'Memoirs of a Geisha' is a visually impressive adaptation
By HAP ERSTEIN
Palm Beach Post
There is no more visually stunning film this year than Memoirs of a Geisha, which transports moviegoers to exotic Japan — or at least to its cinematic stand-in, California — to begin to understand the rituals of those enigmatic women meticulously trained in the art of entertaining men.
That was the fascination of Arthur Golden's carefully researched bestselling 1997 novel, which long defied transfer to the screen. As now accomplished by director Rob Marshall (Chicago) and screenwriter Robin Swicord (Little Women), the film sidesteps much of the detailed how-to narrative in favor of the underlying Cinderella story of a poor, mistreated girl who grew up to become the most renowned geisha of the modern era.
DreamWorks SKG
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Controversy already surrounds this film for the culturally insensitive choice of three Chinese actresses to play the central roles of Japanese geisha. Still, the movie is another triumph for Marshall. who has adroitly broken out of the potential stereotyping as a director of musicals with this epic tale full of elegance, grandeur and complexity.
Like the samurai who were growing extinct during the 19th century, a woman with the geisha name of Sayuri (Ziyi Zhang, House of Flying Daggers) looks back on her life in Memoirs, recalling her rise as geisha were fading away in the post-World War II era. In an extended prologue, she is 9-year-old Chiyo (large-eyed Suzuka Ohgo) taken with her sister to a geisha house for future suitability to serve and pleasure business clients.
Separated from her rejected sister, Chiyo is relegated to domestic chores, yet unable to stay out of the way of mean-spirited geisha Hatsumono (Gong Li, Farewell My Concubine). She gains a lifetime enemy in her, but also an ally, mentor and teacher in Mahema (Michelle Yeoh, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), Hatsumono's bitter rival.
The fairy-tale aspect of the story occurs when Chiyo meets her prince charming, a dapper and magnetic man known only as the Chairman (Ken Watanabe, The Last Samurai), who would become her romantic fixation — but from a distance, since geisha are not permitted emotional involvements.
Sayuri blossoms into such a striking beauty and talented dancer that Mahema engineers the auction of her virginity at a record price. The Chairman remains aloof, but his facially scarred friend Nobu is quickly attracted to her and offers to become her patron. Such a luxury is put on hold by World War II, as the women are sent off to the countryside for their safety, working in the rice fields and eventually returning to Kyoto for a fundamentally changed life.
All of this — even the war years — is brought to the screen with a storybook gloss, thanks to Marshall's Chicago team of production designer John Myhre, cinematographer Dion Beebe and costume designer Coleen Atwood. Various elements of Golden's book have been telescoped and short-changed, but the film is never less than exquisite.
Objections to the use of Chinese actresses has its validity, but the three of them give performances of impressive emotional range, particularly Zhang, who conveys both the external fragility and the internal steeliness of Sayuri. Yeoh is more head-on determined, wise to the social conventions and ready to use them to her advantage.
Although the scope of Memoirs of a Geisha would make it a better candidate for a mini-series, Marshall has turned it into a worthy film that feels like a throwback to an earlier era of movie-making.
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