Memoirs of a Geisha

As someone who has read the book and understand its cultural context, and also an Asian by birth, I am embarassed by certain aspects of this movie. First, I do not agree with casting a couple of well-known Chinese actresses as lead for this movie. The studio points out that the nationality of a thespian has nothing to do with her role. Normally this would be absolutely true, but in this particular case the Studio shoudl have taken more care. Zhang Ziyi is an internationally famous Hong Kong actress whose face is instantly recognizable to many; casting her in the role of a Japanese geisha raises many historical and cultural conflicts that need not have been there at all. Many viewers, especially Asians, will be bothered thruout the movie by her role and presence. Same goes with the chinese actress cast as her mentor, Yao. Second, and more important, the movie should never ever have been written in english. The studio does not give the audience enough credit by not writing the dialogue in japanese and subtitling the movie in english instead. Does the studio beileve that grown adults have a difficult time reading subtitles? I readily acknowledge that subtitles require an extra effort on the part of passive audience, and also that in some cases (such as in HBO's Rome where the natives actually spoke Latin and probably Greek) substituting english as the spoken tongue is approrpiate. But "Memoirs" is supposed to be about the cultural life of a Japanese geisha - it is supposed to be uniquely Japanese. By substitutig english as the spoken language, "Memoirs" will be tainted in the minds of many purists. "Memoirs", the novel, was a fascinating novel that revealed the life of a Geisha with great detail and passion. But "Memoirs" the movie, as in the case of many other excellent works, have been maimed by the Hollywood industry whose specialty seems to lie in reducing a work of art to its most superficial state and stripping away its soul. It never ceases to amaze how easily and readily they are able to achieve this.

I love this movie. It's so real, and it kept my attention and that's something hard to do.

No, I didn't see this movie.

I saw the movie and I like it. I didn't read the book so I can't compare and contrast but in my opinion there is only a bad thing: Chinese actors. Why couldn't they find Japanese actors? Do they think that chinese and japanese people look alike????? I don't remember it very clearly but I remember the first meeting *_* what a beautiful scene!

Good book. I was suprised that the lead actresses in the movie were actually Chinese...

I've seen the movie and its been one of the best that I've seen in a LONG time. I haven't read the book, but thats only because I didn't know about the book. My favorite scene is when she transforms from a little girl into a geisha.

I heard about it, but didn't see it.