Memoirs of a Geisha [2005] (DVD)

Beautiful Tale from a Beautiful book Personally, i don't know what everyone was so anxious about before viewing this movie. i had heard a lot of praise about the cinematography and the depth and emotion of the storyline. who cares if the actors were of different race? i know a lot of people will take offense to that, it didn't bother me too much, since it wasn't what i thought of while watching the movie. who has time to think of different dialects and someone being Chinese when a beautiful story of the life of a geisha is being told. i thought maybe the movie would not live up to the book, but i felt the adaptation was done well. although some of the casting could have been done better, i got chills from mother, angry at Hatsumomo, and grew respect for the character of Mameha, just as i had from the book. the movie did a fine job establishing the highly disciplined world of a geisha, a world where many sacrifices are to be made. All in all, the movie was fantastic, and if people could just look beyond the issue of worrying about the nationality of a character who is supposed to be Japanese (and to me, its not a huge issue) I'm sure you will enjoy the movie.

Not as good as the book... but that isn't to say it isn't a good film because it is!! I made sure I read the book before I saw the film because from past experiences I found that the best thing to do. Part of me wishes I hadn't read the book first because it was better than the film, of course the film couldn't go into as much detail as the book but I do feel that they could of made the film longer - maybe three hours - and then add more details. There were things in the book that I would of put in the film and things in the film that I would of taken out. All in all the film was great to watch and very enjoyable although it was a little bitty in parts of it. It is a great story and a great cast in it and worth being in your DVD collection.

Memoirs of a Geisha Memoirs of a Geisha is a success, simply because it succeeds in leaving you filled with emotion when it finishes. The beautiful, haunting music perfectly reflects a geishas empty life and draws us in to the mysterious world of the Geisha. In many ways, the film is alot like its main character; beautiful and captivating yet somehow empty. There is definately something lacking in the film. I think it is the fact that Sayuri/Chiyo is meant to be living an extremely lonely and traumatic life, but we don't often get to see behind the outer beauty and enter her head and her private thoughts. We could simply be an outsider watching her life, never seeing the intense emotion that should be present in a film like this. However, in a way, that is suitable for a film like this. Geisha were not meant to express their emotions, and as Sayuri says 'It is not for Geisha to feel'. So perhaps the strange emptiness of the characters in this film is meant to reflect the life of a Geisha. Still, that is really the only downside. I think this film is a spectacular work of art, leaving the viewer filled with all the emotion lacking in Sayuri. Little Chiyo is brilliant, as is Gong Li as the troubled Hatsumomo. And Ziyi Zhang is a stand out performance and stunningly beautiful. What this movie did really well is give the viewer a detailed glimpse into the Japanese culture at this time and reveal a little more about the legendary and mysterious Geisha. And of course the cinematography is absolutely stunning, leaving us with a grand epic of a film, even if it is not going to be remembered in years to come. All in all i would recommend this film. It will draw you in to the hidden secret world of Geisha and leave you wanting to know more.

predictable!! I think this movie had really good visual effects, but the story was cheesy and very predictable....it was a bit hard to understand the dialogues (but that could be because English is not my first Language!)... being a fan of Dogma95 films, overall this Miss Giesha wasn't my cup of tea!!

Beautiful and moving. This is an incredibe story of a child sold by her family and taken to the city to become a Geisha. It becomes a love story and sweeps you into a forgotten world where women were trained to be walking works of art. It is beautiful to look at and the main characters are very well cast, especially Gong Li as the fiery Hatsumomo and Michelle Yeoh as the heronine's mentor and teacher Mameha. The only reason I've given it four instead of five stars was that at times I couldn't understand what was being said, the english was very broken and I had to rewind a few scenes to hear them clearly, but otherwise it was just about perfect.