The geisha movie
Saw the Geisha movie last night.
Man, its S L O W….
At around 90 mins, which the length of Wallace and Gromit, I thought 3 hours had gone by. Then it goes on for another hour.
Havana is still the slowest movie I’ve ever seen. The Winter Guest comes close, but the characters were interesting enough that I was willing to see it through. Slow as it was, I actually liked it. But I digress.
Don’t even bother with Havana even if someone gives it to you free. Winter guest if you like arty movies. Hey, its directed by Alan Rickman and you get to see Emma Thompson in a tub.
Back to the feature.
Boring…
One dimensional characters.
Caricatures, really. The business minded mamasan. The kindly servant/assistant mamasan. The friend who’s going to betray our heroin at the end, various dirty old men. The noble hero. The hero’s highly principled sidekick. Various bumbling foreigners (Americans, this time around). The bee-atch (played splendidly by Gong Li) The ‘cool and smooth’ mentor and of course our tragic heroine.
Everyone plays true to type with no surprises.
A movie about the ’secret’ world of Geishas, based on a book written by a middle aged white guy? Come on!
Actually I find the movie quite disturbing.
It romanticises what is basically a tale of child prostitution and slavery. Older rich men bidding on the virginity of young girls. Bleh. And its supposed to be a grand moment when she breaks records by fetching 15,000 yen. Hmm, in 1937, 10 yen could buy 20kg of rice, textiles for summer clothing for five persons, and 125kg of charcoal. That’s a lot of rice, clothes and charcoal for a bbq.
Towards the end, when its revealed that the Chairman had a hand in Sayuri becoming a Geisha its supposed to be a tender moment as we’re shown that both loved each other so much that they took steps to bridge their world so they can be together.
Hello? He’s a already big successful Tai Kor when he meets Sayuri by the bridge. She’s what, like 12 years old at that point? He gets Mameha to take Sayuri under her wing so that Sayuri can become a Geisha in order for him to be with her. Pretty disturbing if you ask me.
And you just know, that Pumpkin is so going to play Sayuri out.
There have been lots of complaints about the inaccuracies. One scene stands out. At the end the chairman is locking lips with Sayuri. This is 1940s Japan. A successful businessman is going to be kissing his favourite geisha in a park in broad daylight? I know its makes for a good shot, but that’s never going to happen. I don’t think they would even dare do it today, let alone post war Japan.
Upside? Its beautifully shot movie. I would have edited it to half its length. But Spilberg has never asked me to work with him.
Verdict: If a movie ever needed the Jerry Bruckheimer treatment, this would be it.
January 26th, 2006 at 6:10 pm
I thought it was strange that it’s a Jap movie but everyone spoke in English. I guess if they had Jap and they had to have subtitles, then it wouldn’t be a Hollywood production.
Also, I felt the story should be told by a Jap filmmaker, not an American one.
Saw this doco on geishas once, they didn’t mention anything about sex. They didn’t say that geishas are prostitutes but they are entertainers.
But still, I enjoyed the movie and didn’t think it was too long. ahha.. perhaps it’s too much drama for you?
Oh, by the way, there are other films waaaay slower. Have you seen some art house European films? Or even the film I edited last time, Beautiful Washing Machine by James Lee… it’s really slow. A shot could last for 2 mins without cuts.
February 7th, 2006 at 4:46 am
if it’s a jap filmmaker, the geisha movie will be totally different from the one we saw.
the latest is that, it’s also banned from viewing in China! Just becoz those actresses are chinese?
i find it disturbing too that an uncle with kids could actually find a 11-12 yrs old girl desirable… euwww..
but i still enjoyed the show overall.. tried to do some stunt with the fans, failed it. ha!