Memoirs of a Geisha (Movie Review)

The movie, Memoirs of a Geisha is an adaptation of Arthur Golden’s best selling novel directed by Rob Marshall. His previous musical ‘Chicago’ showed his talent as a director, this movie confirms the brilliance of his ability as a director.

The movie starts with a girl, Chiyo and her sister are taken from their fishing village and sold to a slave trader by her father. Chiyo ends up at a Geisha house. Her journey starts as a servant and becomes a possible candidate for training to be a geisha while her sister Satsu (Samantha Futerman) is immediately forced to work as a prostitute. We get to see the first glimpse of the geisha of the house, Hatsuomo (Gong Li), who uses Chiyo as an escape goat for her own misbehavior and threatens to crush her. She never suspected however, Chiyo could become her rival later on.

As a young girl, Chiyo first met the Chairman (Ken Watanabe) who showed her the kindness she never had, after that moment, her desire to one day become a geisha to be with him. The idea of falling in love was not permitted in the Geisha’s life, Chiyo somehow saw her own life through Hatsuomo’s emotional pain and destruction as a young girl.

Under the kindness and guidance of Mamesha (Michelle Yeoh), Chiyo begins her training and mastered the arts of music, dance, clever conversation, crafty battle with rival geishas, and cunning seduction of wealthy patrons. Finally, she becomes a geisha and is given the name of Sayuri (Ziyi Zhang). Sayuri’s one and only the dream of being with the Chairman while she still has her difficult times with her geisha life.

Trying to outsmart the popular geisha Hatsuomo, and get the business of the powerful patrons, we can taste the rivalry and viciousness of the business side of the industry at that time in a subtle way. She became the most popular geisha in town when she got her triumphant auction of her mizuage (virginity) for a record price. Her continuous efforts to win the heart of the Chairman, and "wanting a life that is hers" didn’t come easy.

Although, many Westerners have a fascination of the mysterious image of geishas, the portrait of their lives under the elegant prose, mysterious grace, and artistic mastery, we can experience the other side in the movie. It has been made-to-believe the Gaisha was a noble profession before the WWII.

The movie, Memoirs of a Geisha gives us glimpse of the entire secret life of a geisha. In a sense, I am glad to see that the movie didn’t carry on to show the mystical side of the geisha throughout the movie, instead, it showed a human side of the epic.

Even though, many people complained about actors and actresses were not Japanese and not spoken in Japanese language, however, it captured the essence of the drama. Without a doubt, a beautiful soundtrack by John Williams (with cello by Yo Yo Ma, and violin by Itzyak Pearlman) enhanced the movie. The movie, Memoirs of a Geisha made the art of fiction became alive in a big screen.