Memoirs Of A Geisha

[Homicidalheathen]

Was anyone disturbed by this movie as I was...

I mean, here is this girl who is checking out a love interest on the bridge at age like oh say f*cking 9, because hell......it beats working in the rice field.

Then they meet up later and yah she is legal now but still.....he bought her that cup of ice and was scoping her out when she didn't even have a full set of pubes!!!!

Then after the war when she goes back to eh hem......MADAM for lack of a better term.......and is about to borrow her comono so she can go sell her ass to some rich white guy........the lady turns to some 5 yr old and says this will be you some day.

F*ck? Start em young I guess.

[Dubh Aingeal]

All the movie did for that book, and Geisha in general, is reafirm the belief in the Western minds that Geisha are nothing more than Prostitutes.

[Homicidalheathen]

More like vegas showgirls.

High class prostitutes. They dance and sing and only fuck the rich guys lol

The scene where she is on stage towards the end is cool though.....very goth looking style.......those blocks on her feet remind me of the boots I almost killed myself in.

[Dubh Aingeal]

High class prostitutes. They dance and sing and only fuck the rich guys lol

Like I said bastardization...

Geisha are frequently depicted as expensive prostitutes in Western popular culture. Geisha are entertainers, their purpose being to entertain their customer, be it by reciting verse, playing musical instruments, or engaging in light conversation. Geisha engagements may include flirting with men and playful innuendos; however, clients know that nothing more can be expected.

During occupied Japan, many Japanese prostitutes marketed themselves as geisha to American GIs. These prostitutes became known as geesha girls, due to a mis-pronunciation of the word geisha, and carried the image of geisha as prostitutes back to the United States.

While it is true that a geisha is free to pursue personal relationships with men she meets through her work, such relationships are carefully chosen and unlikely to be casual.

[Gauge]

are you kidding, i thought this movie was great! i loved the end where shes on stage, wow that whole scene was just beautiful

[Rayne]

are you kidding, i thought this movie was great! i loved the end where shes on stage, wow that whole scene was just beautiful

Me too. The book is awesome as well.

[Troy Spiral (13)]

Assuming you had no prior understanding of Geisha culture i could see how it might be disturbing.

But, didn't phase me at all, and was a very well done film. I think they did a good job of separating the traditional prostitute concept from that of the geisha in this movie. It still is a movie after all, and if you expect movies to be particularly historically accurate... heh... just get that idea out of your head now.

Despite the re-packaging and revisionist history, the distinctions between Geisha and Oiran (actual "high class prostitute " to oversimplify) were not always particularly clear.

Netflix kept recommending this movie to me based on my ratings of other films, finally broke down and rented it just recently actually. I thought it was quite well done.

Similar in Tone/Artistic style to "The Lover" and "Raise The Red lantern"

[Shade Everdark]

I'm sorry, but the film sucked. The characters were all shallow, it got just about everything wrong, most particularly the culture, and no one is sympathetic. It doesn't help that the three main characters (Hatsumomo, Sayuri, and Mameha) are all played by Chinese women. And don't tell me that most Americans don't know the difference; I do, and that's enough for me.

The book, mediocre as it was, was far better than the film. Really, if you want sex in Japan, you'd be better off reading The Tale of Genji. No geisha, but a better book, by far. And the first novel ever written, to boot.

[crunchy_pickle (5)]

Despite Chinese actors, I really didn't mind the movie much. A friend of mine read the book, which I haven't gotten around to yet, so we went to see the movie. I now own the movie. I've seen it at least three times, and really don't see this as a get them while they're young thing at all.

Without reading the book, and trying to see it from the perspective of someone who doesn't know much about Eastern culture I still can't see the points made on this thread. I think this is a wonderful story of how a Geisha growing up in society taken away from everything she knew, and facing many hardships, overcomes them with the help of a kind stranger. While, I don't believe this stranger had any personal interest in her at the time, it developed, and I can't see this as perverse. Yes, the girl had a crush, and that crush remained with her to the end, and to her great satisfaction, despite all the pain she'd gone through and tragedy even after achieving her goals, she still had that last dream to hold onto and it came true for her.

[Troy Spiral (13)]

I'm sorry, but the film sucked. The characters were all shallow, it got just about everything wrong, most particularly the culture, and no one is sympathetic. It doesn't help that the three main characters (Hatsumomo, Sayuri, and Mameha) are all played by Chinese women. And don't tell me that most Americans don't know the difference; I do, and that's enough for me.

The book, mediocre as it was, was far better than the film. Really, if you want sex in Japan, you'd be better off reading The Tale of Genji. No geisha, but a better book, by far. And the first novel ever written, to boot.

I can understand the sentiment , but really bro i think your expecting too much from it. Its a movie after all. Trying to equate it or hope for it to be a sentimental / accurate or groundbreaking look at "real" historical Nippon culture is probably unrealistic. Also actors are actors. Several films about ancient rome kick ass, but rarely are the actors actually italian right?

I've been irritated / annoyed / disliked movies for similar reasons in the past myself. But , sometimes you just have to take things on their own terms.

Movies like Gettysburg and Glory! pissed me off in various ways because I'm very into that era/culture and they got a lot of things dead wrong, but taken on their own terms they were great films.

[sass_in_the_pants]

I didn't see the movie, but I read the book and I honestly got the same impression that HH did. Men DID lust for her, and it was acceptable, and she was expected to respond, maybe not with sex, but she was still expected to encourage this behavior, and she was a child. The really sad part is, she probably had one of the best working gigs for a woman to have in Japan at that time.

I'm not sure if the movie mentioned her sister at all, but in the book, it talked about how her sister, who was less attractive than she was, actually was shipped off to become a prostitute, so in the book it did highlight what the differences were between a prostitute and a geisha.

[crunchy_pickle (5)]

Well, I think another important factor here is the fact that this book was written by an American male, and is loosely based on a true story. It's not like the dude just made a bunch of this stuff up. He didn't write it to give people the willies, but to give people a glimpse at another culture, lifestyle, and present overcoming challenges. While, I haven't read the book I can only assume it was fifty times better than the movie. Personally, I don't devote a lot of time to reading fiction, so something like this that is a bit closer to reality and a good story might be worth a read for me. I'm a bit embarrassed that I even got caught up in the Harry Potter series and read 6 books in less than 2 weeks. Then again, when I was younger I loved stuff like that. Primarily, anything by Anne Rice, Tolkien, Terry Brooks, Margaret Hickman, (although I read a lot of John Grisham as well). Most of the other fiction I read was either sci-fi or fantasy of some sort. I'm still a bit annoyed that I haven't been able to find my copy of Heretics of Dune, because I'd really like to finish that series one of these days, and had a hard time staying interested in Heretics at the beginning of the book.....

I think being a book snob is kind of like trying to be a fashionable goth though personally. If you like something you like something. Aside from that, the only credit I'll give to 20th and 21st century authors is for the destruction of American English.

[Msterbeau]

I read the book. That is all.

[Onyx]

some interesting things about geisha here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geisha