Memoirs of a Geisha

Memoirs of a Geisha (Director: Rob Marshall)

MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA won 3 Oscars:

Cinematography: Dion Beebe
Costumes: Colleen Atwood
Art Direction: John Mhyre, Gretchen Rau












Marshall made one of the biggest debut splashes ever with the fun Chicago, a movie that won 2002's Best Picture even though he didn't win for Best Director (that was Roman Polanski for some reason, and not Martin Scorsese). We have yet another screenwriter here who has been out of the game for awhile--Robin Swicord, whose last credit is 1998's Practical Magic. She teamed with uncredited total newcomer Doug Wright (that's a good writer name) to adapt the mega-bestseller by Chattanooga-born New Englander Arthur Golden.

I love how the world makes being a whore somehow more glorified through pretty costumes, lessons of manners, and worldly education, as if these glorified prostitutes don't make a living by peddling flesh. Of course, this kind of debate is hardly the focus of Memoirs of a Geisha, or another movie I saw on the subject, Dangerous Beauty (in that movie, they were called courtesans). It's just something I find amusing, especially when the geisha or courtesan starts acting out and is suddenly compared to a "common whore," as if there's much of a difference anyway. Well, there is the matter of comparitive cost; common whores are the Wal-Marts of the world while spruced-up geishas are Tiffany's.

It's Japan and two sisters are sold by their parents into the sex trade. One gets purchased for everyday common whoring, and the other, a blue-eyed future exotic named Chiyo (Suzuka Ohgo) gets purchased for the life of a geisha. Already, she's getting taunted by a pro, the diva-ish Hatsumomo (Gong Li, who is getting deserved Oscar buzz), because they will in time be future rivals. Chiyo doesn't much want to be a geisha; she mainly wants to find her sister, but a series of events lead her to drop that quest and pursue the life full-throttle, especially when the wealthy Chairman (Ken Watanabe) buys her a cone of flavored ice. She develops a childhood crush that blossoms into a teenage obsession as she hopes one day to be bought by the man. Now named Sayuri (Ziyi Zhang), the beauty is becoming the talk of wealthy buyers with the help of Mameha (Michelle Yeoh), a former top-shelf geisha herself (try saying that three times fast), who is trying to win a bet with the Mother (Kaori Momoi) of the geishahouse that Sayuri's virginity will fetch the highest bid ever. Of course, all this attention puts her in direct competition with Hatsumomo, who tries to disrupt the plan.

There are many things wrong with this movie. Let's start with English dialogue spoken by a primarily Asian cast (Ziyi Zhang learned English expressly for this movie). I understand that the studios feel that they will make more money if the filmgoer doesn't have to read subtitles, but this movie isn't directed towards people who would be bothered by that. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon did just fine, as did other Asian imports. I feel like a lot of the soul of the movie is robbed by the language not being Japanese (of course, the other factor here is that the studios probably wanted familiar faces in certain roles, and Michelle Yeoh is Malaysian and Gong Li and Ziyi Zhang are Chinese).

Another thing missing is what KW discussed with Sin City and Jessica Alba. Although I don't think Ziyi Zhang has any particular problem with nudity, her "first time" is treated like a trip to the general store. The movie spends a great bulk of its time making the bidding war for her virginity a big deal (and most of the plot has to do with her love of Chairman...I'll get to that in a minute) and then decides that the losing of it isn't very much of a big deal.

And the love of Chairman is something that isn't explored fully. Yeah, he bought her some flavored ice when she was a kid and he's a wealthy, handsome dude and all...but...there aren't any scenes that really pull us into her perspective, where we feel like this is a match that needs to happen. It's called dramatic weight, and it's pretentious as hell to mention but it's necessary and important.

Other than that, technically the movie is brilliant. It's surefire to get nominations in costumes, sets, cinematography, and all that gay stuff. Gong Li also is incredible. The movie glows when she's making life miserable for the geishas-in-training. And no one here is bad; they're just handicapped by the movie's machination. I don't know if the book is anything like this, but I imagine it was more involving.