Jenna Walter
The film may be flawed, but its message is not.
Nayan Gough
A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.
Skyler
Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.
sergelamarche
The film parallels two friends in the now with the similar pair a century ago linked through a friendship of the bound feet. The bound feet was some sort of sexual fetishism of men during a period in China. It was well regarded for marriage. The stories are somewhat superficial otherwise though with little rationale sometimes. Good for the exotism and historical education nevertheless.
phd_travel
This is a well cast and nicely filmed but uneven movie. The 2 leads Li Bing Bing and Gianna Jun are lovely in different ways. Only Asian actresses could play the same characters as teens and in their 30s convincingly.The story concerns two pairs of best girl friends, one set in present day and one pair set in the mid 1800s in China. The modern story is a bit less interesting than the modern one. The 1800s story has bound feet (ouch), civil war and rural poverty. The modern story is about career and love with a foreigner (an unintentionally hilarious Hugh Jackman - that song!).The changes between the 2 stories are a bit too frequent. It isn't confusing about who is who but it just breaks up and jumbles the narrative a little too much.The movie is a bit long and maudlin. With too many lingering sad looks. Feel like shouting Hurry Up sometimes! That is the old fashioned Chinese soap opera part of it.Overall worth one watch.
HLshop
Others have described the story, so i wont. I feel that both the critics and users were unfairly harsh. I almost missed this as a result, despite having enjoyed the book. Perhaps it was the low expectations. However, I think it's better than many more popular female bonding movies and did not find too sentimental. I don't get why films like Bridesmaided or the Ya Ya sisterhood are well liked. Sure they are OK,, but cover nothing new.Both the book and the movie are trying to tug the heart strings. That accepted (and i like dark stories) they do it well and I cared about both sets of women and what happened to these women. The stories are interesting and the filming beautiful. I won't give any spoilers, but the ending was a bit too neatly tied up, especially in the modern story. I read the book and was skeptical about adding a parallel tail, but found it worked well, though not sure it was necessary. The ending was a bit too pat, especially in the modern day part. There are many worse ways to spend an evening. Give it a chance.
himelda
One of the key discoveries in my life is that for me and for many of my women friends, our friendship is often the most wonderful gift of life. This movie celebrates friendship among women. It relates two stories of women in China whose friendship is signed as a contract, a laotong. Laotong, the movie explains, is a life-long relationship between women, often considered more important than marriage. The movie presents two young friends in Shanghai in the 21st century who celebrate a laotong. Their friendship is portrayed with the closeness, empathy and support that is well known about friendship among women. And it also presents the difficulties and distances that are very real and perhaps unavoidable in close relationships. In a similar way, the movie presents two 19th century women who had had a laotong in very different circumstances and for whom the friendship is also both a marvelous gift and a difficult relationship. Movies are often about relations between a man and a women but seldom about women friends. That is why this movie seems to be controversial. It is not always accepted that for women their women friends are their most rewarding relationships despite the complicated faces of any human partnership. Go see the movie. It shows a side of women's life that is amazingly real but poorly understood.
