Snow Flower and the Secret Fan stills released

Hugh Jackman and Li Bingbing

Li Bingbing and Jun Ji Hyun/Gianna Jun

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. In a parallel story 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.

In the library.

In the hospital.

Li Bingbing’s character at a bar.

Wayne Wang is in familiar territory as Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is a cross-generational drama, very much like Joy Luck Club. The film is currently in post-production. Besides China’s it girl Li Bingbing and Korean starlet, Jun Ji Hyun known to Hollywood as Gianna Jun, this adaptation also stars Hugh Jackman, Vivian Wu and Archie Kao. It was filmed in English and so, Li Bingbing’s voice will not be dubbed. The lead actresses will play their ancestors Snow Flower and Lily and their present-day descendants.