Memoirs of a Geisha (2005)
How to stop a man in his tracks with a single look.
Presentation:
What happens when you have an American director, Chinese actors, about a Japanese cultural movie? For 2005, Memoirs of a Geisha looks gorgeous with great lighting, tasteful color, and beautiful costumes. Not to mention the stunning beauties - Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh is the best part of the film with poise and grace running it back with Zhang Ziyi, whom is outclassed in performance but nails the ethereal beauty. Gong Li also steals the show with tremendous presence through her facial performances. The film is white-washed in the sense that everyone speaks broken English, but they probably understandably couldn’t find the Japanese female talent for this Hollywood drama. I would say Zhang’s performance is quite weak, but it is acceptable given her naive character.
Conclusion:
This is a beautiful story with quite a few Hollywood edits for the writing, but still had enough themes of self-determination to be respectable. There’s a reason why the Hollywood touch is so formulaic - it often just works. I enjoyed this film for its delicious visuals in the butteriest most popcorn drama way. It may not be culturally accurate as they turned the traditional black teeth shaved eyebrow geisha into a blue eyed obsession catered toward Western audiences, but I wasn’t complaining. There has been a lot of fetishization over Asian women and Japan, and this film clearly exploits that market. But when the film looks this stunning, do you really mind?
Recommendations
How to stop a man in his tracks with a single look.