memoirs of a geisha (1 Viewer)

[transcendent]

I haven't read the book but I have watched the movie but I'm still a bit confused with the role of the Geisha.
My friends told me that Geishas were dancers and hostesses and not prostitutes but then why do they have to sell their virginity?

probably cause the sole purpose of Geisha is to make men lust for them and in doing so well having their virginity auctioned off for a large sum of money says alot about how much a man is prepared to pay for beauty. this is so her virginity isn't taken from her forcefully but instead bought as a price. she will only lose her virginity once and will never again have sex.

 

[dark`secrets]

hopefully i'll see it next wk

 

[nwatts]

Nevertheless, I think Zhang Ziyi is a great actress -- her performance in "The House of Flying Daggers" was amazing!

Eesh. Her performance in House of Flying Daggers was dreadful. See 2046. She picks up her game when Wong Kar-wai's snapping at her little legs. I expect she'll turn a dreadful performance in Memoirs of a Geisha. She can barely speak english, let alone sustain a fluent english-speaking character throughout a feature film.

I don't think this film should have ever been made. But hey, hollywood's got to churn out something.

 

[seremify007]

I watched MoaG today, and wow.. i really liked it. But then it wasn't like.. that deep; it was just.. nice? Although sometimes I didn't quite understand what was being said- not sure if it was the cinema's acoustics or if they just had mumbled voices...

If you too didn't understand, you can go to this website for the spoilers...

Spoiler

http://www.themoviespoiler.com/Spoilers/memoirsofageisha.html

But if someone does go there and knows the movie well, can you please point out any errors in that? I noticed it was missing a character, and it turns out I got the Dr and the Baron confused... *shrugs* not my fault I thought they looked the same!

 

[RCMasterAA]

Dr Crab was the one who wore glasses. Baron was the old guy who gave Sayuri a kimono then tried to molest her.

The movie synopsis seems fairly correct.

 

[icecreamdisco]

See 2046. She picks up her game when Wong Kar-wai's snapping at her little legs.

i just watched 2046 again last week (coming back home from scott's head on a train, aptly enough) and i was especially floored by her performance this time round. it's probably the best acting work by any actress of last year that i've seen (i know it was released in '03, but i'm counting it among '05). it's too bad she's getting academy attention for her supposedly middling work in geisha instead.

 

[Benny_]

Just got back from seeing it. It's quite an appropriate movie for Rob Marshall to direct- all style and no substance.

A few things:

* I've always defended the use of the foreign actresses for Japanese roles. Now that I've seen it, I have to concede it was a collossal mistake. For anyone who can distinguish one accent from another, the movie was a nightmare. A horrible melange of Chinese, Korean and Japanese accents that just didn't work at all. It becomes pretty evident a quarter of an hour into the movie that director or author (or both I suppose) had no intention of treating the audience like intelligent people. So much of the first arc of the movie was spent trying to impress on us how exotic and foreign the life of a geisha (and that of Japanese) was without shedding any real insight to their lives. What the heck was with all that garbage about how much water there was in Zhang Zi Yi's eyes?

* The way Golden (or Marshall, I haven't read the book) turned the characters into one dimensional caricatures made it pretty difficult to care about the characters. Having characters neither make you care for them nor interest you makes for a boing tale.r By the hour mark I'd checked my watch twice. By the end my eyelids were drooping.

* Gong Li was incredible. She was the only person in the movie that gave some humanity to a movie that was so colourful visually yet so sterile emotionally.

And yes, Zhang Zi Yi was very good in 2046, although I think she needs to learn to cry a bit better. I wasn't convinced at all when she cried.

 

[nwatts]

Re: your comments Benny, I think a lot of what you've said is part of the original text. Nature of the characters especially, which were dry and built very intentionally and "unrealistically".

And gosh, my special edition copy of 2046 just arrived on Friday, watched it tonight. Zhang has a great presence/attitude, and I think her little tears were ok. Altho, no one beats Maggie. (and now I think of it, Gong Li was the black-wearing gambling lady yes? she's an amazing actor).

 

[Benny_]

Well.. like I said, I don't know whose fault it was. What I do know is that somewhere along the production process for this movie.. whether it was the telling of the story to Golden in the first place, or Golden's interpretation of the story, or the scriptwriter's interpretation of the novel, or Marshall's interpretation of the script.. somewhere along this line, all sincerity was lost.

Yeah, you should see her in some of her earlier movies with Zhang Yimou before he made Hero.

I have a soft spot for Maggie too, but only because of In the Mood for Love and perhaps to a much lesser extent, Days of Being Wild. I simply haven't seen her in enough movies. I guess I'll give The Actress a go when I have time.

 

[nwatts]

Yeah, you should see her in some of her earlier movies with Zhang Yimou before he made Hero.

Yeah i'm especially keen to grab Raise the Red Lantern, altho i'm having troubles getting it here in Australia, especially on a 56k connection..

Also to go back- what did you think of Chicago? I personally wasn't a fan, especially with the constant comparisons to a favourite of mine Moulin Rouge. It sounds just like what i've heard about Memoirs - visually gripping, full of style, totally lacking everything else.

 

[seremify007]

I agree- Gong Li was excellent.

 

[Mountain.Dew]

i have very little to say...

it was...okay...it had a rather quiet ending, nothing huge. not saying its bad or anything.

there was very little to depth...what we saw was the tip of the iceberg in terms of detail. i wanted a larger chunk. too little suspense as well.

but then again, this is an asian film that wanted to appeal to the western english speaking audience. i suppose it did a reasonable job for that.

 

[seremify007]

I'm yet to watch a really deep asian movie.. but then my Chinese is very poor so I probably miss out on subtle things.

 

[moffat]

i read the book a few years ago. thought it was good. the movie had a real slow pace. and the character's didn't age enough- not as much as i had imagined they would. the movie was okay. the type of movie that i'd see once, and not feel compelled to see again. Ziyi Zhang played Sayuri more aggressively than how i imagined she'd be.

 

[bubz :D]

it was actually better than what i was bracing myself for, after reading reviews etc... but nowhere near what i'd expected when i first posted in this thread. the book is way better - i'm re-reading it now.

i didn't like zhang ziyi's performance . i knew she can't really speak english, and either had a crash course in it, or memorised her lines - and this might not make sense, but i didn't feel a lot of the things she was saying.. more like she was reciting them. i don't think she deserved the golden globe nomination

suzuka ohgo (chiyo) and gong li (hatsumomo) were excellent, though.

 

[seremify007]

I also thought Chiyo and Hatsumomo were played well- i really believed their characters. Michelle Yeo's character (Mamame? I can't remember now) was also alright- she was believable (English is her native tongue probably?), but probably not as good as Chiyo/Hatsumomo.

Although the character which really pissed me off was Pumpkin. I hated that accent- but I guess it's part of the role. Not her fault.

One last thing, I laughed at the cameo (well maybe not cameo; more of a role actually) of Captain Leland Stottlemeyer from Monk (Ted Levine) as Colonel Derricks. I heard the voice and I'm like.. hahahah that guy is from Monk.

 

[MoonlightSonata]

Although the character which really pissed me off was Pumpkin. I hated that accent- but I guess it's part of the role. Not her fault.

Youki should have been playing the lead, not Pumpkin!

 

[xxFiveWords]

I heard the voice and I'm like.. hahahah that guy is from Monk.

lol i was wondering where i saw him before!

i liked the movie, even though it was slow and frustrating... and some parts kinda made no sense... but it was beautiful...

snow cone anyone?

 

[Benny_]

seremify- interesting that Pumpkin's accent would piss you off, seeing as how she's the only one of the 2nd generation geishas who speaks with a Japanese accent

 

[seremify007]

I mean when she was doing the American accent... just.. ugh. It reminded me of overconfident fobs trying to speak English ><