JimBell Blog

Memoirs of a Geisha

Under discussion:
Memoirs of a Geisha (2005)

Under discussion:

Memoirs of a Geisha (2005)

I was interrupted several times while watching Memoirs of a Geisha, but it did not really matter because this film was one cat fight after another from start to finish. Apparently, modern Japanese geishas who were shown the book in translation said they were amazed that a white, Canadian male could have such an understanding of their culture and lifestyle. The film won an award for cinematography, but I thought that the photography was a weak element of the film. Because I’d heard that the film was visually stunning, I expected some great scenes of Japan, but the cinematographer chose to use the modern approach of a lot of extreme close ups e.g., a sheet of greys plasters the screen, and it is a 1930s delivery truck passing by on the street. The other thing I expected of the movie was some beautiful women. Wrong again. The main character is not hard on the eyes, but when she or the other couple of geishas get dressed up, their appeal is highly specific to Japanese men of a certain class in a certain era. I found it difficult to see as beautiful a woman who has painted her face white, tortured her hair into a bee hive, eradicated her figure with tight kimonos, and strapped her feet into wooden blocks.

Jim Bell

posted on Wednesday, March 07, 2007 2:03 AM by JimBell

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QFLW
Posted Tuesday, April 03, 2007 4:58 AM

Doesn't the heroine start out in her narration saying something like "This story shouldn't be told"? A truer word...or perhaps the problem is that it should have been told better. One was given the sense from the beginning that it would not end 'happily,' and then, suddenly, it did. Nothing about this movie was compelling or convincing, and it seemed to adhere more to Western attitudes than Oriental ones. I found as it went on that I cared less and less what happened. Wish I'd managed to avoid sitting through it, but sometimes you get caught by the surrounding buzz.

Windbreaker
Posted Wednesday, March 21, 2007 9:07 PM

Thanks for the warning. This DVD was on my radar, albeit low, but it's gone now.

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