'Snow Flower' loses a bit in translation

For years now, noble, valiant and occasionally harebrained efforts have been made to get more Americans to watch more foreign films, and "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" represents the model of a certain well-intentioned cluelessness. Set in 19th century China -- and 1990s Shanghai, and the same city in the present day -- this latest effort by the ever-erratic director Wayne Wang strives for period authenticity and cultural truth in its tale of Snow Flower (Gianna Jun) and Lily (Bingbing Li), who are sworn together as girls in an era of foot-binding and forced marriage (all of which is delicately lifted and re-created from the Lisa See novel). Its powerful message of female strength and solidarity is revisited in the parallel universes via the main characters' alter egos, Sophia and Nina.

But the Chinese actresses are acting in a language (English) that is clearly not their own, and what might have been a sort of feminist historical epic is reduced to something far inferior, because the producers apparently felt subtitles would alienate the much-coveted mass of American moviegoers. Which is very likely true. But the effect is to alienate those audiences that might have gravitated naturally to "Snow Flower," without any compensating payoff at the box office.

All of which is bad for the state of foreign filmgoing in this country, despite "Snow Flower's" various charms, which do not include a briskly paced narrative. The immersion in bygone, feudal-flavored China is seductive, however, and the portrait we get of Shanghai -- that ever-mutating city-as-barometer of global economic evolution -- is fascinating in and of itself.