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'Memoirs of a Geisha'
(Times)
Updated: 2005-12-09 10:54
It took Arthur Golden 15 years to research and write "Memoirs of a Geisha," his
best selling novel set in 1930s and '40s Japan. It didn't take quite that
long for the story to make it onto the screen, though the road was long and
reportedly bumpy. The casting of Chinese actresses in the principal roles caused
some grumbling in Japan, just as the all-Asian cast provoked some anxiety at the
studios. Both concerns feel somewhat literal-minded and misplaced, though their
double-edged tension could account somewhat for the film's seeming to unfold in
an Orientalist daydream rather than an actual place and time. If the book was
celebrated for its meticulous attention to historical detail, the movie's heart
belongs strictly to Hollywood.
Directed by Rob Marshall ("Chicago") and starring Ziyi Zhang, Michelle Yeoh,
Gong Li and Ken Watanabe, the story arrives in a flurry of snow and pink cherry
blossoms, swathed in silk and carefully powdered and primped for its march down
the red carpet. An extravagant, relentlessly gorgeous melodrama, "Geisha"
luxuriates in its own exquisite weepiness, emerging after a long soak as a
classic Cinderella story �� a destitute but beautiful young girl named Chiyo
(Suzuka Ohgo) survives untold hardship to become Sayuri (Zhang), the most
celebrated geisha of her day.
If Golden's book lingered on the epochal tension of a subculture rooted in
tradition at a time when tradition was being blasted away, the movie prefers to
keep its eyes trained on the catty rivalries and casual cruelties that make up
the life of a geisha-in-training.
Marshall devotes some time to the schooling and rituals, but what really
piques his interest are the behind-the-scenes power struggles that leave you
with the impression of having watched "Mean Girls" in kimonos.
Details get fudged to conform to Hollywood tropes and
standards, so weird-looking chicks, like foreign languages (except for a
prologue in Japanese), are out. Gone are the traditional stark white faces,
rouged lower lips against white upper lips, shaved eyebrows repainted high on
the forehead and matronly bouffants. The geishas have been sexified for Western
consumption.
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