Memoirs of a Geisha

Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) is about a girl sold from a fishing village and trained as a geisha in Kyoto. Chiyo is sold at nine along with her sister. She is placed in a geisha house and works there as a servant. Hatsumomo, the star of the house, sees her as a threat and blocks her. Then a rival geisha, Mameha, decides to train her. The training is the best section: the walk, the tea, the folds of a kimono, the fan, the look. None of it is decoration; it is presented as the technical content of a profession. Something strange sits at the centre: Chiyo does all of it in order to reach again a man who was kind to her as a child. It is adapted from Arthur Golden's novel. Two separate arguments followed its release. The first: Japanese geisha played by Chinese actresses. Zhang Ziyi, Gong Li and Michelle Yeoh lead, and it drew objections in both Japan and China; the film's release in China was blocked for a period. The second concerned the book: a real geisha Golden had interviewed sued, saying an undertaking of confidentiality had been broken and that she had been named. The parties settled. Rob Marshall directed, his film after Chicago. It won three Oscars, for Dion Beebe's cinematography and for costume and art direction. John Williams wrote the score; Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman played. It runs 145 minutes. Good for: period drama, visual work, and romantic narrative. Less good for: it is long, its cultural representation is contested, and the sale of a child is a heavy subject.