Memoirs of a Geisha - Movie

[sanalith]

I finally, finally had the chance to sit down and watch the movie adaptation of Memoirs of a Geisha, and I have to admit, I'm not sure what I thought of it. On its own, the movie was lovely, and it was definitely filmed well. The cinematography was absolutely excellent, the costumes were stunning, and, for the most part, I thought it was cast well. Still, when holding it up next to the book, as seems to happen very often, I found it rather...lacking...in some areas.

First off, I'm a book snob and I know it. Very rarely does a movie live up to my expectations after reading the novel. The only notable exception in the past few years that I've seen was The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, which I thought was an absolutely marvelous adaptation that left hardly anything to be desired. In the case of Memoirs, I think all I can say is that it was an excellent movie...so long as I didn't think about the book too closely.

In terms of what was cut out, my only real qualm was at the very beginning, when Chiyo and Satsu were taken from their home. I knew the beginning would have the most cut out, because it always does, but to be quite honest, I think they removed a bit too much. I'm not sure that anyone who hadn't read the book would have had any clue what was going on. Heck, it's been quite some time since I'd read the novel myself, and I had to struggle for a minute to remember. I think they explained a little bit what was going on, but it was all in Japanese and un-subtitled, and I could only make out a few words. It might have been better to have that be in English, or at least translated, to give some idea of what was happening. Other than that, I thought things flowed quite smoothly, and there weren't really any scenes that were removed that I really, really missed. That doesn't happen very often, so I really have to give it an A for editing.

Unfortunately, my main problem with the movie was the casting of Sayuri herself. I was extremely disappointed in Zhang Ziyi's performance, especially since I know she's capable of so much more (i.e. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon). I thought her take on the character, especially after she became a geisha, was rather flat. She played the role with great reserve, which one would think would be appropriate to a geisha, but I always felt that what made people love Sayrui so much was because she *wasn't* like typical geisha. She had so much more emotion and  vivacity than I thought was shown. Now, part of this could be due to the way the script was wrote, but sometimes I just felt like she could have shown more expression. To be honest, I can't really put my finger on what exactly was missing from her performance, I just know that I found it lacking.

My other main beef was the way they wrote Auntie into the script, and in this case I truly do blame the writers, not the actress. She was a hard woman in the book, but she also showed kindness to little Chiyo on many occasions when no one else did. The movie painted her as hard as Mother and Granny, and I think her softer side should have been shown at least once or twice. I just felt like they got her character all wrong.

By far my favorite casting was Michelle Yeoh (also of CTHD fame) as Mameha. She was absolutely excellent. In fact, I'm re-reading the book right now, and hers is the only "voice" I can actually hear from the movie as I read her dialogue. She was the epitome of the reserved and almost royal geisha, and yet she had her fits of temper and despair just like a normal woman. Her movements, her voice, her words...all perfection. She *was* Mameha, and I can't say how pleased I was, especially since she is one of my favorite characters.

Ken Watanabe as the Chairman was perfectly charming, although I can't say I would have expected anything less from such a wonderful actor. He was simply perfect for the role, and while I don't actually care for the character all *that* much, I thought he was cast extremely well. The same can be said for Li Gong as Hatsumomo. She had the character and her attitude down perfectly, and I must compliment the wig-maker especially for her character. The slightly messy yet elegant hair was a wonderful touch. When I was watching the special features, one of the directors commented that Li filled a room - and a kimono - like no one else, and I thought that was a very apt way of putting it. Considering she didn't speak English very well and learned with many others on set, she delivered her lines with a great deal of emotion.

Alas, my favorite character of the whole book, Nobu, got far too little screen time as far as I was concerned. Still, Kouji Yakusho played him wonderfully. I *loved* how he played the character in the sumo wrestling scene, paying hardly any attention to the geisha, but insisting that Sayuri stay to watch the match, and then almost off-handedly telling Mameha that she could bring Sayuri back again. And then in his last scene, when he cut himself while accusing Sayrui of sleeping around with his potential business partner, the general, I felt like weeping. He just had the anger and the frustration down so perfectly. Of course, as I said, Nobu has always been my favorite character, so maybe I'm biased, but I thought almost all his scenes were incredibly well done. He just breaks my heart - the man who never managed to care about anyone in his life, who finally falls for a woman who has no interest in him - it's just so sad. And the way Sayuri was portrayed in the movie made her seem even more heartless toward his plight than in the book. She didn't seem to remember what it was like to be hurt, to love someone you thought had no chance of ever loving you back. I think that was something that really frustrated me about Ziyi's performance.

All in all, it was a good movie, and one I'll probably think about adding to my collection at some point (when I actually have money). It was obvious from some of the special features that the production crew did a good deal of research for the movie, and I think it came out fairly accurate.  I'm certainly glad to have seen it.

But I would still recommend reading the book.