Memoirs of a Geisha (film)

Memoirs of a Geisha
Image:Memoirs of a Geisha Poster.jpg Film poster for Memoirs of a Geisha
Directed by	Rob Marshall
Produced by	Lucy Fisher Steven Spielberg Douglas Wick
Written by	Robin Swicord
Narrated by	Shizuko Hoshi
Starring	Zhang Ziyi Ken Watanabe Gong Li Michelle Yeoh Youki Kudoh Suzuka Ohgo
Music by	John Williams (composer) Yo-Yo Ma (performer) Itzhak Perlman (performer)
Cinematography	Dion Beebe
Editing by	Pietro Scalia
Distributed by	Sony Pictures Releasing (USA, Singapore, Netherlands) Buena Vista International (UK, Japan) Warner Bros. (Germany, Switzerland) DreamWorks (other areas)
Release date(s)	December 9, 2005
Running time	144 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	US$85 million
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Memoirs of a Geisha is an Academy Award and Grammy Award-winning movie adaptation of the novel of the same name, produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment and directed by Rob Marshall. It was released in the United States on December 9, 2005 by Columbia Pictures, DreamWorks and Spyglass Entertainment. It stars Zhang Ziyi, Ken Watanabe, Gong Li, Michelle Yeoh, Youki Kudoh, and Suzuka Ohgo. Ohgo plays the younger Sayuri in the movie, which was filmed in southern and northern California and in several locations in Kyoto, including the Kiyomizu-dera temple and the Fushimi Inari-taisha shrine.

The Japanese release of the film was titled "Sayuri".

The DVD release of the film occurred on March 28, 2006.

Plot

It is 1929 in Japan. At the beginning of the film, nine-year-old Sakamoto Chiyo and her older sister Sakamoto Satsu are sold by their father and dying mother to Mr. Tanaka Ichiro. After they arrive in Miyako, they are taken to the Nitta Okiya. Chiyo is accepted, while her sister Satsu is sold to a brothel in the next hanamachi. Chiyo is introduced to the mistresses of the Okiya, Mrs. Nitta, who is commonly referred to as "Mother" and her sister, "Auntie", the only mistress of the okiya to show Chiyo kindness.

Auntie takes Chiyo to a small room, where she finds a girl her age named Pumpkin. After Auntie closes the screen to the room, Chiyo desperately calls for her sister, Pumpkin tries to calm her down, and explain what has happened to her. After she tells Chiyo that by following Mother's orders, she will go to to school to train to be a geisha, Chiyo asks what a "geisha" is and we see that she has heard nothing of this separate world.

In the okiya, Chiyo meets the only resident geisha, an extremely beautiful but very cruel and resentful woman named Hatsumomo. Hatsumomo shows disdain towards Chiyo and her fishing-village origins, in one instance telling Chiyo not to touch her makeup because she does not want to smell like fish.

Chiyo has a very unusual blue-grey eyes, inherited from her mother. Because of her eyes and beauty, Chiyo has great potential to become a geisha, but Hatsumomo cannot tolerate rivals, and so uses her status in the okiya to abuse Chiyo. Once, Hatsumomo tells Chiyo that Satsu had once come to look for her, but Chiyo has to work for the information. After being made to ruin a kimono of Hatsumomo's bitter rival Mameha, she is beaten with a bamboo stick as a punishment. After this, Hatsumomo tells Chiyo where she will find Satsu. Once Chiyo arrives at the pleasure house, Satsu explains to Chiyo that they cannot leave that night as they will need money. She tells Chiyo to meet her at a bridge when it is dark the next day.

Chiyo runs back to the okiya, but on her way inside, she hears a noise in a shack outside. As she slides the door open, Chiyo finds Hatsumomo inside having sex with a man, Koichi. Mother hears the noises from outside and demands to know what is going on. Koichi escapes while Hatsumomo stuffs money into Chiyo's clothing. She tells Mother that Chiyo was going to run away with her sister. As Chiyo begins to be beaten with a bamboo stick for punishment, she tells Mother that Hatsumomo is lying, and that Koichi was in the shack with her. Mother checks Hatsumomo's body for evidence, and slaps her in the face. Mother orders that the gates be locked so that no one can leave the okiya.

The next day, Chiyo remembers her promise to Satsu, however the gates are locked. She climbs the rooftops of the okiya and makes her way to the bridge where Satsu asked to meet her. After much struggle, Chiyo falls off the roof, breaking her arm. Mother tells her soon after, that Satsu has run away. Chiyo's attempt to run away had dishonoured the okiya, and as a punishment, she is no longer allowed to attend geisha school, and instead must live as a maid.

An encounter with a man called the Chairman, changes Chiyo's life forever. In their meeting, he tells her not to be afraid to look at him, and after looking at him full in the face, he buys her some sweet ice and gives her the change in a hankerchief. This meeting makes Chiyo realize her desire to become a geisha. She prays that very day to become a geisha, and to meet the chairman again.

After Pumpkin becomes a maiko and Hatsumomo's younger sister, Chiyo still works as a maid at the age of fifteen. When Pumpkin is taken to the teahouse where she will be performing her debut, Chiyo realizes that Pumpkin forgot her instrument. She takes it to the teahouse and creeps onto a porch. Chiyo peaks through the screen and sees Hatsumomo with Pumpkin. She is surprised when the Chairman slides the screen open and notices Chiyo. As soon as they make eye contact, Chiyo quickly runs down the steps and puts her shoes on then runs off. She turns a corner and takes the hankerchief out from her clothes and holds it to her heart.

Soon after, Mameha visits the okiya to talk about training Chiyo to be a geisha; Chiyo becomes Mameha's younger sister and protégé. She is introduced to Mameha's danna, the Baron, who pays for Mameha's expenses. After lessons from Mameha, on how to sit and walk Chiyo fulfills her destiny to become a geisha. Mameha grants Chiyo a new name, Sayuri, a sign of Chiyo leaving her childhood. Her final task is to make any man pointed by her instructor to stop in his tracks with one glance, and she succeeds in making a boy fall off his bicycle.

Since meeting the Chairman, a prominent businessman, Sayuri wants to be as close to him as possible. Instead, she is pushed towards Nobu Toshikazu, the Chairman's best friend and business partner. Despite Nobu's coarse personality and disdain for geisha, they develop a friendship and affection for each other, but Sayuri still desires the Chairman. Mameha tells her that she must be very close to Nobu to mislead Hatsumomo. Nobu explains the strategy of sumo, which Sayuri observes is a contest between giants. She becomes interested since she herself is in a contest to be "Top Geisha". According to Mameha, Mother will need to adopt one of the geishas in the okiya to become the heir of the okiya. Mameha does not want Hatsumomo to become the heir because it would mean the end of Sayuri's future. Unfortunately for Sayuri, Pumpkin had been promised to be the heir. As Hatsumomo's protégé, Pumpkin will not rule the okiya herself, but instead serve as Hatsumomo's puppet. In order to stop Hatsumomo, Sayuri must also prevent Pumpkin from becoming the heir.

Another man also changes Sayuri's life: "Dr. Crab" who becomes her mizuage patron. Dr. Crab pays a record amount for Sayuri's mizuage, which causes her to become the heir to the okiya despite complaints from Pumpkin and Hatsumomo. By this time, Sayuri is the most celebrated geisha in Gion and Hatsumomo cannot help but feel more jealous. When Sayuri discovers Hatsumomo in her room holding the Chairman's handkerchief over a candle, a fight ensues. Hatsumomo knocks over the candle which begins a fire; after this she smashes some oil lamps in order to spread the fire in the okiya. After Sayuri's room has been damaged by the fire, Hatsumomo leaves the okiya never to return.

Sayuri's new stature as the new head of the okiya and the most famous geisha, however, is short-lived. World War II changes the lives of the geisha forever. The Chairman comes to Miyako to find Sayuri and Mameha so that they can be removed to a place of safety. Sayuri's luxurious life is reduced to that of a servant, but she meets Nobu again, and together they return to Miyako, where Sayuri becomes a geisha once more. She meets Pumpkin and the Chairman again, and is introduced to Colonel Derricks (in the book, she meets Japanese Minister Sato).

On an island, Nobu finally tells Sayuri in private he wants to be her danna - the man that funds everything for a geisha. However, Sayuri still has feelings for the Chairman and as a result she thinks of a scheme to prevent Nobu from becoming her danna. She asks Pumpkin to bring Nobu to a place where he will "discover" Sayuri and the Colonel together in a passionate embrace. Pumpkin instead brings the Chairman. When Nobu learns of it, he never forgives Sayuri. The Chairman reveals that he knew all along that Sayuri was once Chiyo, despite Sayuri thinking he did not. It was because of his directions to Mameha to seek out the girl with the blue-grey eyes, that Chiyo becomes Sayuri; a geisha. The film ends with Sayuri and the Chairman sharing a kiss and strolling on the banks of a river.

Casting controversy

Some of the central characters in the movie were not played by native Japanese actresses, notably, the adult version of the lead role is played by a Chinese actress, which sparked controversy.

Korean-Canadian actress Sandra Oh advocates inter-Asian acting. In a magazine article (Bust Magazine June/July 2005), she defends her roles as characters of Japanese (e.g. Rick) and Chinese descent by pointing out similar behavior from white actors who play European characters interchangeably:

Roger Ebert has also pointed out that the film was made by a Japanese-owned company, and that Gong Li and Zhang Ziyi outgross any Japanese actress even in the Japanese box office^[1].

In China, the casting of ethnic Chinese actors caused a stir in the Chinese Internet community where some users were unhappy due to rising nationalist sentiment, especially because some mistook geisha for prostitutes. A profession similar to that of the geisha existed in imperial China, whose job it was to entertain male guests with their talents in music, Go, calligraphy, painting and other arts. However, they did not enjoy the status accorded to geisha in Japan. This was exacerbated by the word geiko 芸妓, a Japanese name for geisha used in the Kansai region, which includes Kyoto. The second character 妓 can be understood by some to mean "prostitute", though it actually had a variety of meanings.

Production

Pre-Production

The three leading actors (Zhang Ziyi, Gong Li, and Michelle Yeoh) were put through "Geisha boot camp" before production commenced, during which they were trained in traditional Geisha practices of musicianship, dance, and Japanese tea ceremony.

Production

Production of the film took place from 29 September 2004 to 31 January 2005. It was decided by the producers that contemporary Japan looked much too modern to film a story which took place in the 1920s and '30s and it would be more cost-effective to create sets for the film on soundstages and locations in the United States, primarily in California. The majority of the film was shot on a large set built on a ranch in Thousand Oaks, California which was a detailed recreation of an early twentieth-century geisha district in Kyoto, Japan. Most interior scenes were filmed in Culver City, California at the Sony Pictures Studios lot. Other locations in California included San Francisco, Moss Beach, Descanso Gardens in La Cañada Flintridge, Sacramento, Yamashiro's Restaurant in Hollywood, the Japanese Gardens at the Huntington Library and Gardens in San Marino, and Downtown Los Angeles at the Belasco Theater on Hill Street. Towards the end of production, some scenes were shot in Kyoto, Japan.

Post-Production

In post-production one of the tasks of the sound editors was to improve upon the English pronunciation of the international cast. This sometimes involved piecing together different clips of dialogue from other segments of the film to form new syllables from the film's actors, some of whom spoke partially phonetic English when they performed their roles on-set. The achievement of the sound editors earned them an Academy Award nomination for Best Achievement in Sound Editing.

Reaction

Despite a lot of hype prior to release, reviews for Memoirs of a Geisha were generally poor, the film scoring a 35% "Rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.^[2]

In the United States, the film managed only $57.0 million during its box office run. The film peaked at 1,654 screens and had to face a crowded box office season^{[citation needed]} including "King Kong", "Chronicles of Narnia" and "Fun with Dick and Jane". During its first week in limited release, the film screening in only 8 theatres clocked up a $85,313 per theatre average which made it second in highest per theatre averages behind Brokeback Mountain for 2005.^{[citation needed]} International gross reached $158 million.^[3]

Awards and nominations

Golden Globe

• Won: Best Original Score - Motion Picture (John Williams)
• Nominated: Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama (Zhang Ziyi)

National Board of Review

• Won: Best Supporting Actress (Gong Li)

Satellite Awards

• Won: Outstanding Screenplay, Adapted (Robin Swicord)
• Nominated: Outstanding Motion Picture, Drama
• Nominated: Outstanding Director (Rob Marshall)
• Nominated: Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama (Zhang Ziyi)
• Nominated: Outstanding Actress in a Supporting Role, Drama (Gong Li)
• Nominated: Outstanding Art Direction & Production Design (John Myhre)
• Nominated: Outstanding Cinematography (Robert Elswit)
• Nominated: Outstanding Costume Design (Colleen Atwood)
• Nominated: Outstanding Original Score (John Williams)

Academy Awards

• Won: Best Achievement in Art Direction
• Won: Best Achievement in Cinematography
• Won: Best Achievement in Costume Design
• Nominated: Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score
• Nominated: Best Achievement in Sound
• Nominated: Best Achievement in Sound Editing

BAFTA Awards

• Won: The Anthony Asquith Award for achievement in film music (John Williams)
• Won: Cinematography (Dion Beebe)
• Won: Costume design (Colleen Atwood)
• Nominated: Best actress in a leading role (Zhang Ziyi)
• Nominated: Production design
• Nominated: Make Up and Hair

Screen Actors Guild Awards

• Nominated: Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role (Zhang Ziyi)

Banned in the People's Republic of China

The film was originally scheduled to debut in cinemas in the People's Republic of China on February 19, 2006, but the release was put on hold. Newspaper sources, such as the Shanghai-based Oriental Morning Post and the Shanghai Youth Daily, quoted the fears that the film may be banned by censors; there were concerns that the casting of Chinese actresses as geishas could rouse anti-Japan sentiment and stir up feelings over Japanese wartime actions in China, especially the use of Chinese women as forced sex workers^[4]. On February 1, 2006, the film was declared banned in theaters of the People's Republic of China^[5].

Differences in the novel

• Nobu has only one arm in the book, yet he has not lost a limb in the movie. His face still remains scarred, though.
• In the book it is frequently said that maids also live in the Okiya along with the protagonists, while in the movie, maids are never even hinted. Chiyo/Sayuri and Pumpkin seem to be the only maids.
• The fire scene (Sayuri's room bursts into flame after a scuffle between her and Hatsumomo) that leads to Hatsumomo's downfall doesn't happen in the book. The book portrays the downfall of Hatsumomo as a slow downward spiral culminating with a final push from Mameha and Sayuri. Hatsumomo was finally expelled from the Okiya when she attacked an important client one night. In the novel, it is rumoured that Hatsumomo ended up being a prostitute, while in the movie her fate is never mentioned. The last one sees of Hatsumomo in the film is when she leaves the okiya after Sayuri and Mother put out the fire, with Sayuri looking at her out the window as she leaves.
• In the book, Sayuri does not discard the Chairman's handkerchief, which is how she finally reveals her true identity to the Chairman. In the movie, it is almost burned when Hatsumomo puts it above a candle, leading to the fire scene when Sayuri stops her. After Pumpkin betrays her, Sayuri lets it fly away in the wind.
• Hatsumomo's cruel nickname for Chiyo/Sayuri, "Little Miss Stupid", is not used in the film, nor is Pumpkin's geisha name, Hatsumiyo.
• In the book, it is Sayuri who gives Pumpkin her nickname, but in the film, Auntie and Mother are already calling her by that name when Sayuri arrives at the Okiya.
• In the book, it is also Sayuri who gives Dr. Crab his nickname, prior to the way the doctor looks like in the novel.
• In the film, it isn't revealed how Granny dies. Instead, it is said that she has passed away when Mameha arrives at the okiya to discuss Chiyo's geisha training with Mother. In the book, she actually is killed from electrocution by a heater ironically sold to the okiya by the Iwamura Electric Company, which later provides Mameha an opportunity to approach Chiyo.
• The transitions between the different stages of a geisha's career are rushed in the film; the mizuage does not signify the 'graduation' from maiko to geisha in the book, whereas it does in the film - after her mizuage, when Sayuri returns to the okiya, Mother tells her she is a full geisha now.
• Little mention is made in the film of Sayuri's career as a full geisha.
• In the book, Sayuri and her sister are sold off after Chiyo runs into Mr. Tanaka Ichiro, a man whose family owned a store called the Japan Coastal Seafood Company. Struck with awe at her eye color, Mr. Tanaka convinces Chiyo's father to sell his two daughters. The movie skims over these details, and skips to the part where the two girls are torn from their family in the beginning of the film at night in Yoroido.
• In the novel, the man Nobu introduces to Sayuri is a Japanese Minister, Sato. Minister Sato is substituted for Colonel Derricks in the film.
• In the novel, it is unclear as to whether or not Mameha learns of the Baron's undressing of Sayuri, whereas she openly does in the film.
• In the novel, Sayuri actually has two danna, though not at the same time: General Tottori and then the Chairman. Sayuri eventually joins the latter in New York City, permanently residing there and running a teahouse while the Chairman comes and goes. She moves to New York City in order to prevent the Chairman's future son-in-law from not marrying his daughter, the son-in-law believes that there is a possibility that Sayuri has produced an illegitimate son with the Chairman.
• When she falls off the roof of the okiya after attempting to run away with Satsu, Chiyo is not beaten. In fact, Auntie stays with her while she is lying in bed and reads Mr. Tanaka's letter. However, she does get beaten when Hatsumomo accuses her of stealing money, just before Mother slaps Hatsumomo for having a boyfriend in the okiya.
• Instead of Granny who usually does the beating, Mother does it. As usual, Auntie interferes, so Chiyo does not get beaten very badly.
• When Mother and Auntie learn of Mameha's kimono being ruined, Mother pours a bucket of water on Chiyo before beating her badly. Auntie then takes over the beating so that Chiyo does not suffer the same fate as her. In the novel, the bucket of water is poured over Chiyo after her runaway attempt.
• When Sayuri embarrasses Hatsumomo, the joke is not about her hair. Instead, when Hatsumomo says 'I was a maiko myself once', Sayuri responds by saying, 'Of course, but it's been such a very long, long, long, long time..'
• When Sayuri has to cut herself to be able to talk with Dr. Crab, she and Mameha do the wounding themselves whereas Mameha recruits a maid and the cook from her old okiya to help her create a wound on Sayuri's leg, in the book.
• Even before Mameha visits Mother to talk about Chiyo's training, Pumpkin has already become a maiko while in the book, Pumpkin has yet to become a maiko.
• Mameha's mizuage cost ¥10,000 in the movie and was either ¥7000 or ¥8000 in the book. Also in the book, Sayuri's mizuage cost ¥11,500, but it is ¥15,000 in the movie.
• In the book, Chiyo/Sayuri is the year of the monkey, but in the movie, she is the year of the rooster.
• In the movie, after World War II, Pumpkin is influenced by American culture already - she drinks sake a lot, speaks like an American, and enjoys jazz music.
• The film does not end with Sayuri migrating to New York with the Chairman. Instead, the ending ends with she and the Chairman kissing and strolling together along the river, implying she is still a geisha.
• In the novel, when Hatsumomo is trying to get Chiyo thrown out of the okiya for stealing, she plants money on her, and then claims Chiyo has stolen her obi brooch, only for the brooch to be found hidden years later. In the film, there is no brooch.
• Sayuri's dance occurring before her mizuage, which is based on the story of a courtier whose wife dies of cold as her husband goes to meet his mistress, is actually performed by Mameha in the novel. Sayuri's dance involves a maiden who falls in love with an enchanted dolphin prince.
• The hanamachi ('flower town', a town where geisha live and entertain) in which the Nitta okiya is situated is not named in the movie- Sayuri and the other geisha are only described as living in Miyako (Kyoto). In the novel, we are informed that the Nitta okiya is in the Gion hanamachi.

Trivia

• On a recent visit to Tokyo to promote the film, Zhang Ziyi received a mysterious parcel and letter, revealed to have been sent by an elderly Japanese woman who had once worked as a geisha. In her letter, the woman stated that she had been touched by the trailer of the film and expected the movie to bring back fond memories for her and her friends. Inside the parcel were several exquisitely worked antique kimono. Zhang Ziyi was moved to tears by the gesture and sent the woman an invitation to the film's Japanese premiere^[6]
• Zhang Ziyi (Sayuri) and Michelle Yeoh (Mameha) had previously co-starred in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
• Suzuka Ohgo (Young Chiyo) had previously worked with Ken Watanabe (The Chairman) in a Japanese language film in which he played her father, and Watanabe recommended Ohgo to Rob Marshall.
• Zhang Ziyi (Sayuri) and Gong Li (Hatsumomo) had previously co-starred in Wong Kar-wai's 2046.

Interviews

• Ziyi Zhang Memoirs of a Geisha

References

1. ^ http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051215/REVIEWS/51213001/1023
2. ^ Memoirs of a Geisha (2005). Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved on 2007-02-25.
3. ^ Memoirs of a Geisha. The Numbers: Box Office Data. Retrieved on 2007-02-25.
4. ^ http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060117/ennew_afp/afpentertainmentchinausjapanfilmgeisha_060117120127 - Yahoo! News
5. ^ http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1699608,00.html
6. ^ The Star Online

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