DiscountDelight - Memoirs of a Geisha (Widescreen 2-Disc Special Edition)
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List Price: $28.96
Our Price: $13.99
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Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
Directed By: Rob Marshall
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Average Customer Rating:   
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Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 0043396111592
Format: Color
Label: Sony Pictures
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
Number Of Items: 2
Publisher: Sony Pictures
Region Code: 99
Release Date: 2006-03-28
Running Time: 145
Studio: Sony Pictures
Theatrical Release Date: 2005-12-23
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: The star is Beebe's photography.
Comment: Marshall is obviously better suited to musicals and just doesn't pull off adequate direction here. But Dion Beebe, who did the low budget but startlingly good-looking Equilibrium, gets to go hog wild with his craft. There are many scenes very reminiscent of Kurosawa's Dreams or Ran, and it's quite fitting. Lastly, I thought the narrative a little quaint, particularly in moving things along. It felt rushed, and that school girl crush being fulfilled in the climax didn't seem like much of a payoff considering the story's flow to that point. Part of my problem with this film, though, is likely that these characters behave more like fully clothed high-class strippers. And being that I live in Vegas, the stripper facade is tiring to me.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Something's missing...
Comment: Chiyo is a young girl from a poor family who is sold to a geisha house by her father who is desperate for money to support his ill wife. She is treated cruelly and separated from her sister, and even the dream of being a geisha seems to be taken away from her. Eventually, she comes under the protection and tutelage of an older geisha who trains her and is with her at her debut. Chiyo (now named Sayuri)is pursued by men, but never by the one man she loves. The story from the book is all here, but there is something missing. The cinematography and the tone are decidedly dark and much of the dialogue is difficult to understand. The movie is interesting, but not engrossing. The acting is competent, but not compelling. With a great story and all of the resources at hand, this should have been a better movie.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Memoirs of a Geisha
Comment: I really enjoyed this movie. I thought is was very well done and it kept my interest. I don't think my husband enjoyed it as much as I did, so I guess it was more of a chick flick.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Beautiful
Comment: This is one of the most visually beautiful films I've ever seen. I've watched it many times and it never gets old. I've also watched the DVD extras and found them interesting (for example, how the actresses learned how to become geishas).
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Refined Beauty That Is Its Own Reward
Comment: Memoirs of a Geisha is best appreciated at face value, a meticulously crafted, sumptuous visual feast that does not withstand too much editorial scrutiny. The narrator describes a geisha as a "moving work of art," which is telling, because a geisha's personality is, by definition, not particularly important. In the film's most glorious scene, Sayuri's debut, we witness the poetry of Kabuki, a beautiful and fragile illusion that celebrates artifice. Another captivating scene, Chiyo's introduction to the clothes, make-up, and mannerisms that make a geisha, also reveals that image, not content, is paramount. So is it with this film.
Detractors will find much to criticize, if so inclined. For one, there are almost no Japanese cast members, thereby throwing claims of authenticity into a cocked hat. For another, the film is ostensibly powered by a love story, and at almost two-and-a-half hours one would certainly expect some sort of forceful driving theme. But Chiyo/Sayuri harbors only a schoolgirl infatuation and the contrived Hollywood ending is not at all in keeping with the film's generally dark perspective. Instead of the terrible, transformational behemoth it actually was, WWII is treated like a minor character introduced in order to drop off a plot point. These criticisms are justified, but miss the point.
Far more interesting is the depiction of geisha life itself, something almost "totally other," and very unfamiliar to the Western mind. The profoundly disturbing origins are not far from slavery, we think of poor Chiyo as a little girl torn away from her fishing village. But comparisons to prostitution are misguided; indeed, geisha life seems to celebrate all the "female virtues" valued by this culture except sex - grace, beauty, tact, deference, wit, talent, gentility. As Westerners in an era of feminism we are quick to condemn turning a person into a "moving work of art," and we are right to do so, but geisha life is still a fascinating bit of cultural anthropology.
The performances are uniformly wonderful, characterized by splendid restraint and control. Sets, costumes, and especially cinematography are all inspired. Memoirs of a Geisha may have flaws, but if you look beyond them, it's a treat. After all, when you go to Cirque du Soleil, do you think about all the guys tugging ropes behind the stage?
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Editorial Reviews:
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Chicago director Rob Marshall's pretty but empty (or pretty empty) film has all the elements of an Oscar® contender: solid adaptation (from Arthur Golden's bestseller), beautiful locale, good acting, lush cinematography. But there's something missing at the heart, which leaves the viewer sucked in, then left completely detached from what's going on. It's hard to find fault with the fascinating story, which traces a young girl's determination to free herself from the imprisonment of scullery maid to geisha, then from the imprisonment of geisha to a woman allowed to love. Chiyo (Suzuka Ohgo), a young girl with curious blue eyes, is sold to a geisha house and doomed to pay off her debt as a cleaning girl until a stranger named The Chairman (Ken Watanabe) shows her kindness. She is inspired to work hard and become a geisha in order to be near the Chairman, with whom she has fallen in love. An experienced geisha (Michelle Yeoh) chooses to adopt her as an apprentice and to use as a pawn against her rival, the wicked, legendary Hatsumomo (Gong Li). Chiyo (played as an older woman by Ziyi Zhang), now renamed Sayuri, becomes the talk of the town, but as her path crosses again and again with the Chairman's, she finds the closer she gets to him the further away he seems. Her newfound "freedom" turns out to be trapping, as men are allowed to bid on everything from her time to her virginity. Some controversy swirled around casting Chinese actresses in the three main Japanese roles, but Zhang, Yeoh and Gong in particular ably prove they're the best for the part. It's admirable that all the actors attempted to speak Japanese-accented English, but some of the dialogue will still prove difficult to understand; perhaps it contributes to some of the emotion feeling stilted. Geisha has all the ingredients of a sweeping, heartbreaking epic and follows the recipe to a T, but in the end it's all dressed up with no place to go.--Ellen A. Kim
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