Editorial article:
Memoirs of Geisha disappoints
The Hollywood flick Memoirs of Geisha is based on the book with same name by Arthur Golden.
I didn't feel any Japanese atmosphere from the movie at all. One of the biggest problem is the language - they try hard to pronounce English like American people expect Japanese (not Chinese) to pronounce English, offering "arigatou, konnichiwa" to middle of their flat lines in English. And the Chinese actresses couldn't even pronounce those few words like Japanese would, it all sounds really strange.
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Production was indeed big production, with Spielberg on production crew and all. Music was John Williams *star wars" big time soundtrack, passionate strings and stuffs. Nothing as melancholic as The Last Samurai, something *generic southeast asian track* koto, shamisen, Chinese flutes, chinese tunes. Didn't move me much, the sounds either, although well made as in any big budget flick. They spent a lot of money on CGI just as you might expect from any Hollywood movie.
As someone have noted before, geisha would never wear kimono like that, the neckline was ruined so terribly that it made me shiver. Everything was based on passionate, cheap illusion, without a deep look into things. Problems in the wardrobe were apparent from the beginning when the evil geisha Hatsumomo came in her red undergown from whatever souvenir shop they bought it.
What an earth was that? Such attire doesn't exist in geisha's wardrobe and not even Japanese person's wardrobe. But I guess that's what audience like to imagine about geishas. However as it's been discussed in the internet, these "geishas" portrayed in the movie are rather like geikos. And did they really use black lights and colored spotlights for geisha shows? I don't think so. All we need is disco music.
But afterall, audience wants PASSION, otherwise movie won't sell. And this movie really have PASSION with big P. My girlfriend cried "we Japanese aren't like this!". Sumo scene (although it contained a real ex sumo wrestler Mainoumi) was noisy like a boxing show!
In common, everything in the movie is exaggerated, and camerawork is so also - everything is like fast paced melodramatic play. Quick visual satisfaction to hungry eyes! Particularly this feels cheap to me because there isn't solid enough storyline to back it up (and its based on cheap Harlequin fiction anyway).
In beginning, geishas are said to be fine artisans - at the end they are claimed to be mysterious prostitutes. The attempted geisha mystification turns out to be a cheap marketting trick just as in the book. Geisha is recreated to be something sexy for American burger taste, for something to enjoy fast and soon forget. The movie doesn't even try to bring out any deeper meaning than the obvious question whether geishas really do it or not. Perhaps the movie's honesty about this is the only last good thing that kind of saves the movie from being another Pearl Harbor. The audience hopefully realizes that this movie is fiction.
I can imagine how some Japanese people feel about this movie, although I must add that this flick (known in Sayuri) is a success in Japan. Some reason, Japanese always have been enjoyed watching American movies about Japan. I wonder why though, especially when they don't even try. Even if they claim that it's based on true story. I wonder what Iwasaki would have to say about this. (We recommend to read her book - editorial add)
OK, let's switch to the "positive-mode". Afterall the movie is pretty harmless if you keep in mind that it's just a movie. Much more harmless than Pearl Harbor was. At least Jerry Bruckheimer wasn't on the staff. And Ken Watanabe is a nice actor, plus Youki Kudoh's performance as easygoing Pumpkin was cool and great Kaori Momoi acted nicely the mother. Not such a bad Japanese crew I have to say. Personally I was disappointed a little to Ziyi Zhang, but it might just be that she didn't convince much as Japanese geisha as she couldn't pronounce Japanese. Kids were convincing too. Randall Duk Kim (Matrix 2 Keymaker guy) was acceptable as the perv doctor.
What comes to dramaturgy of the movie, it wasn't very well composed and I really wondered how the editors spend their time, dramaturgy lost focus entirely at some times and screenplay drifted around the unimportant characters that are not developed, perhaps deadline came too soon.
Despite the character of Sayuri, other characters seem to develop at all. The war ofcourse leave some traumas to the Osaka company guys and the Chairman (Ken Watanabe) character, but it all seem too light and the characters doesn't show any kind of real development, except that most of them turn slightly kinder to each other, which smooths the end of the movie towards typical Hollywood "happy endo". This is maybe the biggest problem of the movie.
Also Japanese people, as we know, tend to prefer to keep physical and emotional proximity to each other while communicating. Scenes of hugging and passionate emotions seemed so weird to me as it doesnt happen in Japan much even among families.
For the last remark, I really wonder what was the message of the film? Geishas remain just as mysterious as in the beginning of the movie. It seemed sad to me that things like mizuage and sexual appearance were highlighted and underlined, just like in Golden's book, just in order to make the geisha more sexy. Although in this movie Japanese men are still seen as somewhat sinister and perv, gladly the movie had less such tone as the original novel had.
*This is editorial article and expresses simply our own opinion.
Trivia: The movie has been banned in China, supposedly because homegrown actresses Zhang Ziyi and Gong Li take the roles of Japanese geisha
See also: Memoirs of Geisha in IMDB.
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The fact that this article was posted without so much as a translator's ok makes me laugh.
Before you criticize Hollywood, you should bone up on your English!
I will do my best to improve the quality of English used in this site.