Memoirs of a Geisha 2005
I probably should have read more reviews of this movie before watching it. I thought the whole movie was boring, sad, too long, and came off as less than genuine (maybe because most of the women in the movie are Chinese and the writers, director, and producers were all American?). There are certain Cinderella elements that some might find appealing, but I thought the story was too simple therefore the 2-hour plus length of the movie seems unjustified. Memoirs won some awards, but primarily for makeup, art, etc. Further, the truth behind geisha houses makes for a sad story anyway: young girls are sold by their families, they endure all kinds of pain to attain the desired attribues of a geisha, and their virginity is sold to the highest bidder. What part of this makes for a good story?
Ken Wantanabe, who has been very strong in movies like The Last Samurai and Letters From Iwo Jima is flat here. In fact, I didn’t think any of the acting performances distinguished themselves. It was funny seeing Monk’s Captain Stottlemeyer make a cameo, but it threw me off seeing such a familiar character show up in such a different type of movie. Ziyi Zhang, who has been proclaimed as one of the world’s most beautiful women, was even disappointing. Lacking classic Asian charm, she just came off as very young. Not that the garish geisha makeup and bulky outfits let a woman really shine.
Disappointing. I’ll give this a C.
Written: 06 Jul 2007