| Memoirs of a Geisha | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Rob Marshall |
| Produced by | Steven Spielberg Gary Barber Roger Birnbaum Douglas Wick |
| Written by | Arthur Golden (novel) Robin Swicord |
| Starring | Zhang Ziyi Ken Watanabe Gong Li Michelle Yeoh |
| Music by | John Williams |
| Cinematography | Dion Beebe |
| Editing by | Pietro Scalia |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures DreamWorks Pictures Amblin Entertainment Spyglass Entertainment |
| Release date(s) | December 9, 2005 (limited) December 23, 2005 |
| Running time | 145 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English Japanese |
| Budget | $85 million |
| Gross revenue | $162.2 million (worldwide) |
Memoirs of a Geisha is a 2005 film adaptation of the novel of the same name, produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment and directed by Rob Marshall. It was released in the United States on December 9, 2005 by Columbia Pictures, DreamWorks Pictures and Spyglass Entertainment. It stars Zhang Ziyi, Ken Watanabe, Gong Li, Michelle Yeoh, Youki Kudoh, and Suzuka Ohgo. Ohgo plays the younger Sayuri in the movie, which was filmed in southern and northern California and in several locations in Kyoto, including the Kiyomizu temple and the Fushimi Inari shrine.
Memoirs of a Geisha revolves around a young girl, named Chiyo, who is sold into the life of a geisha and her struggle as a geisha to find love.
The Japanese release of the film was titled "Sayuri," based on the main character who was renamed as Sayuri in the movie.
The DVD was released on March 28, 2006.
Contents |
The film tells the story of Chiyo Sakamoto (portrayed by Suzuka Ohgo as a child, and by Zhang Ziyi as an adult), who is sold into a life of servitude by her parents when she is nine years old. Chiyo is taken in by the proprietress of a geisha house, Mother (Kaori Momoi), where she works to pay off the debt of her purchase and the soiling of a silk kimono owned by a well-known geisha, Mameha (Michelle Yeoh), which Chiyo was blackmailed into defacing by the haughty and jealous geisha, Hatsumomo (Gong Li).
One day while crying in the street, the young Chiyo is noticed by The Chairman, Ken Iwamura (Ken Watanabe), who buys her an iced sorbet and gives her his handkerchief. Inspired by his act of kindness, Chiyo resolves to become a geisha so that she may one day become a part of The Chairman’s life. Chiyo, now a young woman, is taken under the wing of Mameha, head of a rival geisha house. Under Mameha's tutelage, the girl Chiyo, becomes Sayuri, the most famous geisha in all Gion, Kyoto. Hatsumomo becomes Sayuri's rival and seeks to destroy her;however, Hatsumomo ends up destroying herself instead after setting fire to the okiya.
Sayuri, through her work as a geisha, is reunited with The Chairman, who she has secretly loved since she was a girl; although she is led to believe he has no memory of who she was before she became a geisha. Her prosperous life is cut short by the outbreak of World War II and while the safety of Sayuri and Mameha is ensured by The Chairman, they must endure a life of hard labor. After the war, Sayuri is reunited with Mameha, and they become geishas once more.
The Chairman arranges to meet Sayuri, where he finally reveals to her that he knows she is Chiyo. He tells her that he was responsible for sending Mameha to her so that she may fulfill her dreams of becoming a geisha. Sayuri finally reveals her love to the Chairman, which she has been harboring for more than 20 years. The film ends with their loving embrace and a stroll through a beautiful Japanese garden.
It is important to note the modern political context between Japan and China when Memoirs of a Geisha debuted in 2005. Relations between the two nations were particularly tense due to three main factors: Japan had recently revised its history textbooks, which downplayed wartime atrocities against China; secondly, Japan’s Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi made a number of visits to Japan's shrine to all of its soldiers, sailors, and airmen, a shrine denounced by China’s foreign ministry as honoring war criminals; and lastly, China helped to ensure Japan did not receive a seat on the UN Security Council.[1] As female writer Hong Ying argues “Art should be above national politics”[2]; nevertheless, the release of Memoirs of a Geisha into this politically charged situation added to cultural conflict within and between China and Japan.
Controversy also arose during casting of the film when some of the most prominent roles, including those of the geishas Sayuri, Hatsumomo and Mameha, did not go to Japanese actresses. Zhang Ziyi (Sayuri) and Gong Li (Hatsumomo) are both Chinese, whereas Michelle Yeoh (Mameha) is an ethnic Chinese from Malaysia. More notable is the fact that all three were already prominent fixtures in Chinese cinema.
The film-makers defended the decision, however, and attributed "acting ability and star power" as their main priorities in casting the roles and director Rob Marshall compared it to Irish-Mexican actor Anthony Quinn being cast as a Greek man in Zorba the Greek[3].
Opinion in the Asian community was mixed. To some Chinese, the casting was offensive because they mistook geisha for prostitutes, and because it revived memories of wartime Japanese atrocities. The Chinese government canceled the film's release there because of such connections, and a website denounced star Zhang Ziyi as an "embarrassment to China"[4]. This was exacerbated by the word "geigi" 芸妓, a Japanese name for geisha used in the Kansai region, which includes Kyoto. The second character 妓 can be understood by some to mean "prostitute", though it actually had a variety of meanings and there was a clear distinction between geisha and prostitutes which were called "yuujo" 遊女 in Japan. Some Japanese have expressed offense that people of their own nationality had not gotten the roles. Other Asians defended the casting, including the film's main Japanese star Ken Watanabe who said that "talent is more important than nationality" [5]. Other Asian actors such as Sandra Oh have in the past also defended inter-Asian acting.
In defense of the film, Ziyi spoke:
| “ | A director is only interested in casting someone he believes is appropriate for a role. For instance, my character had to go from age 15 to 35; she had to be able to dance, and she had to be able to act, so he needed someone who could do all that. I also think that regardless of whether someone is Japanese or Chinese or Korean, we all would have had to learn what it is to be a geisha, because almost nobody today knows what that means--not even the Japanese actors on the film.
Geisha was not meant to be a documentary. I remember seeing in the Chinese newspaper a piece that said we had only spent six weeks to learn everything and that that was not respectful toward the culture. It's like saying that if you're playing a mugger, you have to rob a certain number of people. To my mind, what this issue is all about, though, is the intense historical problems between China and Japan. The whole subject is a land mine. Maybe one of the reasons people made such a fuss about Geisha was that they were looking for a way to vent their anger.[6] |
” |
Film critic Roger Ebert pointed out that the film was made by a Japanese-owned company, and that Gong Li and Zhang Ziyi outgross any Japanese actress even in the Japanese box office[7].
On a visit to Tokyo to promote the film, Zhang Ziyi received a mysterious parcel and letter, revealed to have been sent by an elderly Japanese woman who had once worked as a geisha. In her letter, the woman stated that she had been touched by the trailer of the film and expected the movie to bring back fond memories for her and her friends. Inside the parcel were several exquisitely worked antique kimono. Zhang Ziyi was moved to tears by the gesture and sent the woman an invitation to the film's Japanese premiere. She also promised to wear one of the kimonos to the event as a sign of her gratitude.[8]
Producer Steven Spielberg had been scheduled to film Memoirs of a Geisha as the follow up to Saving Private Ryan. However fellow Dreamworks executive David Geffen had tried to persuade him not to take on the project as he said I don't think it's good enough for him. Whether or not he was dissuaded from the project he went on to direct Artificial Intelligence: A.I. instead. [9]
The three leading actors (Zhang Ziyi, Gong Li, and Michelle Yeoh) were put through "Geisha boot camp" before production commenced, during which they were trained in traditional Geisha practices of musicianship, dance, and Japanese tea ceremony.
Production of the film took place from 29 September 2004 to 31 January 2005. It was decided by the producers that contemporary Japan looked much too modern to film a story which took place in the 1920s and '30s and it would be more cost-effective to create sets for the film on soundstages and locations in the United States, primarily in California. The majority of the film was shot on a large set built on a ranch in Thousand Oaks, California which was a detailed recreation of an early twentieth-century geisha district in Kyoto, Japan. Most interior scenes were filmed in Culver City, California at the Sony Pictures Studios lot. Other locations in California included San Francisco, Moss Beach, Descanso Gardens in La Cañada Flintridge, Sacramento, Yamashiro's Restaurant in Hollywood, the Japanese Gardens at the Huntington Library and Gardens in San Marino, Hakone Gardens in Saratoga, and Downtown Los Angeles at the Belasco Theater on Hill Street. Towards the end of production, some scenes were shot in Kyoto, Japan.
In post-production one of the tasks of the sound editors was to improve upon the English pronunciation of the international cast. This sometimes involved piecing together different clips of dialogue from other segments of the film to form new syllables from the film's actors, some of whom spoke partially phonetic English when they performed their roles on-set. The achievement of the sound editors earned them an Academy Award nomination for Best Achievement in Sound Editing.
The United Kingdom reviews for Memoirs of a Geisha were generally mixed. The New Statesman criticized Memoirs of a Geisha 's plot, saying that after Hatsumomo leaves, "the plot loses what little momentum it had and breaks down into one pretty visual after another" and says that the film version "abandons the original's scholarly mien to reveal the soap opera bubbling below". [10] The Journal praised Ziyi, saying that she "excudes a heartbreaking innocence and vulnerablity" but said "too much of the characters' yearning and despair is concealed behind the mask of white powder and rouge". [11] London's The Evening Standard compared Memoirs of a Geisha to Cinderella and praised Gong Li, saying that "Li may be playing the loser of the piece but she saves this film" and Li "endows Hatsumomo with geuinine mystery". [12] Eighteen days later, The Evening Standard put Memoirs of a Geisha on its Top Ten Film list.[13] Glasgow's Daily Record praised the film, saying the "geisha world is drawn with such intimate detail that it seems timeless until the war, and with it the modern world comes crashing in".[14]
Overall, the American reviews for Memories of a Geisha were generally better than the United Kingdom reviews. Illinois's Daily Herald said that the "[s]trong acting, meticulously created sets, beautiful visuals, and a compelling story of a celebrity who can't have the one thing she really wants make Geisha memorable".[15] The Washington Times called the film "a sumptuously faithful and evocative adaption" while adding that "[c]ontrasting dialects may remain a minor nuisance for some spectators, but the movie can presumably count on the pictorial curiosity of readers who enjoyed Mr. Golden's sense of immersion, both harrowing and esthetic, in the culture of a geisha upbringing in the years that culminated in World War II".[16]
Despite significant hype prior to release, reviews for Memoirs of a Geisha were generally poor. The film scoring a 35% "Rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes[17] and 54/100 on Metacritic.[18]
In the United States, the film managed $57 million during its box office run. The film peaked at 1,654 screens, facing off against King Kong, The Chronicles of Narnia and Fun with Dick and Jane. During its first week in limited release, the film screening in only eight theaters tallied up a $85,313 per theater average which made it second in highest per theater averages behind Brokeback Mountain for 2005. International gross reached $158 million.[19]
The film was originally scheduled to be shown in cinemas in the People's Republic of China on February 9, 2006. The Chinese State Administration of Radio, Film and Television decided to ban the film on February 1, 2006 considering the film as "too sensitive". In doing so, it overturned a November decision to approve the film for screening.[20]
The film was set in Japan during World War Two, when the Second Sino-Japanese War was taking place. During this time, Japan captured and forced Chinese women as “comfort women” for their men.[21] Controversy arose in China from an apparent confusion of equating geisha with prostitution, and thus the connection with, and reminder of, comfort women being used in Japan at that time.
Newspaper sources, such as the Shanghai-based Oriental Morning Post and the Shanghai Youth Daily, quoted the fears that the film may be banned by censors; there were concerns that the casting of Chinese actresses as geishas could rouse anti-Japan sentiment and stir up feelings over Japanese wartime actions in China, especially the use of Chinese women as forced sex workers.[22][23]
National Board of Review
Satellite Awards
Screen Actors Guild Awards
NAACP Image Awards
| Memoirs of a Geisha OST | ||
|---|---|---|
| Soundtrack by John Williams | ||
| Released | November 22, 2005 | |
| Genre | Soundtrack | |
| Length | 61:02 | |
| Label | Sony Classical | |
The Memoirs of a Geisha Official Soundtrack featured Yo Yo Ma performing the cello solos, as well as Itzhak Perlman performing the violin solos. The music was composed and conducted by John Williams.
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