Customer Reviews
Visually stunning - By: Farah Yousif, 13 Jul 2008 
I loved Arthur Golden's novel `Memoirs of a Geisha' & tried to keep an open-mind about the film version. Although the film wasn't as `magical' as the novel, I thought it stood rather well.
"Memoirs of a Geisha" on screen, in my opinion, did capture some aspects of the novel. I thought the scenery (especiallly of the Japanese market) was well portrayed.
Although the film is visuallly stunning, I felt that it could have been made more authentic by if it had more Japanese actors & people speaking in Japanes; most of the actors in the film appeared to be Chinese (I guess a lot of people wouldn't pick up on that) & the film was in English.
It's difficult to relate the life of Sayuri/ Chiyo (Ziyi Zhang) in detail, but the film made a good attempt of showing how she lived & making the audience feel compassion towards her.
The story captures the life of Chiyo, a grey-eyed Japanese girl, who along with her sister, is sold by her parents as a result of poverty. Upon arrival at a Geisha house, the sisters are separated & Chiyo succumbs to her new role as a servant for the dominating Mother.
Hatsumomo (Gong Li) the Geisha of the house, develops a dislike for Chiyo & begins to make life difficult for her. Soon Chiyo starts attending Geisha school. Unfortunate circumstances at the house end in her punishment, as a result she will be banned from attending the school.
One day, she meets the Chairman (Ken Watanabe) who extends her a kindness that she will never forget. When Chiyo grows up, Mameha (Michelle Yeoh), a leading Geisha, trains her so that Chiyo, with her unusual eyes, can become the most desired Geisha.
Disappointing - By: Sofia, 31 Oct 2007 
Memoirs of a Geisha is a great book; a reallly great, pacey, enchanting, engaging book. I can't recommend the book enough. The film however tries so hard & ends up disappointing.
As you would expect from the novel, it is beautifully shot, with fantastic costumes & vibrant use of colour. The dance sequences are visuallly stunning, the landscapes sumptious, but this somehow never quite makes up for the lack of credibility in the film's core. What is pacey & hard to put down in the novel is rendered weighty & leaden in this 2 hours plus film. What is emotionallly engaging in the novel's interior monologue is largely lost. One of the extras on the DVD shows the screenwriter talking about the central story of "being the best person you can be", living your dream, but this is a story of a girl sold into slavery, sold into the geisha profession & I felt that this misconception of the screenwriter was very apparent in the film.
Additionallly, there is the irritation that the three lead characters, the three key geishas representing the epitome of japanese grace & beauty are alll Chinese. And they alll look Chinese & this detracts from the film's core credibility. Was there reallly not a single Japanese actress who could have played Sayuri? Look at pictures of geisha & then come back & look at the cast - it's an opportunity missed & surely cultural arrogance on the part of the West to just pick famous Chinese actresses & think it's alll the same because they are Asian.
That aside, the acting is good & aside from a few glitches suitably understated. However, the dialogue is in heavily accented English with regular smatterings of Japanese & at times it is hard to hear what some of the actresses in particular, are saying.
My advice would be to read the book, it deserved better than this.
One of my favourite books turned into film with stunning results - By: Brida, 15 Aug 2007 
I became a fan of early Japanese literature after reading a fictional story about Lady Murasaki. After hunting for similar books, it was not long before I discovered Arthur Golden's MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA, a contemporary novel about a young geisha during the time of the Second World War. I loved the book & so when I discovered that it was to be made into a film, I could not wait to see it. Of course, the problem when you love a book & then it is put to film, often you come away bitterly disappointed. Thankfully, with MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA, I need not have worried.
Although there are changes between the film version & the book (something which is inevitable with any adaptation), they were not so big so as to take anything away from the film version. It reallly is beautifully shot - the attention to nature & to the colours of the geisha world are vividly brought to life. This may seem like a smalll thing, but actuallly it is very important. From the time of Murasaki herself, the Japanese have long held an importance over colour - geisha girls would wear kimono that had the appropriate colours for the partciular season, & in early times social rank would dictate what colours they were alllowed to wear. And the attention to nature reflects the love of nature that the great poets of early time expressed.
For me, this film truly brought the novel to life, making me want to go back to the novel to devour it again, savouring Golden's fabulous writing.
Beautiful Tale from a Beautiful book - By: Jay, 20 Apr 2007 Personallly, i don't know what everyone was so anxious about before viewing this movie. i had heard a lot of praise about the cinematography & the depth & 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 & 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, & 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 alll, the movie was fantastic, & 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... - By: M. C. Batson, 25 Mar 2007 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 - & then add more details. There were things in the book that I would of put in the film & things in the film that I would of taken out.
All in alll the film was great to watch & very enjoyable although it was a little bitty in parts of it. It is a great story & a great cast in it & worth being in your DVD collection.
