Movie Review: Memoirs of a Geisha

Memoirs of a Geisha

When I was in high school, I was fortunate to be a foreign exchange student to Japan. To this day, I have an abiding affection for the Japanese culture and arts. As such, despite the fact I didn't read (and had no interest in reading) the book on which Memoirs of a Geisha was based, I looked forward very much to seeing the movie. Unfortunately, in most of the ways that count, the experience was a real disappointment to me.

The geisha of yesterday's Japan is sometimes mistakenly thought to be a prostitute. She was not. Instead, she was a beautiful and intelligent woman, educated in music, dance, art, conversation, and other social graces. Some geisha obtained high places in Japanese society and wealth in their own right, oftentimes via the sponsorship of a rich man. There were, however, sacrifices to be made to live that lifestyle, and not every young girl aspired to be geisha. One of them who did not tells her story in Memoirs of a Geisha.

Along with her sister, a nine year-old girl is sold by her destitute parents and she's taken screaming from her small village. Transported to a larger town, she is then sold to a local geisha house as a servant. Though she misses her sister desperately, her only hope is to work hard to avoid the wrath of Mother (Kaori Momoi). Her looks and her determination win her the privilege of being schooled to become geisha, but the house's reigning geisha, Hutsumomo (Gong Li) resents the threat. Eventually, she tricks the child into misbehavior that relegates her to a life of near-slavery.

One day as the child runs on an outside errand, she falls on a bridge. The weeping girl is discovered by a handsome man she knows only as "The Chairman" (Ken Watanabe). Drying her tears and buying her a sweet, he and the geisha he is with at the time unknowingly cause the little girl to focus her entire energies on becoming geisha herself so that she might someday meet him again. Finally, when she is 15, Sayuri (Ziyi Zhang) is taken under the wing of the geisha Mameha (Michelle Yeoh), arguably the city's greatest. Mameha does so on a bet that she can train Sayuri to be geisha in a matter of month. Mother, who always hungers after money, takes the bet despite the objections of Hutsumomo and "Pumpkin" (Youki Kudon), who is an aspiring geisha herself.

Sayuri's determination to meet The Chairman again and to impress him when she does makes her determined to master every challenge Mameha puts before her. In surprisingly short order, Sayuri is an apprentice geisha who accompanies her "sister" mentor out into the world. She meets men, of course, and charms almost all of them. But the only man she really cares to please is the enigmatic Chairman. Unfortunately, World War II interrupts and even the best laid plans can't thwart a war.

Memoirs of a Geisha is a spectacularly beautiful film. The Japanese villages are flawlessly rendered, and seeing as how they were built from the ground up in California for filming, that's saying something (when I lived in a small town in Japan, much of the older country remained, and that's pretty much how it all looked). The scenery, too, especially a party amidst blooming cherry trees, is just lovely. The costumes are gorgeous, and so are the women (though compromises with make-up were made so as not to offend the sensibilities of American movie-goers).

The acting is very good, especially that of Ziyi Zhang (who recently starred in House of Flying Daggers) and Michelle Yeoh (who played a warrior in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon). Ken Watanabe, nominated for a supporting actor Oscar™ for his efforts in The Last Samurai, also does a good job. And the conniving Hutsumomo is wickedly rendered by Gong Li in her American film debut.

Unfortunately, despite its good points, the script and the direction (courtesy of Rob Marshall who so brilliantly brought Chicago to the big screen) outweigh all that and then some. A lengthy period of time is devoted to the small girl and her servitude; when she's offered the chance to become geisha, her fascinating training is over in 15 minutes. The end of the film is inexcusably rushed when the climax is built so quickly that there's no peak, and then done and over in mere seconds. Explanations are given in a few words to tie everything up nicely — so nicely that it feels woefully as if the director realized he was past the two hour mark and had to end the movie RIGHT NOW.

Memoirs of a Geisha is no documentary; much poetic license was taken. But the story is good and the setting so beautiful and so largely unknown to American audiences that it seems a shame it didn't live up to its considerable potential. It's a pretty movie, but it's an empty one, and I can't recommend you spend the money on a ticket just to look at lovely pictures. The film is worth seeing as a rental, perhaps, but unfortunately nothing more.

POLITICAL NOTES: World War II is very much a background matter here, and as such, the lack of focus on the war or its causes is perfectly legitimate. But during the course of the subsequent occupation, though the scenes are relatively brief, the Americans are clearly depicted as partying and disrespectful at best. From my time in the country, that seems just about right. Japanese impressions of Americans — as I learned firsthand — were that we were inconsiderate of other cultures at best. As far as I could tell, there was just cause for that impression! Whatever the legitimacy of our involvement in World War II (something I don't question), as the US develops more and more into an international policeman of sorts, we can expect more and more bad and exceedingly personal feelings against us to develop (which, by the way, can't possibly be good for our national security). I'm afraid I can't lay a lot of blame for those bad feelings anywhere but directly at the feet of some American foreign policies.

FAMILY SUITABILITY: Memoirs of a Geisha is rated PG-13 for "mature subject matter and some sexual content." I can't imagine younger children would find the movie remotely interesting anyway, so I don't think you'll be placed in a position of having to tell them "no." The PG-13 rating is about right, but I'll caution you: Even older children (and adults) are going to find Memoirs of a Geisha hard to watch all the way through. That's not because it's not beautifully rendered, but rather because there's so little substance under the beauty. I'd definitely recommend that you choose something else if you intend to fully enjoy your trip to the theatre.