![]() They do, however, sell their virginity, and pride themselves on being well paid for it. They insist they are not prostitutes, as they do not sell sex except as illusion (the argument might be made that this is always the case). The problem is that being a geisha, as much training and perfection and talent it takes, still relegates women to pleasing men. Hatsumomo becomes even fiercer toward Sayuri when she’s grown up: “I will destroy you!” she proclaims, meaning, the geisha in training will never be the geisha she is. Hatsumomo is immediately jealous, threatening the child with all sorts of retributions for even breathing in her direction. Sold by her poor family to a geisha house, or okiya, when she’s only nine (and played by Suzuka Ohgo), she’s smart and careful and she has blue eyes (this particular point makes you want to send copies of Toni Morrison’s early novel to all those involved with the production). For one thing, at least at first, she is new. Sayuri is desirable for any number of reasons. ![]() Memoirs of a Geisha thwarts itself persistently, and not only because it’s so in love with - not to say it fetishizes - the colorful silks and elaborate makeup that decorate its titular character and her “sisters.” Based on Arthur Golden’s novel (renowned for its twisty, “literary” structure, whereby a male reader/writer purports to translate the geisha’s story), the film is straightforward in the crassest, most disappointing ways. These substantive concerns are only exacerbated by others. They are also Chinese, which makes their casting at least awkward and tone-deaf, and, according to Japanese and Chinese community groups, offensive (historical tensions make the presumption that all “Asians look alike” troubling in specific ways, no matter that, as Marshall has said, he cast “the best actor for the role”). This despite and because of the presence of the glorious women actors at its center, including Zhang as the youngest geisha, struggling to fulfill a seeming destiny and live a life of her “own” (the term is only relative here), Michelle Yeoh as her mentor Mameha, and wondrous Gong Li as her rival Hatsumomo. And yet, directed by the dramatically unsubtle Rob Marshall, who brought Chicago pounding into theaters three years ago, the film is a series of set pieces, gorgeous certainly, but also predictable and unwieldy. Surely this is the most obvious commercial strategy regarding Memoirs of a Geisha, to pitch it as a tale of delicate, thrilling secrets, a saga of women who are trained to be art for the pleasure of men. Without its mysteries, it cannot survive.” “For my world is as forbidden as it is fragile. “A story like mine should never be told,” insists the geisha Sayuri (played as an adult by Ziyi Zhang).
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