I just got back from seeing Memoirs of a Geisha with some of the gang. It was a good film, and I really ought to read the book. Two people have told me how wonderful the book is, although one of them refuses to see the movie because she apparently hates Ziyi Zhang passionately. (When I visited her in Cambridge, Mass and mentioned this movie, she ranted for several minutes about Ziyi. For the rest of the weekend, she would renew this rant without provocation. Nobody else was even bringing her up.) Ziyi's English certainly seems much better than before, though she had few enough lines that it's hard to say how well she knows English now. I do think the movie loses a bit by having the main actresses have accents that obviously aren't Japanese when they speak English. Also, it seemed like Michelle Yeoh was doing the voice-over for Chiyo's retelling of her story (am I confused on this? It was Yeoh, right?), which is a little bit odd when she is playing a different role in the film.
The film's score was very nice and set the mood extremely well. The costumes were also superb. I found the brief cat fight between Gong Li and Ziyi Zhang (is this the first movie where the credits have her surname second?) to be distracting in this film, although in other settings that would be appreciated. Wow, Gong Li actually turns 40 on 12/31. I would never have guessed that she's that old. She's going to be in the film version of Miami Vice coming out next year. I remember her from the movie 2046, but I've heard of a her for a while and I don't think I've seen any of the other flicks that IMDB lists for her.
The film was a bit slow at times and some of the lines were corny. Also, I don't understand why Chiyo would say she's surprised the Chairman remembered her. For one thing, he ended the drinking game in the pool when she brought up the incident from her childhood. For another, he mentioned that he remembered her blue eyes when she debuted as a geisha. This line really should not have been in the film or at least it needs to have been delivered in a remotely believable manner.
Anyway, the film definitely gets a thumbs up, but it's not flawless by any means.
2 days ago
2 comments:
To my memory, the voice over for Chiyo/Sayuri was done by someone completely different, not Michelle Yeoh. A quick check on IMDB says that it was Shizuko Hoshi, who I don't really know.
I was looking through the IMDB entry and didn't catch it. I should have read it more carefully. Her voice reminded me of Yeoh's for some reason. I've never heard of Hoshi either.
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