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Sometime in 1929, nine year old Chiyo (Suzuka Ohgo) is forcibly taken from her fishing village and sold to a Kyoto geisha
house. There, like others her age, she is trained under a strict disciplined regimen to become adept in the art of entertaining wealthy men, which is the main goal of being
a geisha.
Unwittingly breaking some of the rules, she is punished. Chiyo is depressed but a small kindness shown her by "The Chairman" (Ken Watanabe) revives her spirits and inspires her to strive to become a geisha and have him as her patron. With the expert guidance of Mameha (Michelle Yeoh), an established geisha, Chiyo blossoms into the most beautiful and desirable geisha later called Sayuri (Zhang Ziyi). This brings her in mortal conflict with the highest earning but not too young geisha of the house, Hatsumomo (Gong Li), with whom she has to compete for the best clients. Where will this rivalry lead to? The Chairman is always kind and proper towards Sayuri but Sayuri secretly nurtures a deeper feeling for him. With the advent of World War II, the geisha district is dismantled and Sayuri has to flee to a remote village. But should Sayuri continue to hope to see The Chairman again?
Based on the very popular novel with the same title by Arthur Golden, Memoirs of a Geisha
the movie has satisfied the viewers' heightened expectations drummed up by media. It is a lush picture with visuals that capture the geisha's exotic world in all its beauty, refinement and elegance. The good production design is greatly helped in the creation of ambiance by expert photography and lighting. The predominance of darkness and shadows as well as the pouring rain at the beginning sequences of the picture subtly convey the misery of that other world of poor peasants. Here is a well-told story that brings out the simmering jealousy, hatred and intrigue behind the façade of beauty and gentility. The well chosen cast especially Zhang Ziyi, Gong Li, Michelle Yeoh, Suzuka Ohgo and Ken Watanabe deliver convincing performances. The almost-all-Asian cast (a first in Hollywood) proves the capabilities of Asian performers. The Japanese flavored music helps build atmosphere while the dialogue has some lines of poetic cadence. Director Rob Marshall has given us a pleasurable treat for the senses yet, somehow, the movie does not impact much emotionally. It does not wrench the heart nor plumb the depths of feeling. Romance seems muted just like the restrained life of a geisha.
There is so much to commend the movie Memoirs of a Geisha
for, but we should not lose sight of its moral underpinnings. Mameha, Sayuri's mentor, emphasizes that geishas sell their skills, not their bodies. Indeed, they are trained how to do things perfectly, how to smile, converse, pour tea, walk, sing, dance, to use the hands gracefully, and so on. In short, to become perfect entertainers to cater to all the pleasures of men, especially wealthy ones. But later Mameha admits to Sayuri that geishas have no choice, as she admonishes Sayuri when the latter refuses to give herself to a client and waits hopefully for the Chairman. Indeed, geishas are "not courtesans nor wives" but they are high class prostitutes in the language of today. Now, a geisha is an anachronism but in traditional Japanese culture, they were tolerated, even respected, given a special status by Japanese society. In the light of Christian values however, prostitution is never morally acceptable even if it may have the trappings of beauty and elegance. In the movie, white slavery is portrayed when innocent girls from the rural areas are sold to prostitution or to geisha houses where they are trained to be geishas at an early age without their knowing the implications of their training. When they are grown and trained, they usually have nowhere else to go. They serve the geisha house until they are old and pathetic like Hatsumumo in the movie. To Christians, training prostitutes is also immoral. Yet we have to see this film in the context of the culture in which is embedded the life depicted on the screen.
(Date Reviewed: 24 February 2006)
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