Memoirs of a Geisha (film)
From AwardAnnals
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| Director(s) | Rob Marshall |
|---|---|
| Distributor | Sony Pictures |
| Chicago director Rob Marshall’s pretty but empty (or pretty empty) film has all the elements of an Oscar® contender: solid adaptation (from Arthur Golden’s bestseller), beautiful locale, good acting, lush cinematography. But there’s something missing at the heart, which leaves the viewer sucked in, then left completely detached from what’s going on. It’s hard to find fault with the fascinating story, which traces a young girl’s determination to free herself from the imprisonment of scullery maid to geisha, then from the imprisonment of geisha to a… | |
Reviews
Amazon.com
Chicago director Rob Marshall’s pretty but empty (or pretty empty) film has all the elements of an Oscar® contender: solid adaptation (from Arthur Golden’s bestseller), beautiful locale, good acting, lush cinematography. But there’s something missing at the heart, which leaves the viewer sucked in, then left completely detached from what’s going on.
It’s hard to find fault with the fascinating story, which traces a young girl’s determination to free herself from the imprisonment of scullery maid to geisha, then from the imprisonment of geisha to a woman allowed to love. Chiyo (Suzuka Ohgo), a young girl with curious blue eyes, is sold to a geisha house and doomed to pay off her debt as a cleaning girl until a stranger named The Chairman (Ken Watanabe) shows her kindness. She is inspired to work hard and become a geisha in order to be near the Chairman, with whom she has fallen in love. An experienced geisha (Michelle Yeoh) chooses to adopt her as an apprentice and to use as a pawn against her rival, the wicked, legendary Hatsumomo (Gong Li). Chiyo (played as an older woman by Ziyi Zhang), now renamed Sayuri, becomes the talk of the town, but as her path crosses again and again with the Chairman’s, she finds the closer she gets to him the further away he seems. Her newfound “freedom” turns out to be trapping, as men are allowed to bid on everything from her time to her virginity.
Some controversy swirled around casting Chinese actresses in the three main Japanese roles, but Zhang, Yeoh and Gong in particular ably prove they’re the best for the part. It’s admirable that all the actors attempted to speak Japanese-accented English, but some of the dialogue will still prove difficult to understand; perhaps it contributes to some of the emotion feeling stilted. Geisha has all the ingredients of a sweeping, heartbreaking epic and follows the recipe to a T, but in the end it’s all dressed up with no place to go. —Ellen A. Kim
Barnes and Noble
Critics and readers embraced Arthur Golden’s debut novel, Memoirs of a Geisha, an imaginative Cinderella story set in pre-World War II Japan; and its runaway bestseller status ensured a sumptuous Hollywood treatment. On the way to the screen, a controversy arose over director Rob Marshall’s decision to cast Chinese actresses as the central Japanese characters—and critics seemed to smell blood, subjecting the film to unfairly middling reviews. Not surprisingly, Hollywood felt differently, awarding Oscars to the sumptuous Memoirs for its art direction, cinematography, and costume design. Ziyi Zhang and Michelle Yeoh, the female leads from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, reunite here as Sayuri, the former slave girl who becomes one of Japan’s most desirable geishas, and Mameha, the younger woman’s instructor and mentor. Gong Li, another superstar of Hong Kong cinema, contributes a stellar performance as Sayuri’s unscrupulous rival, Hatsumomo. Both women compete for the attentions of an important dignitary known only as the Chairman (Ken Watanabe), whom Sayuri has loved ever since meeting him by chance while still a slave. What makes the film especially mesmerizing is its retention of one of the book’s most fascinating elements: The relationship between the women and the men they entertain. Geishas represent a values system that endured for centuries. Their clients, meanwhile, are the powerful modernizers of Japan, the creators of a military machine that the emperor uses to plunge the nation into war. Still, the main story here is of a woman’s love and her single-minded pursuit of a seemingly impossible dream. Zhang is, as usual, radiantly beautiful, and she conveys the heartbreak of someone who sacrifices much to gain precious little. Her performance is a revelation, although it’s just one of many that makes Memoirs of a Geisha a lush and rewarding screen treat. Ed Hulse
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Memoirs of a Geisha: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Director Rob Marshall hired three of Asia’s most fabulous stars (Zhang Ziyi, Michelle Yeoh, and Gong Li) for this Japan-set movie, so one wonders why he didn’t put in a call to a local composer as well. Was Tan Dun’s line busy? Was Joe Hisaishi otherwise engaged? In any case, John Williams won the assignment, and he didn’t end up with egg on his face. Mercifully, Williams left the bombast at home and put cellist Yo-Yo Ma and violinist Itzhak Perlman to good use in this sensitive score. The lovely “Sayuri’s Theme” resurfaces at regular intervals, and it’s good to…
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