South Korean actress Gianna Jun and Chinese actress Li Bingbing, pose for the photographers during a press conference of a film “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan” as part of the 14th Shanghai International Film Festival Sunday in China. (AP)SHANGHAI: Wayne Wang's 1993 adaptation of the Amy Tan novel “The Joy Luck Club” put the Chinese-American filmmaker on the map in Hollywood by turning an Asian family drama into an American box office success story. Thirteen years later, Wang is about to release another film with shades of his career-making movie. Like “Joy Luck Club,” “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan” explores the past and present of Chinese women. “Snow Flower” is also based on the work of a Chinese-American writer, this time Lisa See's novel of the same name. “Snow Flower” also marks Wang's reunion with “Joy Luck Club” actress Vivian Wu, a Shanghai native. Oscar-winning screenwriter Ronald Bass, who co-wrote the “Joy Luck Club” screenplay with Tan, also worked on the script for “Snow Flower.” But promoting “Snow Flower” on the sidelines of the Shanghai International Film Festival on Sunday, Wang said the similarities end there. “I think it's very different from ‘Joy Luck Club.' I don't want to make another movie like ‘Joy Luck Club.' ‘Joy Luck Club' is about mother-daughter relationships. This is the story of two female friends,” Wang said. Starring Chinese actress Li Bingbing and South Korea's Jeon Ji-hyun with a cameo from Hugh Jackman, “Snow Flower” explores the friendship between two Chinese women in the 1800s and the friendship between two of their descendants. While Wang is eager to move on from “The Joy Luck Club,” Wu called it a classic that still brings her to tears.
