As can be expected, the movie version of Arthur Golden's 1997 best-selling novel is breathtaking and visually luxurious and entertaining, but then again is unmatched to the richly emotional and very poignant literary form that made me sleepless for nights and brought tears to my eyes.
At a young age of 9, Chiyo (Zhang Ziyi) together with her sister were sold separately to a geisha house by their impecunious and ailing parents. The moment she stepped in this house, she was quickly mistreated by Hatsumomo, the beautiful geisha reining in it and so for the next six years, she labored through great lengths to pay debts, forget her complex experiences from losing her family all at once and anticipate reconciliation between her and her sister.
Chiyo grew up ordinary looking but with astute eyes, and with haunted thoughts of her sister, which mostly she endured through long hours of hard work so she could survive and forget. What brought change into her monotonous and what seemed like a hopeless life was an encounter with an older gentleman known as "Chairman" (I believe that an actor with more depth in character or with expressive face would have given the role more justice). Anyway, after their ordinary but elusive meeting, Chiyo's inner gifts — imagination, concealed energy and capacity to love — plus multi-layered strength which maybe she didn't realize lived inside were altogether unleashed. Okay, here's another story of a young girl (or a child, if you like) who regained passion for living because there was a man that gave her attention.
After she turned fifteen, the complacent servant's twisted faith seesawed once more when the attractive and famous Mameha (Michelle Yeoh) of another geisha house took her as an apprentice and trained her. She was to become famous as Sayuri (it is a Japanese tradition to change your name once you felt you have reached a significant point in your life), the geisha with the unique sharp watery eyes. What she didn't know was that the dream she's long waited for(to become a geisha) was only the start of astonishing years of rivalries, defeats, simple pleasures and minimum encounters with her unrequited love. Not to mention, emotional agonies and true understanding of becoming a geisha (It was stressed in the film that the geisha life is an art and not a conventional one for that matter).
Article comments
1 - Purple Tigress
Ah, yes. Another believe in a stereotype that thanks the director, despite problems of authenticity. How touching.
Gay men get a wonderful cowboy film. Geisha and Asian women by extension become subject to a man's fantasy. A thousand tears wetting the sleeves.
2 - Luke
I'll see it on video, I'm probably going to agree with Tigress about most of it, but while I'm watching it, I'm going to imagine it's set in an alternate dimension, so everything is authentic, but only authentic to the alternate dimension, which is a poor imitation of ours.
3 - Djae
The key is to accept that there’s a lucid yet unacceptable relationship between reality and the so-called alternate dimension. So whatever idea showcased in the film, fact still remains that most of it, if not all actually happened and can happen anytime, anywhere.
See the movie but try, if you can, to remove biases.
4 - Akira
When watching the movie, don't place yourself under the influence of the "brand name" Rob Marshall, and then give the movie many themes that the director might have never thought of. I think this adaptation is good, but not so good as I expected. If the novel is filled with passion and struggling spirit, the movie appears to me as a mere fairy tale, with beautiful setting, costume and music.