Memoirs Of A Geisha Reviews

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[Highly rated reviewer]

Pure escapism

As a big fan of the book I was really looking forward seeing M of a G on the big screen and I was not disappointed. Ok it changed the story slightly and gave it a "happy ending" and missed bits out but dont all films adapted from novels (especially american made films who tend to be heavy handed with the saccharine)? The film is beautiful, the scenery and sets are beautiful and the women are exquisitely beautiful.

For me the joy of this book is in the detail (eg the descriptions of the amazing and very expensive kimono and learning to play the samishen) and there was not enough of that in the film but thats just my thing and, I suppose, could have been boring on screen if not scripted/filmed sensitively and thoughtfully.

Go see this film and be transported to another world and time for a couple of hours and, if you havent already, read the book!!!!

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A good movie in itself but....

'Memoirs of a Geisha' is a beautiful, moving and highly in depth novel that I read in two days flat because I couldn't put it down. If you have read the novel and enjoyed it as much as I did, you will be disappointed with this film.

As with most movie adaptations, hugely important parts of the story are missed out (in this case, the entire first section of the book is ignored), characters are changed (the most noticable being the character of Nobu, who is meant to be massively scarred and missing arm from the war, but instead has two arms and a few minor burns on his face) and there are parts that are somewhat modified (the film has a happy ending with Sayuri and the Chairman getting together and having what roughly resembles a happily ever after, whereas in the book Sayuri has to cope with the chairman's death and lives the last years of her life alone in New York). The oversights in the film are really quite unexcusable. Extra bits are added in, important parts are taken out, central characters are left out and of course, the major problem with the film, which is set in pre-1950's Japan, is the fact that the three main parts are played by Chinese actors. It's a great shame that such a beautiful and provoking story has been changed so much when it really didn't need to be at all.

If I had seen this film without reading the book, I expect I would have enjoyed it much more. To the films credit, it looks absolutely beautiful. The really promising Chinese actress Ziyi Zhang steals the show as Sayuri, just as she did in House Of Flying Daggers and Hero. Another area where the film falls down is the way it adheres to so many western stereotypes of traditional Japanese lifestyle, it's almost sickening not to mention ridiculously inaccurate. Even some of the music used in the 'traditional Japanese dances' was Chinese! You get the feeling Rob Marshall did very little research into the subject matter, if any, and decided insted to make a kitsch picture postcard version of traditional Japan.

In itself, the film is enjoyable but as an adaptation and accure portrayal of the time, it is exceedingly poor. If you really want to experience the story, read the book.

Memoirs of an invisible man

This film is about a girl/womans stuggle as a Geisha. The heading refers to me, as I am a man and didn't get this movie from the off and I left the room after 5 minutes. I feel that this film will appeal to a limit audience, mostly woman, who will love the costumes and scenery. The lady wife did say that it was a good film, but was too long winded, having been at least 2 1/2 hours in length.

Memoirs of an invisible man

This film is about a girl/womans stuggle as a Geisha. The heading refers to me, as I am a man and didn't get this movie from the off and I left the room after 5 minutes. I feel that this film will appeal to a limit audience, mostly woman, who will love the costumes and scenery. The lady wife did say that it was a good film, but was too long winded, having been at least 2 1/2 hours in length.

Wonderful!

I, too, have read the book by Arthur Golden and it is, without a doubt, one of the best novels I've ever read. However, I have learnt that films rarely, if ever, do a book justice and so try to view the film in it's own right and not as a direct comparison to the novel.

Memoirs of a Geshia is a long book and a long film. I see that other reviewers have complained about it's length, yet in the same breath have complained that important parts of the story were missed out. Yes, big sections of the book were omitted, but if they hadn't been could you imagine how long the film would have been?! The director had a very difficult job and I think he would have found it impossible to keep everyone happy.

I, personally, think this is a wonderful, beautiful, touching, gripping film and definitely one of the best I've seen for sometime.

Beautiful

Watch this, it is spellbinding. From start to finish you are drawn into this film, visually it is beautiful, the acting as always from these ladies is top class & the story just unravels effortlessly before your eyes. This is one to curl up with the other half, crack open some wine & just enjoy. Magic ..just don't expect any kung fu...wrong genre

[Highly rated reviewer]

Lower-middlebrow melodrama

It's always a bad sign when musical backing underpins the majority of the film - as it does here: plaintive, plangent muzak.

But much more irritating is the foolishness of the dialogue: everyone speaks broken English with thick Japanese(or, for all I know, Chinese) accents - why?

I'm amazed that the book was written by a man - the soulful, heart-wrenching (or -wringing) search for the One Good Man (Who Was Once Kind to the Girl, sob, sniff), who is known solely as The Chairman, is pure Mills & Boon.

This is, at best, a chick-flick, nothing more.

Best film I've seen in a long time.

I am a regular cinema-goer and I can honestly say this is the best film I've seen this year (2006) so far, and probably for the last few years come to think of it. I have not read the book, but I can appreciate (having read other books that have been made into films) that this will be a condensed version of the book. However it is unfair to compare the two mediums, as the book will always come out on top because it always has more descriptive detail than the motion picture. That's just the way it's always been. In a way they are both advertising each other! If you want a great story that's very in-depth go & read the book. If you want a great story that's sharp and to the point see the film.

Although it seemed like a long film, I don't mean this in a negative way. I was aware that it was a long film but I was enjoying it thoroughly and watching it avidly, on the same level as I realised Schindlers List was a long film too, but that was one of the best films ever made.

Disappointed

After reading the excellent 'memoirs of a geisha' i was excited to hear of a film coming out. Although soon it emerged the leading roles would be played by chinese actors. Why i thought would chinese actors play japanese roles, when there are many excellent japanese actors more than capable. I thought how good was their Japanese ? Then to dampen my enthusiasm even more i read that it was going to be in english!

I tried to then watch this movie, seeing past the fact that it was in English but couldn’t.

The english didn't flow very well as much as say if this was in the actors' original language. Whereas the book tells the story so delicately, so finely with such minute detail, making you never want to put it down, the film is rough, the story isn't told very well and is extremely unconvincing.

I think Zhang ziyi is a great actor (take her performance in 2046 for example) however she does NOT make a good geisha. She is very badly cast i feel, with the only reason she was picked is due to her current fame rather than being the best person for the role. Also, michelle yeoh and Gong Li (who was fantastic in farewell my concubine) are badly cast, and they don’t seem to have any presence in their roles. Then Nobu is a totally different Nobu than the one in the film, which really disappointed me. In the book he was meant to be pretty ugly yet in the film he was attractive apart from a partly scarred face.

Anyone who has read the book will be extremely disappointed. The whole thing is rough, unbelievable and rushed. It doesn't create the same 'atmosphere' as the book does.

Anyone like me who is a fan of Japanese cinema (in Japanese language) will be thoroughly disappointed.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Orthodox adaptation with great visual style

Nothing more than a fairly standard Hollywood adaptation of a successful novel although I did think this succeeded yet isn't quite what it could have been. Following the story of a young girl who is sold to a Geisha house, the film chronicles this young girl's desire to become a Geisha against the wishes of other Geisha girls. It looked great, the pace of film was just right and retained an unforced feeling of entrapment which matched the characters' plight. There was little discussion about the Geisha and it was more a presentation of their world, with the additional Hollywood style, but I don't think it needed any discussion for you to reflect upon Geishas. In the hands of Ang Lee or Won Kar lWai this could probably have been so much more, instead I thought it was a good, entertaining film that left you to decide on your own what the questions posed by the film were. Probably not that much more than being a good film, it's beautiful to look at at times and was interesting enough to keep me watching.