare (”Maid In Manhattan,” “Last Holiday”) while still taking chances on ambitious independent pics (”The Center of the World”). So it's no surprise that his next effort, "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan," is another gear change for the director, a detailed period piece based on the novel by Lisa See that explores the relationship between two girls in… »

11 February 2011 7:24 AM, PST | The Playlist | See recent The Playlist news »

Wayne Wang's career has certainly been eclectic. He broke through with a trifecta of critical and arthouse faves with "The Joy Luck Club," "Smoke" and "Blue In The Face" but he's also taken big swings into broad mainstream fare ("Maid In Manhattan," "Last Holiday") while still taking chances on ambitious independent pics ("The Center Of The World"). And the ever restless Wang is now switching things up again. Deadline reveals that Wang will next direct a biopic of famed theoretical physicist Albert Einstein. Working under the tentative title of "Einstein," the film has a script from Academy Award winner Ron… »

4 items from 2011