Two clips from Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

Like The Joy Luck Club, a film to which his latest film will no doubt be compared, Wayne Wang’s Snow Flower and the Secret Fan enters the world of women with complete openness to its sensory sights and sounds, its codes of behavior, secrets of the heart and sturdiness of the soul. It does this through parallel stories, one set in contemporary Shanghai and the other taking place in 19th century Hunan province in central China. Sometimes the switches in time and use of the same two actresses playing roles a century-and-a-half apart are awkward. But so strong are the emotions — and, yes, the melodrama — that Snow Flower and the Secret Fan represents one of Wang’s best films to date. (THR)

Another clip after the cut.